Nuclear – DMZ hawaiʻi

August 10, 2012

Toxic “Rainbow” across the Pacific: New Information Revealed About Agent Orange

Today is the 67th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Rebecca Solnit wrote on Facebook:

In 1995 a woman who survived the bombing of Nagasaki (67 years ago today) came to San Francisco to tell her story. She spoke so slowly I was able to write much of her talk down:

The city was a flat sea in flames
and the dust from the sky
is complete
Sky is black

[. . .]

[man blackened exiting train, frozen in place, inside the train sitting there–of courses all dead, black burned]
It was so hot
Nagasaki is so hot.

But we can’t make it
We are so sick
Infection from nail, spent one night in bamboo then decide to go back to grandmother’s home
The Americans coming so we [young girls] all have to cut hair
but I no cut hair

Every time you comb like this hair comes out
gum start losing teeth start losing
I was so skinny, my grandmother could pick it [me?] up
My cousins started dying one by one
They die
They didn’t have big scar, they die from radiation symptoms
They start vomiting
It is black, black
The plutonium in Nagasaki is different
Whatever comes out is black.

Another horror of war and militarization has lately been on my mind and in the news: Agent Orange. As Beverly Keever revealed years ago “University vulnerable to pitfalls of secret experiments” (March 27, 2005), Hawaiʻi has the dubious distinction of being one of the places where Agent Orange was developed and tested under the cover of agricultural research. Two UH researchers who were doused by Agent Orange during field tests later developed cancer and tried to sue for compensation. There is also an Agent Orange spill site on Kauaʻi near the Wailua river.

Oshita and Fraticelli marked their bulldozers with flags to serve as targets and stayed there while the planes swooped down to spray the defoliants. “When the plane came to spray, someone had to guide him,” Oshita told a reporter in a Page 1 report in the campus newspaper, Ka Leo O Hawaii, on Feb. 3, 1986. “We were the ones.”

Testing was done without warning UH employees or the nearby Kapaa community even though in 1962, just months before being assassinated, President Kennedy was told that Agent Orange could cause adverse health effects, U.S. court documents show. And a 1968 test report written by four UH agronomists said that on Kauai Agent Orange, alone or combined with Agent Pink, Purple or Blue, was effective and “obviously may also be lethal.”

When the testing finished in 1968, five 55-gallon steel drums and a dozen gallon cans partially filled with the toxic chemicals were buried on a hilltop overlooking a reservoir. There they remained until the mid-1980s when the Ka Leo reporter’s questions led to their being excavated, supposedly for shipment to a licensed hazardous waste facility. They left behind levels of dioxin in some soil samples of more than five times normal cleanup standards.

The barrels were then placed in a Matson shipping container. There, instead of being shipped out of state as promised, they sat for another decade. Then, in 1997, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health discovered that UH had failed to dispose properly of the hazardous materials and included this infraction along with a Big Island one in a $1.8 million fine against the institution. In April 2000, the barrels were finally shipped out of state.

Oshita and Fraticelli have since died. A year after his Agent Orange work, Oshita was diagnosed with liver dysfunction, bladder cancer, diabetes, chronic hepatitis and a severe skin disease called chloracne. Fraticelli died in April 1981 from lung and kidney cancer; he also had bladder cancer and a brain tumor, court documents indicate.

Today, the AP reported that the U.S. is finally planning to address Agent Orange in Vietnam – “U.S. plan to clean up Agent Orange dioxin ‘better late than never’” (August 9, 2012):

Vo Duoc fights back tears while sharing the news that broke his heart: A few days ago he received test results confirming he and 11 family members have elevated levels of dioxin lingering in their blood.

The family lives in a twostory house near a former U.S. military base in Danang where the defoliant Agent Orange was stored during the Vietnam War, which ended nearly four decades ago. Duoc, 58, sells steel for a living and has diabetes, while his wife battles breast cancer and their daughter has remained childless after suffering repeated miscarriages. For years, Duoc thought the ailments were unrelated, but after seeing the blood tests he now suspects his family unwittingly ingested dioxin from Agent Orange-contaminated fish, vegetables and well water.

Dioxin, a persistent chemical linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities, has seeped into Vietnam’s soils and watersheds, creating a lasting war legacy that remains a thorny issue between the former foes. Washington has been slow to respond, but today the United States for the first time will begin cleaning up dioxin from Agent Orange that was stored at the former military base, now part of Danang’s airport.

The article continued:

Over the past five years, Congress has appropriated about $49 million for environmental remediation and about $11 million to help people living with disabilities in Vietnam regardless of cause. Experts have identified three former U.S. air bases – in Danang in central Vietnam and the southern locations of Bien Hoa and Phu Cat – as hotspots where Agent Orange was mixed, stored and loaded onto planes.

The U.S. military dumped some 20 million gallons (75 million liters) of Agent Orange and other herbicides on about a quarter of former South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971.

The defoliant decimated about 5 million acres (2 million hectares) of forest – roughly the size of Massachusetts – and another 500,000 acres (202,000 hectares) of crops.

After years of denying veterans’ medical compensation for Agent Orange contamination, much less the environmental health concerns of Vietnamese people, why the change in tune? One possible explanation is that the U.S. is seeking closer ties with Vietnam (including negotiating the use of ports for U.S. war ships) in order to counter the growing power of China:

Military ties have also strengthened, with Vietnam looking to the U.S. amid rising tensions with China in the disputed South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves and is crossed by vital shipping lanes.

