The small mysterious islands were used for testing after the Second World War (Photo: Getty Images)
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean lies the world’s most nuclear-contaminated island, devastated by the days of the Hiroshima and Nagisaki nuclear attacks.
The small coral islands of Bikini Atoll have remained uninhabited since 1945, when atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and the United States began using them for nuclear testing.
The small population of 167 people has been advised to relocate by the military and said the tests are necessary to prevent future wars.
No one has lived there since.
The islands meet the military’s criteria because they are under U.S. control — as described in a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council — and within 1,000 miles of a base from which bombers can take off.
The lagoon surrounded by the atoll offered a sheltered harbor for Navy ships, including vessels used as targets.
But the inhabitants who were moved from the island at that time were angry, but their leader, King Judah at that time said, “We will go, believing that everything is in the hands of God.”
Although it was promised that the residents would eventually return one day, they were instead permanently relocated to other islands in the Marshall Islands.
The beautiful islands as seen today (Photo: Getty Images) Nuclear explosions on the islands became the norm (Photo: Getty Images) Scientists examined tuna for radioactivity residues (Photo: Getty Images / Hulton Archive)
Between 1946 and 1958, the US detonated 23 nuclear devices on the islands, including 20 hydrogen bombs.
The Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test was conducted on the islands on March 1, 1954, and reached a yield of 15 megatons—1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Nagisaki in 1945.
The bomb blast in the air is estimated to be the equivalent of 216 Empire State Buildings, according to Stanford Magazine.
While some residents were allowed to return in the late 1960s, this was cut short as the cesium-137 in the returnees’ bodies was later found to have increased by 75 percent.
Residents were displaced by the bombs (Photo: Getty Images) The bombs left behind radioactive traces to this day (Photo: Getty Images / Stocktrek Images) Many residents were evacuated before the tests began (Photo: Getty Images)
Residents were then moved 450 miles away to the Kili Islands, and scientists say it is still not safe to return to Bikini Atoll to this day.
“Probably the most serious finding from our research is that Bikini Island needs to be cleaned up if people want to live there again,” said Ivana Nikolic Hughes, senior lecturer in chemistry at Columbia University and director of the K-1 Nuclear Project Center. Studies.
“This is based on the levels of cesium-137 in food, background gamma radiation and the presence of various isotopes in soil and ocean sediments.”
Since 2010, Bikini Atoll has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a reminder of the terrifying power of nuclear weapons and their impact on modern civilization.
Contact our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check out our news page.
Add Comment