Marine life seems to be extremely resilient to nuclear radiation and the lagoon is now a haven for coral and rare fish. In 1955’s Operation Castle, the largest ever US nuclear test left the island uninhabitable for decades.ħ0 years on, the islands have remarkably begun to recover. The Atomic Energy Commission later described Test BAKER as the world’s first nuclear disaster.ĭespite their promises to the islanders, The US military continued to use Bikini Atoll as a nuclear testing ground for a number of years after the 1946 tests, thwarting their return. Many were either towed ashore and left to decay, or towed to Kwajalein and left to sink. For example, the old Japanese battleship Nagato was so badly contaminated that sailors could only board her for 15 minutes at a time. The warships that didn’t sink were to be decontaminated, boarded and repaired, but after BAKER, most were too radioactive to even approach safely.
It resulted in serious radioactivity and environmental damage. Nine ships in total, including two battleships and an aircraft were all wrecked and sunk in the lagoon. A similar bomb was suspended 90 feet below LSM-60, an old landing ship and detonated at 08:35. Had the bomb exploded over the Nevada as planned, at least nine ships would have been obliterated.Ībout a month later, the Navy tried again. Further investigation in fact showed that the bomber had missed its target by almost 700m. The US Navy was quick to point out the sturdiness of their ships, with Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal telling reporters that capital ships were near invulnerable to any hits above the water. Only five ships were sunk and none of those were the big battleships. It was called Gilda and was nearly identical to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, less than a year before.Īlthough spectacular, the results were disappointing. ”Īt 9 o’clock, July 1st 1946 the first nuclear attack on ships at sea commenced when a bomber called Dave’s Dream dropped a 23kt nuclear weapon on the fleet below. “70 years on, the islands have remarkably begun to recover. So, they packed $450 million worth of target ships with livestock, including goats, cows and Guinea pigs. The Navy also wanted to show the survivability of their sailors to nuclear attack. Taking over the remote atoll at Bikini, the idea was to place a collection of surplus ships and bombard them with two of the Air Force’s new bombs.īrushing aside opposition from the original Manhattan scientists, local inhabitants and animal rights campaigners, local islanders were moved to the nearby island of Kwajalein, with the promise that they’d be able to return in six months. Keen to show that the service was still relevant, they set up the tests to show how modern warships could stand up to the A-bomb.
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The main drivers of the Bikini tests were the US Navy, who were terrified that nuclear weapons would make their fleet obsolete overnight. Both the military and scientific community were keen to understand more about the power of these new weapons. While popular opinion has it that the 1946 nuclear tests were designed to awe the Soviets, it was mainly inter-service rivalry that led to the Bikini tests. These attacks had stunned the military and scientific establishments, being much more powerful than they’d thought. The previous year had seen the US Air Force dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan’s surrender. In 1946 the United States was the world’s only Nuclear power. Before the tests, it was an island paradise. Consisting of 23 separate islands, it surrounds an 8 km deep lagoon and was known for its rich fishing reefs that supported 40 local families. Bikini Atoll is world famous for two things: inspiring the last big innovation in ladies’ swimwear and the wrecks left over from the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests.Īn 11-hour flight from Tokyo and a five-hour flight from Honolulu, Bikini Atoll, the northern most chain in the Marshall Islands is one of the remotest places on earth and therefore an adventure that most divers can’t experience.
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