Although Washington remains a vocal critic of Vietnam’s human rights record, it also views the country as a key ally in its push to re-engage militarily in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. says maintaining peace and freedom of navigation in the sea is in its national interest.

But, the U.S. has not even acknowledged the use or storage of Agent Orange in Okinawa. Jon Mitchell reveals in the Japan Times “25,000 barrels of Agent Orange kept on Okinawa, U.S. Army document says” (August 7, 2012). Those barrels were later shipped to Kalama (Johnston Atoll) 800 miles from O’ahu and once a part of the Hawaiian Kingdom:

During the Vietnam War, 25,000 barrels of Agent Orange were stored on Okinawa, according to a recently uncovered U.S. Army report. The barrels, thought to contain over 5.2 million liters of the toxic defoliant, had been brought to Okinawa from Vietnam before apparently being taken to Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, where the U.S. military is known to have incinerated its stocks of Agent Orange in 1977.

The army report is the first time the U.S. military has acknowledged the presence of these chemicals on Okinawa — and it appears to contradict repeated denials from the Pentagon that Agent Orange was ever on the island. The discovery of the report has prompted a group of 10 U.S. veterans, who claim they were sickened by these chemicals on Okinawa, to demand a formal inquiry from the U.S. Senate.

The army report, published in 2003, is titled “An Ecological Assessment of Johnston Atoll.” Outlining the military’s efforts to clean up the tiny island that the U.S. used throughout the Cold War to store and dispose of its stockpiles of biochemical weapons, the report states, “In 1972, the U.S. Air Force brought about 25,000 55-gallon (208 liter) drums of the chemical Herbicide Orange (HO) to Johnston Island that originated from Vietnam and was stored on Okinawa.”

In a companion article “Poisons in the Pacific: Guam, Okinawa and Agent Orange” (August 7, 2012) he describes how the use and storage of Agent Orange on Guam as well as Okinawa has taken a heavy toll on many of the GIs who were exposed to the deadly toxins:

Within days of starting the assignment, Foster developed pustules and boils all over his body that were so severe he bled through his bed linen. Then during the following years he fell ill with a litany of sicknesses, including Parkinson’s and ischemic heart disease, that he believes were caused by the highly toxic herbicides he was ordered to spray. Foster also contends that Agent Orange’s dioxins — long proven to damage successive generations’ health — have also affected his daughter, who had to undergo cancer treatment as a teenager, and his grandchild, who was born with 12 fingers, 12 toes and a heart murmur.

Toxic legacy: U.S. Air Force veteran Leroy Foster holds his granddaughter in a picture taken not long after her birth in 2010. She was born with 12 fingers and toes, as well as a heart murmur — abnormalities that Foster believes are a consequence of his exposure to Agent Orange on Guam in the late 1960s. COURTESY OF LEROY FOSTER

[. . . ]

According to Edward Jackson, a sergeant with the 43rd Transportation Squadron assigned to Guam in the early 1970s, these herbicides were a common sight. “Andersen Air Force Base had a huge stockpile of Agent Orange and other herbicides. There were many, many thousands of drums. I used to make trips with them to the navy base for shipment by sea,” Jackson told The Japan Times.

Knowing what we do now about the toxicity of these chemicals, it is easy to imagine that service members handled them wearing protective clothing. But for years the military and manufacturers suppressed the research on their dangers. “They told us Agent Orange was so safe that you could brush your teeth with it,” says Stanton.

Not only did this lackadaisical attitude apply to the usage of these herbicides, it also applied to their disposal. Just like on Okinawa, where veterans have claimed Agent Orange was buried on Hamby Air Field (current-day Chatan Town), Kadena Air Base and Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, former service members on Guam say they engaged in similar practices.

According to Jackson, the barrels of herbicides were sometimes damaged during transit so they were dumped on Andersen Air Force Base. “I would back my truck up to a small cliff that sloped away towards the Pacific Ocean. I personally threw away about 25 drums. Each individual drum was anywhere from almost empty to almost full,” Jackson explains.

In the 1990s, the U.S. government cracked down on such methods, and after conducting environmental tests on the site where Jackson dumped the barrels, that area was found to be so severely polluted that it was listed for urgent cleanup by the Environmental Protection Agency. Across the tiny island, almost 100 similarly tainted sites were identified, including one where dioxin contamination in the soil of 19,000 parts per million (compared to a recognized safe level of 1,000 parts pertrillion) made it one of the most toxic places on the planet. Further alarming residents was the proximity of many of these sites to the Northern Guam Lens, the aquifer that supplies the island with its drinking water.

How did the military rationalize this kind of environmental practice?

The heavy loss of G.I. blood on both islands imbued in many U.S. leaders a sense of entitlement to the hard-won territories. Following the end of World War II, the islands were gradually transformed into two of the most militarized places on the planet — Guam became the “Tip of the Spear” and Okinawa the “Keystone of the Pacific.”

[. . .]

The fates of Guam and Okinawa have been entwined in the Gordian knot of the planned relocation of thousands of U.S. Marines within the Pacific theater. Associate professor Natividad believes that this plan has made Guam’s leaders reluctant to push the Pentagon for full disclosure about its poisoning of the island. “Our former governor was too afraid of making waves with Washington for fear of jeopardizing the realignment. Our current governor is more confident but even if he pressured Washington for an admission, they’d just send him a letter saying that they’ve cleaned up the contaminated sites.”

