Nuclear Bombing of Bikini Atoll Contaminates Nearby Islands
At a glance:
- Series: Great Events from History II: Ecology and the Environment Series
- Categories: Government and Politics, Science, Medicine, Health, Environmental Issues, Disasters
- Subcategories: Nuclear Weapons, Power, Radiation, Ecology, Environment, Conservation, Bombs, Bombings, Explosions
- Curriculum: American History 1951-present, Asian History
- Geographical Location: Oceania, Marshall Islands, Micronesia
- Date: March 1, 1954
Article abstract: The U.S. government tested a multimegaton bomb on Bikini Atoll, contaminating Bikini and several other of the Marshall Islands and their inhabitants.
Summary of Event
On March 1, 1954, the United States exploded a seventeen-megaton bomb on Bikini Island, one of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. The residents of Bikini had been relocated several years earlier, but the inhabitants of two other atolls downwind of the blast were neither removed nor warned. They suffered a variety of illnesses, many severe, from the effect of...
[The entire page is 2032 words long]
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