As the Cold War arms race was heating up just after World War Two , Bikini Atoll was showered in 23 nuclear warheads tested over a period of nine years . Scientists from Stanford University have returned to study the event of long - term radiation exposure almost 60 years after the last A - bomb was detonated .
Against all odds , this former nuclear resort area is struggle back and is once again flourishing with corals , crabs , schools of expectant Pisces , and shark .
Bikini Atoll can be retrieve in the Marshall Islands , a chain of volcanic island and coral atoll between Hawaii and Southeast Asia . The atoll ’s coral Witwatersrand , ocean bottom , amniotic fluid , and air space were used by the US for a series of high - issue thermonuclear weapon pattern tests between 1946 and 1954 . One of the big , Castle Bravo , is believe to have the high side effect levels ever attributed to a nuclear mental testing and extend to the evacuation of the surround aboriginal islanders after many quickly developed serious radiation intoxication .
The perseveration of the reef is therefore pretty outstanding and unexpected . The researchers are also desire that the survival of the ecosystem could excuse how these metal money cope with radiation therapy and have managed to not develop Crab . Equally , they trust to investigate whether the area ’s biodiversity has any hidden genetic harm . To check it out , they will be sequence the deoxyribonucleic acid of the local precious coral , then tracing the rule and charge per unit of mutation .
The scientist ' work was lately featured as part of a unexampled PBS TV serial , Big Pacific , about the maritime life of the Pacific Ocean .
" The terrible account of Bikini Atoll is an ironic circumstance for inquiry that might help people live longer , " Stephen Palumbi , the Harold A. Miller Professor of Marine Science at Stanford , said ina statement . “By understanding how corals could have recolonized the radiation - filled bomb craters , maybe we can discover something young about save deoxyribonucleic acid intact . "
However , it would be faulty to assume the effects of the radiation has not been feel . The expedition started with a reputation of a mutant shark . After lurking around the submersed H bomb craters , the research worker think they tracked down a shark with a missing second dorsal fin , perhaps as a result of radiation syndrome - caused sport . Although the ecosystem appear to be bouncing back " on the surface " , the reef is still haunted by its past .
" We should never forget what we did to Bikini Atoll and its people , " Elora López , a biology graduate educatee helping Palumbi , added . " We should learn everything we can from it , even things we would have never have thought of before . "