While it now seems clear that America’s reasons for bringing Agent Orange to Guam and Okinawa were rooted in the Cold War past, Washington’s increasingly implausible refusals to admit to the presence of these toxic substances on either island are tightly interwoven with its 21st century military strategy for the region.

“We veterans have become a political pawn between the U.S. and Japan,” says Jackson, the former air force sergeant. “We’re an army waiting to die.”

What about the Agent Orange, chemical weapons and nuclear waste on Kalama (Johnston Atoll)?

Ed Rampell wrote “The military’s mess: Johnston Atoll, the army’s ‘model’ chemical disposal facility, is an environmental disaster” (PDF) (January 1996):

According to “Mr. D.,” a defense industry source knowledgeable about JACADS, speaking on condition of anonymity, a nuke “went off the launch pad and cracked … The missile did not go off, but it cracked the casing, releasing plutonium.” The radioactive area, he said, is “still offlimits via a chain link fence.” In what amounts to the world’s first and largest plutonium mining project, the U.S. is spending $10 million to separate contaminated soil at the atomic atoll.

Plutonium is not the only lethal substance to leak into Johnston. In the 1970s, the U.S. shipped to the atoll millions of gallons of dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange, the birth defect-causing defoliant used in Vietnam. According to Mr. D., “The Agent Orange was stored in 55-gallon drums, which rusted, and the Agent Orange leaked into the soil.” This still-contaminated area is also fenced off. According to Wilkes, the herbicide was finally burned in 1976 on the Vulcanus II incinerator ship, which he calls “notoriously inefficient.” He adds, “Here, to an extreme degree, the U.S. military does anything that is too unpopular, too dangerous and too secret to do elsewhere in the Pacific.”

See http://guamagentorange.info/johnston_island

August 1, 2012

Poem by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner from the Marshall Islands

Check out this powerful poem by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner about the effects of nuclear colonialism in the Marshall Islands.

February 13, 2012

Nuclear Power Plant Proposed for Guam

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, it seems inconceivable that nuclear power is still being touted as a ‘safe’ and ‘greener’ alternative to fossil fuels. But according to the an article in the Mariana Variety shared by Koohan Paik, “‘Clean’ nuclear power eyed”, a nuclear power plant is being considered for Guam:

THE Consolidated Commission on Utilities and the Guam Power Authority are investigating a new type of “generation five” nuclear power generator – one that could potentially reduce power costs for Guam ratepayers by half or more.

The Variety has learned Dr. Jay W. Khim, CEO of Global Energy Corp. (GEC) based in Annandale, Va., made a presentation to the utilities commission, GPA officials and Navy engineers last month and will make another tomorrow afternoon.

This so-called “generation five” nuclear power plant technology was developed jointly with the Navy:

You have to change the basic science of nuclear power,” Khim explained. “We’ve been working with the U.S. Navy for about 22 years and the basic science phase is now over. Now we’re going into commercial development, which the Navy is not going to do.” But Khim says the science has been repeatedly duplicated by the Navy, and has been proven, recognized and published.

[…]

Global Energy Corp. is proposing to build a 50-megawatt plant as a pilot project on Guam, on a build, operate and transfer basis for which GEC would obtain its own financing. Guam ratepayers would pay only for the electric power generated. Khim says he will finance the estimated $250 million plant himself. “No initial money for Guam at all,” Khim assured. “I’ll pay all the money; I’ll run it; and give Guam cheap electricity.” He says once his company and the CCU enter into a memorandum of understanding, other issues, such as the location of the reactor, will be explored.

“Our plan is to fuel the generator only once, and the fuel would last for 50 years,” Khim said. The fuel will be natural, unenriched uranium ore, which is mined in various countries including the U.S. and Australia.

“This concept is simple,” Khim added. “We’re tsunami-proof, earthquake-proof, and typhoon-proof. There is no chance of a major catastrophe because there can be no meltdown. This is clean, green nuclear energy. This is the future … where we are going. This is a dream come true for all humankind.”

It sounds too good to be true. Have we heard all this before?

This energy is to propel the machines of progress; to light our cities and our towns; to fire our factories; to provide new sources of fresh water; and to really help us solve the mysteries of outer space as it brightens our life on this planet.

We have moved far to tame for peaceful uses the mighty forces unloosed when the atom was split. And we have only just begun. What happened here merely raised the curtain on a very promising drama in our long journey for a better life.

– President Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the National Reactor Testing Station, Arco, Idaho, The American Presidency Project, August 26, 1966

Makiko Sato, a Japanese peace and anti-nuclear activist has been alerting others that the nuclear industry has been trying to remake itself, including exploiting new markets for small nuclear reactors geared to islands and other remote locations. An article in Nuclear Street “Under The Hood With Duncan Williams – Toshiba 4S” described one type of small nuclear reactor that was proposed for Alaska:

In November of 2009, the U.S Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources introduced legislation that would provide funding to the Department of Energy for the development of small nuclear reactors. The Nuclear Power 2021 Act (S. 2812) would allow the federal government to fund 50% of the cost of the development and licensing of two different small modular reactor designs.

