Bikini Atoll : MARSHALL ISLANDS
Bikini Atoll is one of the 29 atolls and five islands that make up the Marshall Islands. These atolls are scattered over 924,626 sq. km just north of the equator in the Pacific Ocean. They help define a geographic area referred to as Micronesia. Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an atoll in one of the Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands. It consists of 23 islands surrounding a 229.4-square-mile (594.1 km2) lagoon. As part of the Pacific Proving Grounds it was the site of more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958. The navigator and explorer Otto von Kotzebue named Bikini Atoll Eschscholtz Atoll after the scientist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz. Preceding the nuclear tests, the indigenous population was relocated to Rongerik Atoll, though during the Castle Bravo shot in particular some members of the population were exposed to nuclear fallout (see Project 4.1 for a discussion of the health effects). For examination of the fallout, several rockets of the types Loki and Asp were launched at 11°35′N 165°20′E. Bikini Island is the northeastern most and largest island of Bikini Atoll. It is the best-known and most important island of the atoll, and measures about four kilometres. About twelve kilometres to the northwest is Aomen, the first island in that direction, and to the south of Bikini is Bukonfuaaku. Bikini Island is well-known for being the subject of nuclear bomb tests, and because the bikini swimsuit was named after the island in 1946. The two-piece swimsuit was introduced within days of the first nuclear test on the atoll, and the name of the island was in the news.[1] Introduced just weeks after the one-piece "Atome" was widely advertised as the "smallest bathing suit in the world", it was said that the bikini "split the atome".
The Castle Bravo fallout pattern. Between 1946 and 1958, twenty-three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll. The March 1st, 1954 detonation codenamed Castle Bravo, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. The largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States, it was much more powerful than predicted, and created widespread radioactive contamination.[3][4] Hired later by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal to research and report on the economic damage caused by the testing, Economist and Crisis Consultant Randall Bell writes in his book, Strategy 360 [5], "Bravo had an explosive force equal to nearly 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs. It vaporized the test island, parts of two other islands, and left a mile-wide crater in the lagoon floor. In total, nearly 70 acres of the Bikini Atoll were vaporized by the nuclear testing." Randall Bell also notes, "Many of the landowners and local people accompanied me back to Rongelap an Rongerik, where much of the nuclear fallout came down. John, an elderly man, stood on his former home site in Rongelap and told me that he had gotten up early to make coffee and the sun had not yet come up. Suddenly, the sky lit up like it was day. He could see the large mushroom cloud rising off the horizon from Bikini and, soon after, he felt the blast of the shock wave. Later, as the entire village gathered, they watched the radiocative gray ash fall on them, their houses and their children. John did not express any anger, only deep sorrow that his one-year-old daughter died from leukemia soon after Bravo." Among those contaminated were the 23 crewmembers of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5.[4] The ensuing scandal in Japan was enormous, and ended up inspiring the 1954 film Godzilla, in which the 1954 U.S. nuclear test awakens and mutates the monster, who then attacks Japan before finally being vanquished by Japanese ingenuity. The Micronesian inhabitants, who numbered about 200 before the United States relocated them after World War II, ate fish, shellfish, bananas, and coconuts. A large majority of the Bikinians were moved to a single island named Kili as part of their temporary homestead, but remain until today and receive compensation from the United States for their survival. In 1968 the United States declared Bikini habitable and started bringing a small group of Bikinians back to their homes in the early 1970s as a test. In 1978, however, the islanders were removed again when strontium-90 in their bodies reached dangerous levels after a French team of scientists did additional tests on the island.[7] It was not uncommon for women to experience faulty pregnancies, miscarriages, stillbirths and damage to their offspring as a result of the nuclear testing on Bikini.[8] The United States provided $150 million as a settlement for damages caused by the nuclear testing program.
Bikini Atoll is located 850 kilometers northwest of Majuro on the northern fringe of the Marshall Islands and is composed of more than 23 islands and islets. Four islands (Bikini, Eneu, Nam and Enidrik) account for over 70% of the land area. Bikini and Eneu are the only islands of the atoll that have had a permanent population. In 1946, Bikini Atoll was the first site in the Marshall Islands used for nuclear-weapon testing by the United States. In 1948, Enewetak Atoll, a neighboring atoll, replaced Bikini Atoll as the test site. In 1954, Bikini Atoll was reactivated as a test site until the US terminated nuclear-weapon testing in the Marshall Islands in 1958. Prior to the first nuclear test in 1946, the 167 Bikinians living on Bikini Island were evacuated to neighbouring islands. By the time nuclear-weapon testing in the Marshall Islands was terminated in July 1958, sixteen nuclear-weapon tests had been conducted on Bikini Atoll over a 12-year period. All of these tests were surface or atmospheric tests. They were conducted in or over the Atoll lagoon, thereby dispersing the explosion’s effects over all of the islands of the Atoll. The history of the radiological assessments and the movement of the local population is very important in understanding the overall concerns. In August 1968 — following a number of radiological surveys that had been carried out since 1958 to assess the impact of the US programme of nuclear-weapon testing — it was announced that Bikini Atoll was safe for habitation and approved for resettlement. A further radiological survey of Bikini Atoll was carried out in 1970. Eventually, 139 Bikinians resettled on the Atoll. However, the Bikinian people remained unconvinced of the safety of the Atoll, and in 1975 they initiated a lawsuit against the US Government to terminate the resettlement effort until a satisfactory and comprehensive radiological survey had been carried out.
