Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll consisted of the detonation of 23 nuclear weapons by the United States between 1946 and 1958 on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Tests occurred at seven test sites
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.
Bikini Chief Judah, island magistrate from Rongerik Atoll, with one of his subchiefs, August 1947
LST arrives in March 1946
Operation Crossroads
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Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity on July 16, 1945, and the fir
Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll
…race with the Soviet Union to build more advanced bombs from 1947 until 1991. The first series of tests over Bikini Atoll in July 1946 was codenamed Operation Crossroads. The first bomb, named Able, was dropped from an aircraft and detonated 520 ft (160 m) above the target fleet. The second, Baker, was suspended under…
Prospective Operation Crossroads target ships and support ships at Pearl Harbor on February 27, 1946. Ships from front to rear: USS Crittenden, Catron, Bracken, Burleson, Gilliam, Fallon, unknown ship, Fillmore, Kochab, Luna, and an unidentified tanker and Liberty ship. On the right are LSM-203 and LSM-465. Farther in the background are a floating drydock and a merchant ship hulk.
View of the target fleet for test Able.
Nevada painted in high visibility orange for the atomic tests
The target fleet after test Able. The aircraft carrier Saratoga is right-center with Independence burning at left-center. The battleship Nagato is between them. The ship at left, next to the battleship Pennsylvania, is trying to wash down the radioactivity with water from the lagoon.