One of the co-sponsors of the bill, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, hopes that one of these new small reactor designs will be built in Alaska. In fact, the NRC has already met with the city manager and vice mayor of Galena, Alaska, in order to discuss plans for building a proposed small nuclear reactor there. Since the current bill requires that at least one of the designs must have a rated capacity of not more than 50 electrical Megawatts, a likely candidate for the Alaska site would be a design by Toshiba Corporation known as the Super-Safe, Small and Simple (4S) reactor. The 4S design has a capacity of 10 electrical Megawatts, and would therefore qualify for funding under the proposed legislation.

November 14, 2011

Nuclear Guinea Pigs

Mahalo to Beverly Keever for her intrepid reporting on the secret history of nuclear colonialism in the Pacific and the plight of nuclear survivors and refugees from the Marshall Islands. Here article “Nuclear Guinea Pigs” was the cover story of the Honolulu Weekly. Here are excerpts:

In the old-timey section of Kalihi, tucked between auto repair shops and boarded-up storefronts, Maza Attari, a Marshall Islander, lived with four family members in a one-bedroom apartment barely bigger than a ping-pong table. When visited by this reporter last summer, Attari had been unable to find steady work since being flown to Honolulu 12 years ago for back surgery that had left him with a severe limp and weakened muscles.

Attari’s circumstances exemplify the far-reaching impacts of nuclear testing upon irradiated, exiled or dislocated Marshall Islanders. From 1946 to 1962, their home atolls served as experimental grounds where the US detonated nuclear weapons and tested delivery systems in the transition from conventional to intercontinental bombers. In all, the US exploded 86 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands, which are situated 3,000 miles west of Honolulu. Those 86 bombs equated to 8,580 Hiroshima-size bombs–or 1.4 weapons per day for 16 years.

A one-time magistrate and mayor on Utrik, Attari said last summer that he doubted he would be able to return there, prophesying instead, “I’m going to stay here until I die.” He died in September of this year, without ever receiving the reparations that he and other nuclear victims have claimed.

The debt

It is a debt that is not only owed them, but that has compounded over time. Because these nuclear weapons experiments were too dangerous and unpredictable to be conducted on the US mainland, Attari and other Marshallese are part of the reason for America’s superpower status today. A half-century later, the Marshall Islands continue to serve as a crucial part of an outer defense periphery for the US heartland–6,000 miles away. That periphery includes the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, where for more than three decades missiles fired from 4,000 miles away (at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California) have crashed near Kwajalein Atoll, horribly frightening the indigenous inhabitants and leaving them unsure of where the debris will fall.

[…]

The British government, between 1957 and 1958 conducted nine atmospheric tests, yielding the equivalent of about 12,000,000 tons of TNT, and the French carried out 193 Pacific nuclear tests yielding the equivalent of about 13,500,000 tons beginning in 1962 and ending on Jan. 27, 1996. The British and French data were recently gleaned from hard-to-find sources and compiled by University of Hawaii botany professor Mark Merlin and graduate student Ricardo Gonzalez, enabling them to reveal for the first time a pathbreaking, half-century panorama of the environmental consequences of Pacific nuclear testing conducted by all three nations.

[…]

Guinea pigs

Not until 1994, 40 years after Bravo’s fallout, did Attari and other exposed islanders learn they were used as human subjects to research the effects of radioactive fallout and of livin. Within days after Bravo, while still at the naval base to which they had been evacuated, Rongelap and Utrik Islanders were incorporated into Project 4.1. They were neither asked for nor gave their informed consent, nor were told the risks of the studies for which they gained no benefit.

Titled the “Study of Response of Human Beings Exposed to Significant Beta and Gamma Radiation Due to Fallout from High Yield Weapons, the document was classified “Secret Restricted Data.”

I am reminded of Henry Kissinger’s infamous statement about the Marshall Islands that revealed his genocidal indifference to the nuclear crimes of the U.S.: “There are only 90,000 people out there. Who gives a damn?” We give a damn.

September 17, 2011September 25, 2011

Peace Day Event Calls for Ending Missile Testing in the Pacific

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kyle Kajihiro
808-988-6266
kkajihiro@hawaiipeaceandjustice.org

Peace Day Event Calls for Ending Missile Testing in the Pacific

Hawai’i Peace and Justice (formerly the American Friends Service Committee Hawai’i Program) will sponsor a talk by a renowned peace activist to commemorate International Peace Day.

MacGregor Eddy will speak about “Peace In the Pacific: Stop Missile Testing!” Ms. Eddy sits on the board of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power Space <http://www.space4peace.org>, is a member of the International Committee to Save Jeju Island (Korea) <www.savejejuisland.org>, and coordinates peace protests at the Vandenberg Space Command <www.vandenbergwitness.org>.

The event takes place on International Peace Day, September 21, 2011 at 7:00 pm, at the Honolulu Friends Meeting House, 2426 Oahu Avenue, Honolulu. The presentation is free and open to the public.

On what has been declared an International Day of Peace by the United Nations, the United States had scheduled to launch a nuclear-capable Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. After an outpouring of international criticism, the launch has been postponed to a later date.

There was much controversy with the selection of this particular date, which was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 2001 to be reserved as “a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day…commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.”

David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said, “Missile testing is a provocative act, not a peaceful one, and is particularly inappropriate on the International Day of Peace. Rather than testing one of its nuclear-capable missiles, the US should be taking steps to further the goals of peace and nuclear disarmament on this important day. To build a more peaceful world, US leadership is critical.”

