Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll

A series of U.S. nuclear weapons tests conducted at Bikini Atoll from 1946 to 1958. The tests displaced residents and contaminated the atoll and surrounding environment.

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Operation Crossroads: A 1946 U.S. nuclear test series at Bikini Atoll that examined the effects of atomic bombs on naval ships. Its Able and Baker shots began the atoll’s test program.
Bikini Islanders: The Marshallese community whose homeland is Bikini Atoll, from which residents were relocated for U.S. nuclear testing. Their displacement began before the tests and shaped the program’s human consequences.
Nuclear weapon: A weapon that releases destructive energy through nuclear fission, fusion, or both. The Bikini program tested both fission weapons and increasingly powerful thermonuclear designs.
United States nuclear weapons program: The U.S. government’s development, testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons. Bikini became one of the program’s major proving grounds after World War II.
Bikini Atoll radiation: Residual radiation at Bikini Atoll resulting from U.S. nuclear weapons tests conducted there. Measurements and safety assessments inform whether people can live on the atoll.
Operation Castle: A 1954 U.S. thermonuclear test series in the Marshall Islands, including the Castle Bravo detonation. Its tests at Bikini produced the largest U.S. nuclear explosion.
Radioactive fallout: Radioactive particles and debris carried through the atmosphere after a nuclear explosion. Fallout from tests, especially Castle Bravo, contaminated inhabited islands and ocean areas.
Thermonuclear weapon: A nuclear weapon that uses fusion reactions, typically initiated by energy from a fission explosion. Castle-series tests at Bikini demonstrated the explosive power of thermonuclear designs.
World War II: A global war fought from 1939 to 1945, ending after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war’s end placed atomic weapons at the center of U.S. military planning.
Bikini Atoll cleanup: Efforts to reduce radioactive contamination and other hazards at Bikini Atoll after nuclear testing. Cleanup has not resolved the practical and political conditions for permanent resettlement.