City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Bombs over Bikini, the world's first nuclear disaster, Connie Goldsmith

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Bombs over Bikini

bibliography

Connie Goldsmith

the world's first nuclear disaster

In 1946, as part of the Cold War arms race, the US military launched a program to test nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. From 1946 until 1958, the military detonated sixty-seven nuclear bombs over the region's Bikini and Enewetak Atolls. The twelfth bomb, called Bravo , became the world's first nuclear disaster. It sent a toxic cloud of radiation over Rongelap Atoll and other nearby inhabited islands. The testing was intended to advance scientific knowledge about nuclear bombs and radiation, but it had much more far-reaching effects. Some of the islanders suffered burns, cancers, birth defects, and other medical tragedies as a result of radiation poisoning. Many of the Marshallese were resettled on other Pacific islands or in the United States. They and their descendants cannot yet return to Bikini, which remains contaminated by radiation

Toxic snowfall -- A good place for a bomb -- Able: the first bomb -- Baker: the water bomb -- Bravo: the big bomb -- Rongelap's radiation refugees -- Bikini's nuclear nomads -- A brighter future?

primary