![]() ![]() The objective of this paper, with the support of the views and the recollections of elder Bikinians, is to recount the history and discuss issues facing the first displaced people of the nuclear age. ![]() Now, a radiological cleanup of Bikini is expected to begin sometime within 1997. For the community and their leaders, grappling with these technical decisions has created a life of strife, debate and conflict-and an uncertain future. Since then the leaders of the people of Bikini residing on Kili Island and Majuro Atoll have been confronted with the immense responsibility of determining how to clean their atoll while at the same time maintaining the health and welfare of their displaced population. Although the claim was dismissed, eventually a $90 million trust fund was established for their local government. government for damages arising out of the nuclear testing program. In the early 1980's, the Bikinians filed a class action lawsuit against the U.S. In 1978, the people residing on Bikini were moved again, this time to a small island in Majuro Atoll. It is 694 km2 with a perimeter of 122 km. Department of Energy that in the span of only one year, some of the returned islanders were showing a 75% increase in their body burdens of 137Cs. Bikini Atoll lies in the northern Marshall Islands in the central Pacific. In 1978, however, it was discovered by the U.S. Johnson, on recommendations from the Atomic Energy Commission, declared Bikini Atoll safe for habitation. One attempt was made to resettle Bikini in the late 1960's when President Lyndon B. ![]() Because of the residual radioactive contamination from the nuclear testing, the majority of the Bikinian population still resides on Kili today. Thus for six months of the year, fishing and sailing become futile endeavors. Located 425 miles south of Bikini, Kili Island is without a sheltered lagoon. Numerous hardships have been faced there, not the least of which was the loss of skills required for self-sustenance. A permanent return to the atoll by a multi-generational community would risk serious health effects unless sources of remaining radiological contamination in Bikini’s fruit, soil, and lagoon are addressed and removed, according to our research at Columbia University’s K1 Project, Center for Nuclear Studies. The Bikini Atoll is an uninhabited atoll in. But it’s not as simple as saying: Let’s move the Bikinians back. In 1948, they were finally relocated to Kili, a small, isolated, 200-acre island owned by the U.S. The Bikini Atoll The Bikini Atoll is an uninhabited atoll in one of the Micronesian Island in the Pacific Ocean. The subsequent half-century exodus of the Bikini people included a 2-y stay on Rongerik Atoll, where near starvation resulted, and a 6-mo sojourn on Kwajalein Atoll, where they lived in tents beside a runway used by the U.S. The people of Bikini Atoll were moved from their homeland in 1946 to make way for the testing of 23 nuclear weapons by the United States government, beginning with the world's fourth atomic detonation. ![]()
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