nuclear-news

What’s the situation of Bikini atoll and its people now?

What Bikini Atoll Looks Like 60 Years Post-Nuclear Testing  https://www.thetravel.com/bikini-atoll-nuclear-testing-can-you-visit-now/

Bikini Atoll sounds like a tropical paradise, but its history includes that of nuclear testing… So, what does it look like six decades following?

BY AARON SPRAYPUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO  Bikini Atoll is an example of a tropical paradise-come-fire-and-brimstone apocalypse. It is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands made up of 23 islands that surround a large central lagoon. After WW2 all of the atoll’s population were forcibly relocated in 1946 to make way for a nuclear testing site for the United States.

Between 1946 and 1958 Bikini Atoll was subjected to 23 nuclear tests by the United States. And here is to be found the sunken American nuclear fleet. Another stunning lagoon to see a ship graveyard is in Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon in Micronesia.

The American authorities had promised the Bikini Atoll’s residents they would be able to return home after they were done nuking their home. Most of the islanders agreed to leave and moved to Rogerik Atoll and then Kili Island. But both of these new islands were unable to sustain them forcing the government to keep giving them aid.

After the end of the nuclear tests, three families were resettled on Bikini Island in 1970 (about 100 residents). But dangerously high levels of contamination were found in the well water and they were evacuated again in 1980.

In the end, the United States paid the islands and their descendants $125 million in compensation.

January 31, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, OCEANIA, social effects