Swim in the expanded lagoon of one of the prettiest Pacific Island nuclear test sites
The Marshall Islands are a string of 29 coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean, just north of the equator. The most famous of them is Bikini Atoll. They were directly administered by the United States for decades, until becoming a nominally sovereign state in 1986 with the signing of the Compact of Free Association with the US. There is a military airstrip on Johnson Island.
The Marshall Islands in general, and Bikini Atoll in particular, are famous for their nuclear tests. Half a century later, Bikini Atoll looks again like a tropical paradise, a jewel in the ocean where palm trees framing a blue-green lagoon sway in the breeze. During the tests, many people living on and near Bikini and Eniwetok atolls were forcibly evacuated to other islets. Since these were isolated and barren, the move involved the destruction of their traditional “canoe” culture of fishing and gathering fruit, for a new US one of ration stamps and processed food handouts. For those evacuated, it seemed a great injustice, scarcely made any better by the fact that 239 people were left behind to face blast radiation after the first hydrogen bomb. This was the 1954 BRAVO test—the United States' biggest bang ever. The islanders still remember seeing the “second sun,” an intense fireball a thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima, and the 20-mlle-high (32 kilometers) mushroom cloud.
It was followed by hurricane-force winds that stripped the branches and coconuts from the trees. To the delight of the planners, a small fleet of empty ships, including the USS Saratoga and the Nagato, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto's flagship, were engulfed in the nuclear explosion and plunged to the bottom of the lagoon. And a plume of radioactive fallout spread quickly toward Rongelap, an un-evacuated island nearby. A fine powder fell like snow on the islanders (not that they had ever seen snow), and anyone whom It touched later became nauseous and their skin went red and peeled off in layers... In the years that followed, the islanders would measure the health effects in numbers of cancer deaths and birth defects in each family.
The islanders that were evacuated were promised it would be for a short period only. In 1967 some 150 people were indeed returned to Bikini, only to be evacuated again when it was discovered that radioactive Caesium 137 had contaminated everything. Caesium 137 has a half-life of thirty years, so for it to drop to safe levels would take a good few generations.
Tourists can now visit Bikini Atoll, but are warned against swallowing anything. Dive enthusiasts like to swim around the lagoon looking at the sunken US and Japanese aircraft carriers, warships and submarines.
But for the islanders, the novelty has worn off and there is not much to do. On Ejit Island, where most of the Bikini Islanders ended up, bare-foot children play outside shanty homes.
There are many beautiful romantic Pacific Islands, even if when you've seen one coral beach, framed by swaying palms, you've seen them all. But not all Pacific Islands have been used for testing nuclear bombs.
Although there are more than you might imagine. The two thousand plus tests world-wide average out to one test every 9 days for the last fifty years. Indeed, between July 16, 1945 and September 23, 1992, the United States conducted (by official count) 1,054 nuclear tests (not to forget its two nuclear attacks). That works out for the US as the equivalent of one test every 17 days, versus one every 23 days for the Soviet Union; one every 63 days for France, while even plucky little Britain afforded one every 349 days. (In addition, The Valiant aircraft that dropped the first British H-bomb on May 15, 1957 is now in the RAF Museum at Hendon, North London, fully restored in its anti-flash colors.)
The peak testing years included the height of the Cold War, when the major changes in weapon design occurred. During this time, tests were grand operations, involving huge numbers of people. (By the time of the last test series—Dominic I—some 28,000 military and civilian personnel were involved.) Explosions were carried out in all environments: above the ground, under the ground, and underwater, on top of towers, on barges, from balloons, in tunnels and fired by rockets hundreds of miles up into the atmosphere. It is estimated that some 9,259 pounds (4,200 kilos) of plutonium has been discharged into the atmosphere as a result.
The tests took place not so much everywhere in the world, but everywhere in the world remote from strong national governments. For the Western democracies, Pacific Islands with few voters held a particular attraction. The unfortunate Bikini Atoll, Christmas Island, Eniwetok and Johnston Atolls were ideal for the US and UK (when it wasn't respectively New Mexico or Australia), while for France Malden Island and Mororua and Fangataufa Atolls were convenient (when it wasn't Algeria).
The Soviet Union preferred to use the Arctic Islands of Novaya Zemlya (the only currently open Russian test site) and anyway had lots of remote republics to use too (over 400 tests in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and even a couple in the Ukraine).
Other Marshall Islands tests included the “Kickapoo” series of June 1956 which worked its way through Aomon (Sally) Island, Runit (Yvonne) Island and Rujoru (Pearl) Island all in Enewetak Atoll; followed a month later by Dog Island at Bikini Atoll, then back to Enewetak, and Eberiru (Ruby) Island briefly before “Tewa,” which left a crater In the Bikini reef 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) in diameter and 129 feet (39 meters) deep.
On November 1, 1952, the United States detonated the first hydrogen device, code named “Ivy Mike,” near the island of Elugelab in the Eniwetok Atoll. It left a crater deeper than the height of the Empire State Building. Then back to Bikini for the test known as “Cherokee” in May 1956. This was the first US airdrop of a thermonuclear weapon and was mainly intended to impress the Soviet Union.
On a technical point, the easiest Doomsday Machine to construct is the cobalt bomb cluster. Each cobalt bomb is an ordinary atomic bomb encased in a jacket of cobalt. When a cobalt bomb explodes, it spreads a huge amount of radiation. A small number of these bombs could extinguish all animal life on earth. (Other than the insects.) The final “Flathead” test of June 1956 at Bikini Atoll lagoon was a test of just such a dirty bomb.
Restoration of the Bikini Atoll was attempted in 1969 but the vegetation was found to be too contaminated and highly toxic. Although, the Pentagon optimistically reported that after the tests, “All of the test islands have been swept clean and Elugelab in particular is completely gone, nothing there but water and what appears to be a deep crater.”
A 1997 study by the National Cancer Institute concluded that due to 80 million person-rads (number of persons x dose in rads) of total exposure, roughly 120,000 extra cases of thyroid cancer can be expected to develop, resulting in some 6,000 deaths. But that risk is the same risk wherever you are, worldwide.