The Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal has halted all compensation payments for the first time since it began paying claims in 1991.
The tribunal owes more than two billion US dollars in compensation, and the US government recently admitted that cancers from exposure to 67 nuclear weapons tests of the 1950s will continue developing in the future.
The Chairman Gregory Danz says he is halting the small five percent initial payments, as it winds down its operation in the face of dwindling funds.
He says the Nuclear Claims Fund was down to just over 100 thousand dollars at, the end of May, of the 150 million dollars provided through a Compact of Free Association.
The Bikini Atoll Local Government official Jack Niedenthal describes the Compact of Free Association's compensation to the nuclear victims of the Marshall Islands as a total rip off.