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California routinely tests hydrogen bomb delivery systems, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMS), over the Pacific to Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands in violation of the U.S. commitment to disarmament under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The US and its allies use the few, short range launches by North Korea as a pretext for military buildup on Guam, Okinawa, and Jeju Island South Korea. The Pacific Missile Range Facility in Nohili, Kaua’i is key to the testing and tracking of missile launches.

Kyle Kajihiro, coordinator for Hawai‘i Peace and Justice said “On Peace Day we should reflect on the high cost of war and militarism and commit ourselves to ending the disorder of global militarization. Will Hawai‘i truly be a gathering place for peace, or a weapon of global domination? ”

####

DOWNLOAD THE POSTER FOR THE EVENT

Hawai’i Peace and Justice
2426 O’ahu Avenue
Honolulu, Hawai’i 96822
808.988.6266
nfo@hawaiipeaceandjustice.org
hawaiipeaceandjustice.org

September 8, 2011

Marines Expose an Untold Number of People to Radiation at the Kane’ohe bay sandbar

Autumn. Low tide. A group of people wading in shallow water in a row dangling line over the water. Must be oama (baby goatfish) season, right?

Wrong. These guys are not fishing for oama. These men are workers from the state of Hawaii Department of Health absurdly conducting a radiation screening of Ahu o Laka (Kane’ohe Bay sandbar) with radiation monitors hanging over the surface of the water. The state admits that its radiation monitors are not the right tool for surveying underwater contamination.

Photo: Carroll Cox/ carrollcox.com

Why are they screening for radiation at the popular recreational site?

In March, a Marine Corps helicopter crashed on the sandbar, killing one crew and injuring several others. What the Marines never reported was that the helicopter components included a radioactive isotope Strontium-90, the same bone-attacking radiological substance spewed over the Pacific by the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. You see, Strontium-90 is chemically related to Calcium, which it mimics when ingested into the body. Once inside bone tissue, the nasty little particles of radiation emitted from the decay of the isotope can wreak havoc on tissue, cells, and genes in very close proximity over a sustained period of time.

When another CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter crashed into a university in Okinawa in 2004, Okinawan public safety crews and media and residents were forcefully excluded from the vicinity of the crash. Many were concerned that Depleted Uranium often used as counterweights on the rotors were a public health hazard. However, it appears that depleted uranium is used in the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, but only Strontium 90 is used in the CH-53 Sea Stallion.

Environmental investigator and activist Carroll Cox received a tip that radioactive substances were released by the crash and that rescue and salvage workers and public users of the bay may have been exposed to the hazardous material without their knowledge. He notified state officials, who were unaware of the public health hazard, as well as the media. Media reports on the radiation contamination can be read here, here, here and here.

Carroll writes on his blog:

Sources alerted The Carroll Cox Show, that civilian employees within the United States Marine Corps Environmental Department knowingly and intentionally withheld critical information about the presence of the radioactive isotope from the state, the workers at the crash site, and the public. Their actions caused the possible exposure of an untold number of people to radiation as they retrieved parts, looked for clues to the crash, contained leaking fuel, removed the aircraft from the site and assessed environmental impact, because they were working without protective gear.

The civilian support staff made the decision to not tell the workers even though the marine squadron that assigned the helicopter advised them that the aircraft contained IBIS units and they should treat the site as a hazardous waste spill.

Cox sent a series of questions to the Marine Corps and received a canned response. Here’s the correspondence between Cox and Marine Corps Public Affairs Officer Major Crouch:

Questions we asked the Marine Corps:

Did the aircraft contain radioactive materials as part of its cargo? If yes, what was the material and the quantity?

Did the aircraft’s rotors contain deicers or a safety In-flight Blade Inspection System (IBIS)? If yes, how many were there? Were all of the IBIS’s recovered? If yes, when were they recovered?

Were any of the radiated materials recovered and placed in a survival raft at the crash site? Were geiger counters used to recover the IBIS’s? Where were the IBIS’s stored once they were removed from the crash site?

How much strontium-90 is contained in each IBIS unit? Were any of the IBIS units damaged? If yes, what degree of damage was noted? Did any of the strontium -90 get released into the environment? if yes, how much?

Did your agency inform the public, first responders and all recovery personnel that the downed aircraft contained IBIS with strontium-90? If yes when and how was this accomplished? If not, why?

Why did your agency representative, Mr. Randall Hu, not disclose that the IBIS units contained strontium-90 during his appearances on television and other news accounts, and only expressed concerns about the fuel that the craft contained?

Did the location and recovery of the IBIS units cause the Marines to delay the removal of the downed aircraft?

In several news accounts it was reported that “the Marines were to comb the bay looking for any metal scraps and inspect the area for any environmental damage”. Were these Marines wearing the proper safety gear to search and retrieve strontium-90, the IBIS units or other radioactive materials?

What was the final disposition of the IBIS’s or strontium-90?

Is it the opinion of the United States Marine Corps that the presence of strontium-90 aboard aircrafts that have crashed are not an environmental hazard requiring public reporting? If no, why not?

Did your agency meet with management of the Honolulu Fire Department to discuss the failure of your agency to notify them of the presence of strontium-90 aboard the downed aircraft? If yes, please provide a copy of their concerns and the Marine Corps’ response?

Were members of the recovery teams screened for exposure to strontium-90? If yes, when and by whom? If no, why not?

Is the Marine Corps conducting any type of monitoring for the presence of strontium-90 at and around the crash site? If yes, what are the results? If no, why not?

