On This Day: March 1, 1954 - US tests hydrogen bomb in Bikini

[MenInG]

The US has produced the biggest ever man-made explosion so far in the Pacific archipelago of Bikini, part of the Marshall Islands.
It is believed the hydrogen bomb was up to 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

It was so violent that it overwhelmed the measuring instruments, indicating that the bomb was much more powerful than scientists had anticipated.

The 15 megaton bomb delivered a force far more powerful than expected.

One of the atolls has been totally vaporised, disappearing into a gigantic mushroom cloud that spread at least 100 miles wide and dropping back to the sea in the form of radioactive fall-out.

The Atomic Energy Commission announced this was the first in a series of tests to be carried out in the area.

Natives resettled

Tests first began in Bikini in 1946 after the natives were moved to the island of Rongerik, then to Ujelan a year later and to Kili in 1949.

This is the second H-bomb test in the area.

A 10.4 megaton bomb was exploded on 1 November 1952 at Enewatak, west of Bikini.

It destroyed one island and left a crater 175 feet deep.

It was hundreds of times more powerful than that used over Hiroshima.

Unlike that device which tapped energy by splitting atomic nuclei, the Enewetak weapon forced together nuclei of hydrogen to unleash an even greater destructive force.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/1/newsid_2781000/2781419.stm

 

[MenInG]

To imagine, in those days this is all we worried about!

 

[DeadBall]

Should have tried a more protective clothing approach. I heard that radiation thing is really bad for ones health and body.

 

[Napa]

It destroyed one island and left a crater 175 feet deep.

It was hundreds of times more powerful than that used over Hiroshima.

Still a midget compared to Kuzma's mother (aka the Tsar Bomba)!

 

[indipper]

Still a midget compared to Kuzma's mother (aka the Tsar Bomba)!

Tsar is scary. Yesterday I was measure its radius over Pakistan and found that a single bomb can floor the half of punjab while semi-flooring rest of it.

 

[DeadBall]

Still a midget compared to Kuzma's mother (aka the Tsar Bomba)!

True. This graph actually puts things in perspective

View attachment 79505

 

[KingKhanWC]

Interestingly the Bikini(swimming costume) was named after these islands.

The US as usual had no care for the inhabitants of these islands. Even to this day many are suffering because of these tests, something which the BBC article didn't find important enough to mention.

 

[indipper]

Interestingly the Bikini(swimming costume) was named after these islands.

The US as usual had no care for the inhabitants of these islands. Even to this day many are suffering because of these tests, something which the BBC article didn't find important enough to mention.

To be honest, it was hit and trial back then. No body knew that it can go that big and lithium-7 would convert itself into lithium-6 for bigger reaction. Their own people were stuck in.

And we dont even know where the fallout of Tsar went.