Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

pcbueg71 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 6:43 pm

Would you take this tour?
You can now take tours of the Bikini Atoll.
http://www.bikiniatoll.com/facilities.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini_Atoll

The Bikini Atoll was the location of 23 atmospheric atomic bomb tests from 1946 through 1958.

The Bravo test a H-bomb, in February 1954, was at 15 megatons the most powerful bomb ever detonated by the United States.

rudyumans · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 7:01 pm

I can give you a tour of Bimidi in the Bahamas ( nuclear testing site during WW2) and I can show you the cold war Hawk and Nike launching facilities down here in the Everglades. Might be cheaper

rinder99 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 7:02 pm

Surprised it's still an island.

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 8:05 pm

leave it to a book educated Scientist to come up with this instead of using a little common sense.

After above ground was stopped here is what Science said.

Hey lets do underground testing!

Whoa Brilliant absolutely briliant, ever light an M-80 inside a container full of something liquid or solid? And if so what happens?

Wonder why there are earthquakes? Wonder what all that underground testing has loosened up?

triceratops · Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 7873 Location: The other Nevada

I was on and dove both Majuro and Kwajalein back in the early 80's. Kwajalein was a major missile tracking facility for ICBM tests over the Pacific back then and access was highly restricted. Also, I recall Majuro as being a part of the Western Caroline Islands, not the Marshalls. In 30 years, a lot can change. Never made it over to Bikini (it was still too hot back then so I was told) and I'm probably too old to meet the dive requirements they list now anyway so I guess I'll just have to pass.

pancaketom · Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 211

pcbueg71 · Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:25 am

PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4181 Location: Evolving

It's the rapidly decaying isotopes that are most dangerous. The level of radioactivity will fall exponentially. I don't have any idea much radiation atmospheric tests dumped on the ground in the immediate vicinity and how much was wafted away in the air we breathe.

Here's an interesting article about it
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/12/bikini_atoll_radiologically_safer_than_home/

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:36 am

pcbueg71 · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:50 am

Very doubtful that the nuclear detonation had any effect on the number of earthquakes. The biggest and worst effect was radiation.
When Bravo was detonated, it formed a fireball almost four and a half miles (roughly 7 km) across within a second. This fireball was visible on Kwajalein atoll over 250 miles (450 km) away. The explosion left a crater 6,500 feet (2,000 m) in diameter and 250 feet (75 m) in depth. The mushroom cloud reached a height of 47,000 feet (14 km) and a diameter of 7 miles (11 km) in about a minute; it then reached a height of 130,000 feet (40 km) and 62 miles (100 km) in diameter in less than 10 minutes and was expanding at more than 100 m/s (360 km/h, 224 mph). As a result of the blast, the cloud contaminated more than seven thousand square miles of the surrounding Pacific Ocean including some of the surrounding small islands.

peteklinger · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:22 pm