American scientists have found that the radiation background of the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands still exceeds the maximum allowable values. Experts believe that background radiation indicators prevent the re-settlement of Bikini and other nearby islands.
Researchers from Columbia University in New York organized several expeditions to Bikini Island, where they measured the background radiation of water, air, soil, flora and fauna. The results of hundreds of measurements showed that the background radiation in Bikini Atoll is about twice as high as in other places on the planet. In some parts of the island, it is increased 5-10 times.
Bikini nuclear test
The small Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean gained worldwide fame after the nuclear tests carried out by the Americans in the period from 1946 to 1958. In total, during this time, according to various sources, from 23 to 67 atomic and hydrogen bombs were detonated. This has an extremely negative impact on the health of the inhabitants of neighboring atolls and on the ecosystem as a whole.
Bikini Atoll. View from space
Photo: wikimedia.org/public domain
Promotional video:
The most powerful explosion occurred on March 1, 1954. "The force of the explosion was the equivalent of almost a thousand atomic bombs like the one dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, and the hurricane wind created by the nuclear explosion reached an island 250 miles from the test point," Marshall Senator Tomaki Jude described what was happening then.
Judah is a native of Bikini and was a young boy during the trials. Back in 1946, he and the other 166 inhabitants of the island were persuaded by the American military to move to another atoll in the Marshall Islands archipelago. The islanders were convinced that the military had come to do a good deed. The Americans have promised to put this destructive force at the service of man. The inhabitants believed and agreed to voluntarily leave the island.
Meanwhile, residents of other islands in the archipelago were not warned about the tests. After the first explosions, called "Crossroads", the neighboring islands were covered with a layer of radioactive dust 2 cm thick. However, people did not know about the danger, the children played carelessly in the ash. On the same night, residents felt the effects of radiation contamination: hair loss, vomiting, weakness. Only two days later, the US government provided medical assistance to the islanders and evacuated them.
The 1954 hydrogen bomb test in Bikini Atoll had global implications. According to the Hiroshima Peace Institute, the radioactive ash that rose into the atmosphere after the explosion was recorded at 122 meteorological stations around the world for four months. The ash cloud covered almost the entire Pacific Ocean and spread over North America, parts of South, Australia, East Asia and even over Africa.
“The documents show that the nuclear tests in Bikini Atoll have affected the ecology of the entire planet,” said Professor Hiroko Takahashi. She believes that the damage done by the trials is seriously underestimated.
The consequences of nuclear weapons
Scientists have long since figured out that nuclear tests cause enormous harm to the entire planet. The number of nuclear warheads in the world exceeds reasonable limits. Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto estimated that 2,053 nuclear explosions were made worldwide between 1945 and 1998. The artist created an animated map of the trials to visualize the full scale of the disaster.
The first nuclear test was conducted by the United States in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. The explosion of the bomb, dubbed "Trinity", was equivalent to approximately 21 kilotons of TNT. He gave rise to the nuclear age. The Fat Man bomb dropped on August 9, 1945 on the Japanese city of Nagasaki was of the same type.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 was the first and only example of the military use of nuclear weapons in the history of mankind. The consequences of the nuclear attacks were so dire that they shocked both the Japanese government and other countries, including the United States.
The total death toll is believed to have reached 413,000, including those who died from radiation sickness. However, the actual number of victims of the terrible attack is unknown, since in that situation there was no one to count the dead. Later, many researchers will call this act "senseless and merciless cruelty." Discussions about the feasibility of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still under way.
Tsar Bomb tests
The largest thermonuclear charge for the entire time of testing was possessed by the Soviet "Tsar Bomb". It is also the most powerful explosive device in human history. It was blown up in 1961 on Novaya Zemlya. The explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers from the explosion, the radius of the mushroom "head" was 95 kilometers. The shock wave of the explosion was recorded three times by instruments around the globe.
The bomb received the informal name "Kuz'kina's mother", since during its presentation Khrushchev himself was present, who loved to frighten the whole world with this saying. After testing, rumors circulated that the explosion blazed much longer than the estimated time. Soviet scientists were scared of the beginning of an irreversible nuclear reaction that could destroy the Earth. This probability was predicted even by the Dane Niels Bohr.
According to the official version, the explosion was clean enough and did not pose a danger to test participants. However, in fact, a colossal territory was contaminated, and people began to die some time after the explosion. Nuclear bomb tests became a real rehearsal for the end of the world, the apotheosis of the Cold War. Shortly thereafter, the United States and the USSR signed a nuclear test ban treaty, which is still in effect. According to some opinions, a nuclear war in the twentieth century did not happen precisely because of the "Tsar Bomb" tests.
Model "Tsar Bomba" AN602 in the Museum of Nuclear Weapons
Photo: wikimedia.org/public domain
Today, eight countries are considered to have nuclear weapons. The so-called nuclear club includes the United States, Russia, Great Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea. Previously, there were more such countries, but some of them voluntarily renounced the use of nuclear weapons. These include South Africa, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Atomic bombs are weapons for which there is no justification. But today they make money on the tragic facts of history, for example, arrange excursions to the sites of nuclear bomb explosions and atomic disasters. Modern engineers and physicists believe that if the Third World War breaks out and nuclear weapons are used, there will be no winners …