Did The Marine Corps notify the Hawaii State Department of Conservation or other agencies that the downed aircraft was equipped with IBIS’s or other parts containing strontium-90?

If yes, when and how were the each of the agencies notified? Please provide copies of the notification.

———————————————————————————————————————

The answer we received from Major Crouch:

Subject: CARROLL COX SHOW – QUERY RE: CH-53D MISHAP

From: “Crouch Maj Alan F” <alan.crouch@usmc.mil>

Date: Thu, September 01, 2011 4:34 pm

Aloha Mr. Cox, Marine Corps Base Hawaii takes its obligation to protect personnel, the public and the ‘āina very seriously. Our first responsibility after the tragic mishap on March 29 was the rescue of personnel in the downed helicopter. Rescue responders included the Marine Corps Base Hawaii Waterfront Operations, aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard and Army and the Honolulu Fire Department, as well as another CH-53D from MCAS Kaneohe Bay.

Almost immediately, base personnel placed a floating containment boom around the site to prevent the spread of petroleum fluids. Shortly thereafter, base and squadron personnel, with assistance from Navy, Coast Guard and state personnel, began the process of recovering the remains of the helicopter while an aviation mishap board conducted its investigation.

During the recovery efforts, some aircraft components were found to have a low level of contamination. All materials found to be contaminated were decontaminated or appropriately contained here on base. All personnel involved in the handling of any contaminated material were screened to verify they were not contaminated.

The low levels of radiation previously detected pose no significant health or environmental risk and were not of a reportable quantity. The site on the sand bar where the helicopter rested was inspected both during and after the salvage and recovery of the aircraft as a precautionary measure. No radiological contamination was found at the site.

Regards,

Maj. Alan Crouch Director,

Public Affairs Office

Marine Corps Base Hawaii

(808) 257-8840/-8870

In other words, the Marine Corps dodged nearly all the questions.

But it gets even worse. The Marines lost the raft containing the radioactive parts. The raft drifted around Kane’ohe Bay for some time before it was found by residents near the bay:

On Sunday, September 4, after our broadcast we learned the raft used to hold and transport the IBIS units and radioactive waste came lose from its mooring at the crash site, floated around Kaneohe Bay, and ended up by Kamehameha Hwy. A number of citizens came in contact with the raft.

Here are the questions Mr. Cox sent to the Marine Corps about the lost raft:

September 5, 2011

Major Alan Crouch

United States Marine Corps

Dear Major Crouch;

It has been brought to our attention that the life raft used at the site of the US. Marine Corps CH53 helicopter crash on March 29, 2011, broke loose from its mooring and drifted from the crash site to a residential area along Kamehameha Hwy at Kaneohe Bay. It is our understanding that the U.S. Marine Corps used the raft to store and transport radioactive materials containing Strontium-90 from the helicopter. We also learned, and as you have confirmed, the raft containing the radioactive material was transported to the water ops pier at the Kanoehe Bay Marine Corps Base and stored for a period of time. Reportedly it leaked radioactive materials onto the pavement of the pier area, causing some 65 square feet of cement to be excavated. We would like to ask you the following questions regarding the raft:

1. What date did the raft become dislodged from the crash site and the Marines lose custody of the raft?

2. How many days was the raft adrift?

3. How did the marines learn the raft was missing?

4. Did any of the civilians who had the raft in their possession during the time it was adrift remove any of the materials contaminated with radiation or the IBIS components?

5. Did you screen the individuals for radiation contamination? If yes, what were the results?

6. Did the Marine Corps screen the area along Kamehameha Hwy where the raft was recovered from? If yes, what was the level?

7. We have a picture showing a civilian towing the raft by boat. Did you screen that individual for radiation contamination?

8. After the marines retrieved the raft from the civilian did the marines immediately take it the water ops area on the base?

9. Did you notify the surrounding community and the individuals that came in contact with the raft that it contained radioactive Strontium-90?

10. Will there be charges brought against any of the civilians for handling the raft and materials?

11. Did the Marine Corps notify the U.S. Coast Guard, the Dept. of Health, DLNR, or other agencies that the raft was missing for several days? If so, when and to whom was notification made?

I would appreciate it if you would please provide answers to my questions by Thursday, September 8.

Sincerely,

Carroll Cox

He has not yet received an answer. READ THE FULL ACCOUNT ON CARROLLCOX.COM.

Photo: Carroll Cox / carrollcox.com

In the photo above of the downed helicopter, you can see the orange life raft that was used to contain the radioactive IBIS parts. This raft broke loose some time after this and drifted across Kane’ohe Bay, eventually reaching residential areas along the bay shore.

A contact who lives on the shores of Kane’ohe Bay in Kahalu’u saw the raft adrift while working on a canoe.

This incident underscores the hazards of such intensive military activity in Hawai’i, the inability of the military to manage the risks and the secrecy and lack of honesty of the military when dealing with the public. To paraphrase our friends in Vieques, Puerto Rico, history does not permit us to trust what the military says.

This incident also highlights why we must stop the proposed expansion of helicopter and Osprey facilities and activities at Mokapu (Kane’ohe Marine base).

September 3, 2011

State allows public access on Ahu o Laka sandbar despite radiation leak

Using radiation monitors not designed to scan under water, the state determined that it was safe for the public to access the helicopter crash site in Kane’ohe Bay where radioactive Strontium 90 leaked out. The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports:

The public will be allowed on the sandbar at Kaneohe Bay this holiday weekend despite concerns about low levels of radiation in the area, state Department of Land and Natural Resources Director William Aila said.

