Accession Number:

ADA572278

Title:

CASTLE BRAVO: Fifty Years of Legend and Lore. A Guide to Off-Site Radiation Exposures

Descriptive Note:

Special rept.

Corporate Author:

DEFENSE THREAT REDUCTION INFORMATION ANALYSIS CENTER KIRTLAND AFB NM

Personal Author(s):

• Kunkle, Thomas
• Ristvet, Byron

Report Date:

2013-01-31

Pagination or Media Count:

195.0

Abstract:

This report is a narrative history and guide to primary historical references concerning the CASTLE BRAVO nuclear test of 1 March 1954. Detonated at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, BRAVO was the largest-yield American nuclear explosion. Also, it was the only American nuclear test to result in prompt harm to civilian populations. Radioactive fallout arrived within hours on several nearby populated islands, necessitating emergency evacuations of Rongerik, Rongelap, and Utirik atolls, and resulting in radiation overexposures to approximately 665 island residents. This report focuses on the circumstances that resulted in radioactive contamination of the inhabited atolls. No attempt is made to address, in any detail, the larger issue of the effects of BRAVO on and around the shot site at Bikini Atoll.

Descriptors:

• *MILITARY HISTORY
• *NUCLEAR EXPLOSION TESTING
• BIKINI ATOLL
• CIVILIAN POPULATION
• EVACUATION
• EXPOSURE(PHYSIOLOGY)
• FALLOUT
• HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
• MARSHALL ISLANDS
• MEDICAL RESEARCH
• NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
• PANEL(COMMITTEE)
• RADIATION
• RADIATION HAZARDS
• RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION
• SAMPLING
• SOILS
• WATER
• WEATHER
• WIND

Subject Categories:

• Nuclear Weapons
• Radiation Pollution and Control

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE