BIKINI ATOLL - FROM NUKES TO GHOST ISLAND

The site of US nuclear explosion tests.
A piece of paradise was nuked into a radioactive, toxic hell.

The birthplace of Godzilla, where hazmat suits were once more appropriate than bikinis.

 

Bikini Atoll is a Micronesian Island chain located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and is what should be a heavenly place on Earth. However, its residents were forcibly relocated when the United States took possession of the islands in 1946, and over the next 12 years, the U.S. sent 23 nuclear bombs raining down on this slice of paradise, rendering it uninhabitable to this day.

 

Under the clear lagoon, the bones of many Navy vessels and ships lay, designated as a marine graveyard before the blasts. 

 

 In 1968, the US prematurely deemed the islands safe, and let residents return to their homes and rebuild their towns. The radiation levels and related chemical strains rose to dangerously unhealthy levels in their bloodstreams, and they had to be removed yet again. 

Read more and see picture gallery - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bikini-atoll

Bikini Atoll website - http://www.bikiniatoll.com/

Radioactivity and Rights - Bikini Atoll - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446783/


Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/bikini-atoll-from-nukes-to-ghost-island.html

 

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