The US was engaged in a Cold War nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union to build more advanced bombs from 1947 until 1991. As part of its nuclear weapon testing, the US went to Bikini Atoll, located in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean.
The first series of explosive tests were undertaken in 1946 at the Bikini Atoll region under the code name ‘Operation Crossroads’, and the first test was dropped from 520ft, detonating above its target.
The second test, nicknamed ‘Baker’, forming a huge cloud of explosion as it struck its target ships with devastating effect.
Eight years later in 1954, the second roun of tests were undertaken by US military.
Codenamed ‘Operation Castle’, the tests woul prove yet more monstrous than the previous detonations. The detonation of ‘Castle Bravo’ saw a thermonuclear bomb dropped near Bikini Atoll on March 1 1954.
The explosion was measured at 15 megatons, and created a blast 1000 times more powerful than the deadly Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions of 1945, which ultimately led to Japan’s surrender from World War 2.
The explosion was predicted to reach about four megatons of energy, meaning the scientists involved with the tests were blown away by the sheer force of the weapons they had created.
To make the tests possible the US had requested that reisdents of the area evacuate, and were promised thet they would be able to return home once they were completed.
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But inhabitants on the Marshall Islands were exposed to horrednous radiation, with sme research suggesting that the rise in illness such as cancer is linked to the radiation exposure.
A 2016 investigation found radiation levels on Bikini Atoll to be well above the established safety standard for habitation.
However, Stanford University scientists reported “an abundance of marine life apparently thriving in the crater of Bikini Atoll” in 2017.
Since the tests, Bikini Atoll has become a famous region in popular culture, with films and books based around the decimated nucelar site.