May - The nuclear cleanup at Enewetak Atoll begins. About 700 U.S. Army personnel carry out the cleanup's first phase, which includes scraping and collecting 100,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil and debris, and 125,000 cubic yards of uncontaminated debris and dumping it in a bomb crater on Runit Island to be sealed with a cap of cement.
June - A Department of Energy study reports: "All living patterns involving Bikini Island exceed Federal (radiation) guidelines for 30 year population doses." About 100 Bikinians continue living on Bikini. The U.S. Congress approves about $1 million in compensation for Rongelap and Utrik ($100,000 each goes to the Rongelap, Utrik and Bikini for building community facilities; $1,000 each to the 157 exposed Utrik people; and from $25,000 for people with thyroid tumors to Q00,000 for people the families of those who have died).
1978
May - Interior Department officials describe the 75 percent increase in radioactive cesium found in the Bikini people as "incredible." Plans are announced to move the people within 90 days.
August - A Department of Energy survey of the northern Marshall Islands reveals that in addition to Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik, 10 other atolls or islands "received intermediate range fallout from one or more of the megaton range tests." These included inhabited atolls and islands of Ailuk, Likiep, Mejit, Ujelang and Wotho.
September - The 139 people living on Bikini Atoll are evacuated by U.S. officials. The U.S. government funds a $6 million trust for the Bikini people.
1980
March - The U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency announces that the Enewetak nuclear cleanup is completed. The estimated cost of the cleanup and rehabilitation was $218 million. Enewetak Islanders begin returning home to the southern islands in the atoll.
1981
The Bikinians file a class action law suit against the U.S. government in U.S. courts seeking $450 million in compensation. Attorneys for the Marshall Islands Atomic Testing Litigation Project file lawsuits on behalf of several thousand Marshall Islanders seeking about $4 billion in compensation from the United States for personal injuries from the nuclear testing.
1982
The U.S. establishes a second trust fund of $20 million for the Bikini people. Later, it will increase this with an additional $90 million appropriation in the late1980s.
1983
Compact of Free Association is approved in a plebiscite by about 60 percent of Marshal Islands voters. The Compact includes a Section 177 trust fund of $150 million that is to provide $270 million in compensation payments over the 15 year life of the Compact (Bikini $75 million; Enewetak $48; Rongelap $37 million; Utrik $22 million; Nuclear Claims Tribunal $45 million; $2 million annually for medical care for the "four atolls" 53 million for a nationwide radiological survey; etc.).
1985
March - In a statement delivered to Rep John Seiberling, chairman of the subcommittee on public lands and national parks, Dr. Thomas Hamilton states: "I have performed examinations on over 7,000 people from the northern atolls and from three southern atolls...There are several northern atolls in which the prevalence rates of thyroid neoplasia (benign and malignant) are equal to or greater than those observed by Brookhaven on Utirik Atoll where the radiation dose is known."
May - Rongelap people evacuate their atoll, moving to Mejatto, a small island in the northwestern section of Kwajalein Atoll. Rongelap leaders say they fear that continued residence on Rongelap will expose them to dangerous levels of radiation.
1986
The U.S. Congress approves the Compact of Free Association. The Compact includes an espousal provision, prohibiting Marshall Islanders from seeking future legal redress in U.S. courts and dismissing all current court cases in exchange for a $150 million compensation trust fund. October The Compact between America and the Marshall Islands goes into effect.
