Bikini's Bomb

exiles return

Talking of nuclear tests in the Pacific, the former residents of Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, are to be returned to Bikini after 22 years of exile on Kili, another Marshall atoll.

The 150 Marshallese (now numbering about 300) were removed by the United States in 1946 so that 20 nuclear tests could be conducted on the atoll.

The last of these tests was in 1958 and the atoll is now safe enough for the Bikini Islanders to return home.

Over the next two years, they will be completely resettled on the atoll, and a new community centre will be built for them.