Aila made the declaration after officials from the state Health Department’s Indoor and Radiological Health Branch traveled to the sandbar off Heeia Kea Pier and were able to measure only background levels of radiation during a survey of the air from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.

Testing was prompted by warnings from environmental watchdog Carroll Cox earlier this week that military officials failed to notify the state or the public about the radiation released when a CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter crashed March 29 at the edge of the sandbar. One Marine stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii was killed and three others were injured in the crash landing.

The Marine Corps denies that it had a duty to inform the state or the public about the release of the radioactive substance:

“The low levels of radiation previously detected pose no significant health or environmental risk and were not of a reportable quantity,” Marine Corps Base Hawaii said. “No radiological contamination was found at the site.”

Yet, as reported in a KHON report, the Marine Corps thought the radiological threat serious enough to remove portions of asphalt on the Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe that were possibly contaminated by the Strontium 90:

Due to rigorous standards, officials at Marine Corps Base Hawaii carved out asphalt that came into contact with strontium-90 after a raft used to collect the helicopter’s IBIS system was placed on what’s known as the waterfront ops area.

“As a part of the mitigation, approximately 65 square feet of asphalt was removed from an area where contaminated components were temporarily located and isolated,” said Crouch. “Thorough inspections were done at all aircraft component locations – both during and after recovery and salvage operations – to confirm there was no remaining contamination.”

READ THE FULL HONOLULU STAR ADVERTISER ARTICLE

September 3, 2011

Kaneohe sandbar deemed safe after radiological testing?

Ahu o Laka, a sandbar in Kaneʻohe Bay, was the site of a fatal Marine Corps helicopter crash in March 2011. More about that crash can be read here and here. The crash resulted in the release of fuel and a radioactive substance Strontium 90, which mimics calcium and attacks bones. However, the Marine Corps did not report the radiological release until documents were revealed by environmental activist Carroll Cox. Another story on the radiological release is here.

According to KHON News, the State of Hawaiʻi conducted a radiological sweep of Ahu o Laka and declared the area “safe” just in time for the long holiday weekend, when boaters converge on the island.

A sweep of the Kaneohe sandbar Friday by six members of the state’s Indoor and Radiological Health Branch turned up no evidence of radiological contamination from a helicopter crash five months ago.

“We got mainly background radiation,” said Jeff Eckerd, IRHB’s program manager. “We did not get any hits or spikes.”

The testing was ordered Thursday after environmental activist Carroll Cox received information that the CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter that crashed onto the sandbar March 29, killing one marine and injuring three others, contained an In-flight Blade Inspection System. Within the device are six half inch pellets that contain 500 microcuries of strontium-90, a radioactive substance known to be harmful if ingested.

“It’s a bone seeker,” explained Eckerd. “It can get in and possibly cause bone cancer in high quantities.”

The Marineʻs insist that it was not required to report the spill:

Marine Corpse Base Hawaii spokesman Maj. Alan Crouch stressed that the amount of strontium-90 released into the environment as crews removed the helicopter off the sandbar was not a “reportable quantity.” He said some military personnel were exposed, but at minimal levels.

But the radiological hazard was so severe that the Marines excavated asphalt where a raft was parked after removing the helicopter wreckage:

Due to rigorous standards, officials at Marine Corps Base Hawaii carved out asphalt that came into contact with strontium-90 after a raft used to collect the helicopter’s IBIS system was placed on what’s known as the waterfront ops area.

“As a part of the mitigation, approximately 65 square feet of asphalt was removed from an area where contaminated components were temporarily located and isolated,” said Crouch. “Thorough inspections were done at all aircraft component locations – both during and after recovery and salvage operations – to confirm there was no remaining contamination.”

William Aila, Chairman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources was not satisfied with the Marine Corps’ response:

However Aila expressed concern DLNR was not immediately notified about the presence of strontium-90 on the downed helicopter, even if it posed no risk to first responders or state conservation officers.

“This is state land, it’s not Marine Corps base land,” said Aila. “We certainly registered some strong feelings about not being kept in the loop. We are in some very stern discussions with the Marine Corps base right now and working to ensure that situation doesn’t occur in the future.”

[…]

The state Health Department is checking whether the Marine Corps was required to report the release of strontium-90 to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which monitors the use of radiological substances.

“That is what we’re checking with the NRC,” said Eckerd, “to see if an actual notification was submitted to them.”

I’m in agreement with Carroll Cox that we should not accept the state’s testing results:

Cox however is still not satisfied with the military’s response to the release of strontium-90 and is demanding further testing.

“Create an effort to go and address this problem because people can be sickened,” said Cox. “People can die from this neglect of duty.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

September 2, 2011September 2, 2011

Radioactive strontium leaked into Kaneʻohe Bay from helicopter crash

Brooks Baehr reports on Hawaii News Now that the fatal Marine Corps helicopter crash in Kaneʻohe Bay in March, resulted in radioactive Strontium 90 leaking into the bay. But the Marines never notified anyone, not even the State Department of Health.

Meanwhile, Hawaii News Now reports that a missile defense test failed to hit its target off Kaua’i:

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency says at approximately 3:53 a.m. (HST), a Standard Missile 3 interceptor missile failed to hit its target over the Pacific Ocean.

