Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll Pikinni Atoll
Bikini Atoll, with Bikini Island boxed in the northeast. The crater formed by the Castle Bravo nuclear test can be seen on the northwest cape of the atoll.
Flag
Map of the Marshall Islands show Bikini
Coordinates:
Country	Republic of the Marshall Islands
Area
- Land	2.3 sq mi (6 km²)
Population
- Total	uninhabited

Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an atoll in one of the Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands. It consists of 36 islands surrounding a 229.4-square-mile (594.1 km²) lagoon. As part of the Pacific Proving Grounds it was the site of more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958.

The navigator and explorer Otto von Kotzebue named Bikini Atoll Eschscholtz Atoll after the scientist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz.

Preceding the nuclear tests, the indigenous population was relocated to Rongerik Atoll, though during the Castle Bravo shot in particular some members of the population were exposed to nuclear fallout (see Project 4.1 for a discussion of the health effects).

For examination of the fallout, several rockets of the types Loki and Asp were launched at .

Bikini Atoll

Bikini Island is the northeastern most and largest island of Bikini Atoll. It is the best-known and most important island of the atoll, and measures about four kilometres. About twelve kilometres to the northwest is Aomen, the first island in that direction, and to the south of Bikini is Bukonfuaaku.

Bikini Island is well-known for being the subject of nuclear bomb tests, and because the bikini swimsuit was named after the island in 1946. The two piece swimsuit was introduced within days of the first nuclear test on the atoll, and the name of the island was in the news.^[1] Introduced just weeks after the one-piece "Atome" was widely advertised as the "smallest bathing suit in the world", it was said that the bikini "split the atome".^[2]

Between 1946 and 1958, twenty-three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll. The March 1st, 1954 detonation codenamed Castle Bravo, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. The largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States, it was much more powerful than predicted, and created widespread radioactive contamination.^[3] Among those contaminated were the 23 crewmembers of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5. The ensuing scandal in Japan was enormous, and ended up inspiring the 1954 film Godzilla, in which the 1954 U.S. nuclear test awakens and mutates the monster, who then attacks Japan before finally being vanquished by Japanese ingenuity.

The Micronesian inhabitants, who numbered about 200 before the United States relocated them after World War II, ate fish, shellfish, bananas, and coconuts. A large majority of the Bikinians were moved to a single island named Kili as part of their temporary homestead, but remain until today and receive compensation from the United States for their survival.^[4]

In 1968 the United States declared Bikini habitable and started bringing a small group of Bikinians back to their homes in the early 1970s as a test. In 1978, however, the islanders were removed again when strontium-90 in their bodies reached dangerous levels after a French team of scientists did additional tests on the island.^[5] It was not uncommon for women to experience faulty pregnancies, miscarriages, stillbirths and damage to their offspring as a result of the nuclear testing on Bikini.^[6] The United States provided $150 million as a settlement for damages caused by the nuclear testing program.^[7]

The clean-up operation scraped off the top 16 inches (410 mm) of soil from the main island of Bikini, generating a million cubic feet of radioactive soil that could not be disposed of, at a cost that far exceeded the compensation award.

Bikini Lagoon

Operation Crossroads Event Baker explosion

Prior to the explosion of the first atomic bomb on the island, the lagoon at Bikini was designated as a ship graveyard during World War II by the US. Today the Bikini Lagoon is still home to a large number of vessels from the United States and other countries. The dangers of the radioactivity and limited services in the area led to divers staying away from one of the most remarkable potential diving sites in the Pacific for many years. Today a limited number of divers head for the lagoon at Bikini every year for an extensive tour of World War II naval vessels. The dive spot has become popular among divers in the last 10 years. However, oil prices have severely curtailed diving operations to the point of being suspended for much of 2008 and 2009. The lagoon contains a larger amount of sea life than usual due to the lack of fishing, including sharks, increasing the fascination with the spot as a diver's adventure spot.

Cross Spikes Club

The Cross Spikes Club, painted by Navy painter Arthur Beaumont.^[8]

The Cross Spikes Club was an improvised bar and hangout created by servicemen on Bikini Island between June and September 1946 during the preparation for Operation Crossroads. The "club" was little more than a small open air building that served alcohol to servicemen, and outdoor entertainment including a ping pong table.^[9] The Cross Spikes Club has been described as "the only bright spot" in the Operation Crossroads experience. The club, like all military facilities on the island, was abandoned or dismantled following the completion of Operation Crossroads.

The Island Today

The special IAEA Bikini Advisory Group determined in 1997^[10] that "It is safe to walk on all of the islands ... although the residual radioactivity on islands in Bikini Atoll is still higher than on other atolls in the Marshall islands, it is not hazardous to health at the levels measured ... The main radiation risk would be from the food: eating locally grown produce, such as fruit, could add significant radioactivity to the body...Eating coconuts or breadfruit from Bikini Island occasionally would be no cause for concern. But eating many over a long period of time without having taken remedial measures might result in radiation doses higher than internationally agreed safety levels."

It is because of these food risks that the group eventually did not recommend fully resettling the island.

Etymology

Bikini comes from Marshallese "Pik" meaning "surface" and "Ni" meaning "coconut", "Bikini" is a derivation thereof.

Popular Culture References

The fictional town of Bikini Bottom in the animated series SpongeBob Squarepants is said to be below the atoll.

See also

• Bikini (a type of swimsuit named after the island)
• Flag of Bikini Atoll
• Operation Crossroads
• Operation Ivy
• Operation Castle
• Operation Castle Bravo
• Daigo Fukuryu Maru

Shipwrecks

• USS Saratoga (CV-3)
• USS Apogon (SS-308)
• USS Arkansas (BB-33)
• USS Lamson (DD-367)
• Japanese battleship Nagato

References

Bibliography

• Wiesgall, Jonathan M, Operation Crossroads: Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll, Naval Institute Press (21 April 1994), ISBN 1557509190

External links

• A Short History of the People of Bikini Atoll
  • What About Radiation on Bikini Atoll?
• Department of Energy Marshall Islands Program : Chronology of nuclear testing, relocation of islanders and results of radiation tests.
• Annotated bibliography for Bikini Atoll from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Marshall Islands Ratak Chain (Sunrise, Eastern) Bokak (Taongi) • Bikar • Utirik • Toke • Mejit • Ailuk • Jemo • Likiep • Wotje • Erikub • Maloelap • Aur • Majuro • Arno • Mili • Knox (Nadikdik) Ralik Chain (Sunset, Western) Enewetak • Ujelang • Bikini • Rongerik • Rongelap • Ailinginae • Wotho • Ujae • Lae • Kwajalein • Lib • Namu • Jabat • Ailinglaplap • Jaluit • Kili • Namorik • Ebon