Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll consisted of the detonation of 23 (or 24) nuclear weapons by the United States between 1946 and 1958 on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Tests occurred at 7 test sites on the reef itself, on the sea, in the air, and underwater. The test weapons produced a combined yield of about 77–78.6 Mt of TNT in explosive power.
Authorities had promised the Bikini Atoll's residents that they would be able to return home after the nuclear tests. A majority of the island's family heads agreed to leave the island, and most of the residents were moved to the Rongerik Atoll and later to Kili Island. Both locations proved unsuitable to sustaining life, and the United States provides residents with on-going aid. Despite the promises made by authorities, these and further nuclear tests (Redwing in 1956 and Hardtack in 1958) rendered Bikini unfit for habitation, contaminating the soil and water, making subsistence farming and fishing too dangerous.
The female population of the Marshall Islands have a sixty times greater cervical cancer mortality than a comparable mainland United States population. The Islands populations also have a five times greater likelihood of breast or gastrointestinal mortality, and lung cancer mortality is three times higher than the mainland population. The male population on the Marshall Islands' lung cancer mortality is four times greater than the overall United States rates, and the oral cancer rates are ten times greater.
I watched a documentary on it some years back, it's fascinating and horrifying how cavalier these tests were.
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