Bikini Atoll - Uninhabitable: Radiation exceeds safety standards - 60 years after nuclear tests - Ma
Bikini Atoll was site of twenty-three nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958
New readings found that other atolls where tests took place are now safe
But, Bikini Atoll radiation readings exceed the minimum accepted levels
By CHEYENNE MACDONALD for DAILYMAIL.COM - 7 June 2016
Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear explosive tests at the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Now, researchers from Columbia University have tested the area for harmful radiation to determine that the islands can now be considered habitable – all but Bikini Atoll.
Bikini Atoll was the site of twenty-three tests during the twelve year period, including the devastating detonation of a hydrogen bomb on March 1, 1954.
Bikini Atoll, pictured left, was the site of twenty-three tests during the twelve year period, including the devastating detonation of a hydrogen bomb on March 1, 1954.
The 'Baker test' of July 25, 1946 detonated a weapon suspended beneath the moored target fleet at Bikini, shown right.
At the time of the tests, inhabitants of the islands were moved to other locations.
Though many of the displaced residents and their descendants wish to return to their homes, there have been no surveys of gamma radiation over the past several decades, leaving it unclear if the islands are safe to live upon.
In new efforts to update this information, researchers flew to Marshall Islands and conducted gamma ray emission surveys on three of the most severely impacted atolls – Enewetak, Rongelap, and Bikini.
They compared the findings with readings from Majuro Atoll, an island far enough away to be used as a control.
This location showed 13 millirems of radiation per year (mrem/y).
The readings were further compared with readings from Central Park in New York, which showed just 9 mrem/y.
THE BIKINI ATOLL H-BOMB
Photo: On March 1, 1954, scientists conducted a hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll.
Code-named Castle Bravo, the size of the event expectations, leading to radioactive fallout.
This travelled to the nearby inhabited atolls of Rongelap and Utrik, and led to the evacuation of 253 people from the two islands for medical care.
While some returned to Utrik just a few months later, the inhabitants of Rongelap did not return until 1957, and they later chose to leave again.
For both Enewetak Atoll and Rongelap, the researchers found readings that fall within the safe zone, with 7.6 mrem/y and 19.8 mrem/y, respectively.
But for Bikini Atoll, the radiation was much higher; the atoll showed a reading of 184 mrem/y.
Though not considered to be terribly dangerous, this is higher than the minimum accepted levels agreed upon by the U.S. and Marshall Islands governments.
The researchers say that further studies will be necessary to determine the habitability of Bikini Atoll before, with consideration to exposure from food and other factors, before talks of living on the island can take place.
In April, newly declassified photos revealed a glimpse at the 1946 atomic weapon test conducted on a hundred US ships at Bikini Atoll.
One of these was the World War II veteran aircraft carrier USS Independence (Photo). The two Bikini tests known as Operation Crossroads were carried out in the immediate aftermath of the atomic end to World War II in Japan, and signalled a new era in world history, historians involved in the study say.
The Journal of Maritime Archaeology gave over an entire issue to the collection of documents and photographs from the tests.
This era was grimly summarized in a then-classified report on the Bikini tests, which suggested that, with the coming of the 'Bomb,' it was possible to depopulate the earth, leaving only 'vestigial remnants of man's works.'
The explosion took place at the Bikini Atoll lagoon, situated in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Test Able was to be the first of a series of 67 tests in the atoll and the second U.S. nuclear test of over a thousand to follow.
The explosion of the fission bomb, largely identical to the weapon used in the attack on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, occurred 158 metres above sea level and had a yield of 23kilotons.
The main aim was to test the effects of nuclear weapons on ships.
To that end, a fleet of 78 vessels, many of which had been captured during World War II, was anchored in the lagoon.
The blast sunk only five of them, leaving another 14 seriously damaged.
The wreck of the USS Independence lies nearly 30 miles off the central California coast.
Photo: The 'Able Test' of July 1, 1946, dropped a plutonium core 'Fat Man' weapon on the target fleet moored at Bikini
UNCOVERING THE RADIOACTIVE PAST OF THE USS INDEPENDENCE
The USS Independence was rediscovered by a team of researchers led by James Delgado from the Maritime Heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in April.
It was found in 2,600 feet (792 metres) underwater off the coast of California's Farallon Islands and is said to be 'amazingly intact,' with its hull and flight deck clearly visible, and what appears to be a plane in the carrier's hangar bay.
To study the wreckage, the team of scientists and technicians on board the sanctuary vessel R/V Fulmar, used an 18.5-foot-long (5.6 metres) autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) called Echo Ranger from The Boeing Company.
This survey showed that the Independence is upright, slightly listing to starboard, with much of its flight deck intact, and with holes leading to the hangar decks that once housed the carrier's aircraft.
USS Independence (CVL 22) operated in the central and western Pacific from November 1943 until August 1945.
It was part of the carrier group that took part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and was assigned to strike duties against targets in the Philippines and Japan.
It was later one of more than 90 vessels assembled as a target fleet for the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests in 1946.
During these tests it was damaged by shock waves, heat and radiation, but it survived and was returned to the United States.
After being transported back to Pearl Harbor and San Francisco for study, the vessel was later sunk near the Farallon Islands on 26 January 1951 loaded with 55-gallon drums of low-level radioactive waste.
'After 64 years on the seafloor, Independence sits on the bottom as if ready to launch its planes,' said Mr Delgado, chief scientist on the Independence mission and maritime heritage director for NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
'This ship fought a long, hard war in the Pacific and after the war was subjected to two atomic blasts that ripped through the ship. It is a reminder of the industrial might and skill of the 'greatest generation' that sent not only this ship, but their loved ones to war.'
The carrier is one of an estimated 300 wrecks in the waters off San Francisco, and the deepest known shipwreck in the sanctuary.
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