Marshall Islands; It is a group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea. It includes 31 round island groups, 5 islands and 1152 islets. The most important member of this group of islands is Bikini Atoll. Bikini Atoll is part of the Marshall Islands and there have been many nuclear weapons tests throughout history. For this reason, the atoll has become one of the most radioactive landmasses in the world. The highest radiation level is still encountered around Bikini Atoll, which is considered one of the most polluted places by the scientific world. On the islands, activities such as settlement and tourism are limited due to the presence of radioactive materials.
Majuro Atoll, the largest of the Marshall Islands, is the archipelago’s administrative center and also the most populous of the islands. Most of the Marshall Islands State’s population consists of the indigenous Marshallese people. The history of the Marshall Islands dates back to the 2nd millennium BC, when the Polynesians discovered the islands. Later the islands came under Spanish, German and American rule. These islands form the present-day Republic of the Marshall Islands and the local government functions as its own country. The Marshall Islands were used by the United States for peacetime nuclear bomb tests between 1946 and 1958. Many of these trials were carried out in secret. For this reason, the Marshall Islands were considered ideal for nuclear tests.
The Marshall Islands is a country of 29 low-lying coral atolls, some of which are expected to be submerged by 2035. Therefore, the island people will have to migrate again. Due to the low altitude of the islands, global warming and sea level rise, the increase in water level will cause some of the islands to be submerged. This will be a serious problem for the islanders and therefore solutions continue to be sought.
Using the Islands for Nuclear Testing
The relatively sparse population of the Marshall Islands and the secluded nature of the island helped conceal nuclear bomb tests. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States tested a total of 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands. These trials left radioactive fallout on the island, endangering the health of the local population and forcing many to relocate. These trials changed the history and destiny of the Marshall Islands. It has been years since the United States tested radioactive weapons in the Marshall Islands, but it is known that Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the Pacific Ocean are still more radioactive than Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Nuclear bombs were considered a new weapon in the 1940s, and scientists were unsure of the consequences of the explosion. They expected the explosion to produce intense waves of light, heat, and pressure, but they didn’t worry about radioactivity. At that time, concepts such as radioactivity and nuclear fallout were still very new and had not been adequately researched. For this reason, side effects such as radioactivity were not considered during the nuclear bomb tests.
Bombs Dropped on the Marshall Islands
In 1945, Japan’s Atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and World War II ended. After this event, the USA decided to test more radioactive weapons. Some of these trials were conducted in the Marshall Islands. For example, the first two bombs, Able and Baker, were tested at Bikini Atoll in 1946.
The “Castle Bravo” bomb dropped on Bikini Island in 1954 is a thousand times more powerful than the bombs dropped during the Second World War. It was the largest US nuclear bomb ever detonated. However, as the wind direction changed during the Castle Bravo eruption and scientists underestimated the strength of the eruption, the radioactive fallout was carried not to the open ocean but to coral reefs, islands, and inhabited areas. Therefore, the islanders had to live in this fallout area until they were evacuated.
In 1977, more than a decade after the United States government completed its tests in the Marshall Islands, it began cleaning up radioactive waste. In particular, about 73,000 cubic meters of radioactive soil was buried on top of a huge crater created by dozens of nuclear explosions on Runit Island. Over this nuclear waste, the USA built a thick concrete cover as a temporary containment. However, this cap is still in temporary use and no permanent work has yet been done. How to preserve these nuclear wastes in the long term still remains an issue. Today, it is said that this cover has started to crack due to the temperatures and poses a danger.
