Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll

US nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands Aerial view of the Able test, a 23 kt (96 TJ) device detonated on July 1, 1946 at an altitude of 520 ft (160 m). FH6-FK Hellcat unmanned aircraft are prepared for their flight through mushroom cloud. Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll consisted of the detonation of 23 (or 24) nuclear weapons by the United States between 1946 and 1958 on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Tests occurred at seven test sites on the reef itself, on the sea, in the air, and underwater. The test weapons produced a combined yield of about 77–78.6 Mt of TNT in explosive power. After the inhabitants agreed to a temporary evacuation, to allow nuclear testing on Bikini, which they were told was of great importance to humankind, two nuclear weapons were detonated in 1946. About ten years later, additional tests with thermonuclear weapons in the late 1950s were also conducted. The first thermonuclear explosion was much more powerful than expected, and created a number of issues, but did demonstrate the dangers of such devices. The United States and its allies were engaged in a Cold War nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union to build more advanced bom