The Castle Bravo fallout pattern. Between 1946 and 1958, twenty-three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll. The March 1st, 1954 detonation codenamed Castle Bravo, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. The largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States, it was much more powerful than predicted, and created widespread radioactive contamination.[3][4] Hired later by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal to research and report on the economic damage caused by the testing, Economist and Crisis Consultant Randall Bell writes in his book, Strategy 360 [5], "Bravo had an explosive force equal to nearly 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs. It vaporized the test island, parts of two other islands, and left a mile-wide crater in the lagoon floor. In total, nearly 70 acres of the Bikini Atoll were vaporized by the nuclear testing." Randall Bell also notes, "Many of the landowners and local people accompanied me back to Rongelap an Rongerik, where much of the nuclear fallout came down. John, an elderly man, stood on his former home site in Rongelap and told me that he had gotten up early to make coffee and the sun had not yet come up. Suddenly, the sky lit up like it was day. He could see the large mushroom cloud rising off the horizon from Bikini and, soon after, he felt the blast of the shock wave. Later, as the entire village gathered, they watched the radiocative gray ash fall on them, their houses and their children. John did not express any anger, only deep sorrow that his one-year-old daughter died from leukemia soon after Bravo." Among those contaminated were the 23 crewmembers of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5.[4] The ensuing scandal in Japan was enormous, and ended up inspiring the 1954 film Godzilla, in which the 1954 U.S. nuclear test awakens and mutates the monster, who then attacks Japan before finally being vanquished by Japanese ingenuity. The Micronesian inhabitants, who numbered about 200 before the United States relocated them after World War II, ate fish, shellfish, bananas, and coconuts. A large majority of the Bikinians were moved to a single island named Kili as part of their temporary homestead, but remain until today and receive compensation from the United States for their survival. In 1968 the United States declared Bikini habitable and started bringing a small group of Bikinians back to their homes in the early 1970s as a test. In 1978, however, the islanders were removed again when strontium-90 in their bodies reached dangerous levels after a French team of scientists did additional tests on the island.[7] It was not uncommon for women to experience faulty pregnancies, miscarriages, stillbirths and damage to their offspring as a result of the nuclear testing on Bikini.[8] The United States provided $150 million as a settlement for damages caused by the nuclear testing program.
Bikini Atoll is located 850 kilometers northwest of Majuro on the northern fringe of the Marshall Islands and is composed of more than 23 islands and islets. Four islands (Bikini, Eneu, Nam and Enidrik) account for over 70% of the land area. Bikini and Eneu are the only islands of the atoll that have had a permanent population. In 1946, Bikini Atoll was the first site in the Marshall Islands used for nuclear-weapon testing by the United States. In 1948, Enewetak Atoll, a neighboring atoll, replaced Bikini Atoll as the test site. In 1954, Bikini Atoll was reactivated as a test site until the US terminated nuclear-weapon testing in the Marshall Islands in 1958. Prior to the first nuclear test in 1946, the 167 Bikinians living on Bikini Island were evacuated to neighbouring islands. By the time nuclear-weapon testing in the Marshall Islands was terminated in July 1958, sixteen nuclear-weapon tests had been conducted on Bikini Atoll over a 12-year period. All of these tests were surface or atmospheric tests. They were conducted in or over the Atoll lagoon, thereby dispersing the explosion’s effects over all of the islands of the Atoll. The history of the radiological assessments and the movement of the local population is very important in understanding the overall concerns. In August 1968 — following a number of radiological surveys that had been carried out since 1958 to assess the impact of the US programme of nuclear-weapon testing — it was announced that Bikini Atoll was safe for habitation and approved for resettlement. A further radiological survey of Bikini Atoll was carried out in 1970. Eventually, 139 Bikinians resettled on the Atoll. However, the Bikinian people remained unconvinced of the safety of the Atoll, and in 1975 they initiated a lawsuit against the US Government to terminate the resettlement effort until a satisfactory and comprehensive radiological survey had been carried out.