But the Pentagon is still planning to procure hundreds of these missiles. Bloomberg reports:

The Pentagon plans to buy more than 300 of the SM-3 Block IB missiles over the next five years, at a cost of $12 million to $15 million per missile, Lehner said.

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State to test for radiation at Kaneohe Sandbar

Posted: Sep 01, 2011 6:36 PM

By Brooks Baehr

KANEOHE (HawaiiNewsNow) – A small amount of a radioactive isotope leaked into Kaneohe Bay when a CH 53D helicopter from Marine Corps Base Hawaii crashed onto the Sandbar March 29, 2011 killing a Marine and injuring three others.

A Marine Corps spokesperson told Hawaii News Now there was “none at the site once the aircraft was removed,” but the state wants to make sure. Friday representatives from the state Department of Health and Department of Land and Natural Resources will travel by boat to the Sandbar to measure radiation levels.

Environmental watchdog Carroll Cox made the leak public when he contacted the media Thursday.

“What is most troubling to me in this situation was one, the failure to disclose it, and two, to allow it to continue to occur and progress without disclosing it and subjecting other human beings to this potential danger,” Cox told Hawaii News Now.

The CH 53D is equip with an In-Flight Blade Inspection System (IBIS). A device is attached to each rotor to warn the crew of problems with the blade while in-flight. Each device contains a small amount Strontium 90, a radioactive isotope.

“We don’t know if they recovered all six (IBIS devices) or what quantity they recovered or what was the proper disposal,” Cox said.

The Marine Corps spokesperson Maj. Alan Crouch confirmed there “was some contamination” from the inspection system, but said the radiation was “contained,” and there was “none at the site once the aircraft was removed.”

Cox is not so sure. He faults the military and civilians on base for not disclosing the leak and is asking the Marine Corps, the Department of Health, and the DLNR to investigate.

“I’m inclined to believe that there is still radiation out there, period. And until they give me a clear bill of health that they have gone out with a third party, then I would accept that,” Cox said.

Crouch said the leak was not made public because it was “not at a level to require notification.”

Both the Department of Health and the Department of Land and Natural Resources said Thursday they did not know about the radiation leak until receiving letters from Cox this week.

September 1, 2011

US PLANS INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILE TEST ON INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

From Waging Peace:

US Plans Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Test on International Day of Peace

by David Krieger
August 31, 2011

In 1981, the United Nations General Assembly created an annual International Day of Peace to take place on the opening day of the regular sessions of the General Assembly. The purpose of the day is for “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.”

Twenty years later, in 2001, the General Assembly, desiring to draw attention to the objectives of the International Day of Peace, gave the day a fixed date on which it would be held each year: September 21st. The General Assembly declared in its Resolution 55/282 that “the International Day of Peace shall henceforth be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day.”

The Resolution continued by inviting “all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, regional and non-governmental organizations and individuals to commemorate, in an appropriate manner, the International Day of Peace, including through education and public awareness, and to cooperate with the United Nations in the establishment of the global ceasefire.”

The United States has announced that its next test of a Minuteman III will occur on September 21, 2011. Rather than considering how it might participate and bring awareness to the International Day of Peace, the United States will be testing one of its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles that, 20 years after the end of the Cold War, continue to be kept on high-alert in readiness to be fired on a few moments notice.

Of course, the missile test will have a dummy warhead rather than a live one, but its purpose will be to assure that the delivery system for the Minuteman III nuclear warheads has no hitches. As Air Force Colonel David Bliesner has pointed out, “Minuteman III test launches demonstrate our nation’s ICBM capability in a very visible way, deterring potential adversaries while reassuring allies.”

So, on the 2011 International Day of Peace, the United States has chosen not “to honor a cessation of hostilities,” but rather to implement a very visible, $20 million test of a nuclear-capable missile.

Perhaps US officials believe that US missile tests help keep the peace. If so, they have a very different idea about other countries testing missiles. National Security Spokesman Mike Hammer had this to say about Iranian missile tests in 2009: “At a time when the international community has offered Iran opportunities to begin to build trust and confidence, Iran’s missile tests only undermine Iran’s claims of peaceful intentions.”

In 2008, Condoleezza Rice, then Secretary of State, said, “We face with the Iranians, and so do our allies and friends, a growing missile threat that is getting ever longer and ever deeper – and where the Iranian appetite for nuclear technology is, to this point, still unchecked. And it is hard for me to believe that an American president is not going to want to have the capability to defend our territory and the territory of our allies, whether they are in Europe or whether they are in the Middle East against that kind of missile threat.”

The US approach to nuclear-capable missile testing seems to be “do as I say, not as I do.” This is unlikely to hold up in the long run. Rather than testing its nuclear-capable delivery systems, the US should be leading the way, as President Obama pledged, toward a world free of nuclear weapons. To do so, we suggest that he take three actions for the 2011 International Day of Peace. First, announce the cancellation of the scheduled Minuteman III missile test, and use the $20 million saved as a small down payment on alleviating poverty in the US and abroad. Second, announce that the US will take its nuclear weapons off high-alert status and keep them on low alert, as China has done, in order to lower the possibilities of accidental or unauthorized missile launches. Third, declare a ceasefire for the day in each of the wars in which the US is currently engaged. These three actions on the International Day of Peace would not change the world in a day, but they would be steps in the right direction that could be built upon during the other 364 days of the year.

David Krieger is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation