(Twenty-First Century Books, 88 pp.)
What has been called the world's first nuclear disaster occurred in 1946 during a series of US military bomb tests in the Marshall Islands. One of the 67 bombs detonated over the Pacific Ocean's Bikini and Enewetak Atolls and it had such far-reaching negative effects that the worst-hit area remains nearly deserted. "Bombs Over Bikiini" provides a detailed account of this tragic event and its aftermath.
Here's an excerpt:
鈥淥n launch day, Marshall Holloway waited in the control room aboard the USS Cumberland Sound 15 miles (24 km) from the target site. Holloway was a scientist who had helped develop the world鈥檚 first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. He sat at an electronic control panel whose rows of buttons would control 叠补办别谤鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;firing sequence. At 8;35 a.m., Holloway began pushing the buttons one by one, setting the automatic bomb-firing in motion. After the last button, a radio signal triggered the detonation.
鈥溾�楢 gigantic dome of water, white, beautiful, terror-inspiring, at least a mile (1.6 km) wide, rose nearly a mile in the air,鈥� wrote Philip Porter, reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer 苍别飞蝉辫补辫别谤.鈥�
