August - The Nuclear Claims Tribunal approves its first compensation awards, based on a list of health conditions presumed to be caused by radiation, and therefore eligible for compensation. Because of concerns that the $45 million available may not be adequate to pay all claims, the Tribunal limits initial payments to 25 percent of the total awards.
1994
January - U.S. Rep. George Miller writes to President Bill Clinton: "Some Rongelapese have said they believe they were used as 'guinea pigs' to further U.S. understanding of the effects of radiation on humans. In light of recent disclosures regarding actual radiation experimentation in the United States during this period, that possibility cannot be ignored." He also comments on an ongoing thyroid study in the Marshalls. "The findings of the thyroid survey are disturbing. The Committee has been informed that even if only 50 percent of the survey results are verified...the incidence rate is still significantly higher, by a factor of 100, than the rate of thyroid cancer found anywhere else in the world." The U.S. Department of Energy begins releasing thousands of previously classified nuclear test era documents, many of which confirm the wider extent of the fallout contamination in the Marshall Islands.
July - U.S. Representatives George Miller and Ron de Lugo write to Dr. Ruth Faden, chairperson of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments: "...There is no doubt that the AEC intentionally returned (Marshallese) to islands which it considered to be "by far the most contaminated places in the world,' but which it told the people were safe. Nor is there any doubt that the AEC, through the Brookhaven National Laboratory, then planned and conducted test after test on these people to study their bodies' reaction to life in that contaminated environment. "
December - A five-year study of 432 islands in the Marshall Islands shows that 15 atolls and single islands -almost half of this nation were dusted by radioactive fallout from the U.S. nuclear weapons tests of the 1950s. However, the Nationwide Radiological Survey -funded by the U.S. and conducted by the Marshall Islands government -states that with the exception of islands in Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Rongerik, "the amount of radioactivity remaining in the environment has diminished to levels that are not of concern." Paul C. Warnke, formerly the chief nuclear arms negotiator for the U.S. who held other high level positions for the State Department, states his support for additional compensation, observing that Marshall Islands negotiators of the Compact were unaware of the magnitude of radiation problems in the Marshall Islands when they negotiated compensation levels with the United States.
1995
February - Marshall Islands officials testify before President Clinton's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments in Washington, D.C. stating that fallout exposed many more than the four atolls acknowledged by the U.S. government, and that islanders were purposefully resettled on contaminated islands so the U.S. could study the long-term effects of radiation.
October - The U.S. Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments issues its final report, including observations and recommendations on the Marshall Islands. The report recommends that at least two more atolls, Ailuk and Likiep, be included in a medical program, and that the Department of Energy's program "be reviewed to determine if it is appropriate to add to the program populations of other atolls to the south and east of the (Bravo) blast whose inhabitants may have received exposures sufficient to cause excess thyroid abnormalities."
December - The Nuclear Claims Tribunal reports that it has awarded $43.2 million, nearly its entire fund, to 1,196 claimants for 1,311 illnesses.
1996
August - The Nuclear Claims Tribunal projects that it will have $100 million in personal injury claims by 2001, when the Compact ends. Land claims for Bikini, Enewetak and other northern islands are also pending before the Tribunal. The Tribunal's claim claim fund, however, is limited to $45 million.
