Bikini Atoll (U.S. Pacific Proving Grounds)

Bikini Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, was the site of over 20 nuclear weapons tests (including the first of the hydrogen bomb), along with the rest of the U.S. Pacific Proving Grounds.

See Wikipedia for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini_atoll

I bet that noone goes near this place, it must be full of radiation. And it looks so beautiful too.

Before the initial nuclear testing in 1946, the 167 Bikinians living on Bikini Island were evacuated to neighbouring islands.

By the time nuclear-weapon testing in the Marshall Islands was terminated in July 1958, sixteen nuclear-weapon tests had been conducted on Bikini Atoll over a 12-year period. All of these tests were surface or atmospheric tests. They were conducted in or over the Atoll lagoon, thereby dispersing the explosion’s effects over all of the islands of the Atoll.

The history of the radiological assessments and the movement of the local population is very important in understanding the overall concerns. In August 1968 — following a number of radiological surveys that had been carried out since 1958 to assess the impact of the US programme of nuclear-weapon testing — it was announced that Bikini Atoll was safe for habitation and approved for resettlement. A further radiological survey of Bikini Atoll was carried out in 1970.

Eventually, 139 Bikinians resettled on the Atoll. However, the Bikinian people remained unconvinced of the safety of the Atoll, and in 1975 they initiated a lawsuit against the US Government to terminate the resettlement effort until a satisfactory and comprehensive radiological survey had been carried out.

Source - http://www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/bikini-atoll.htm