Within seconds, a mushroom cloud towered 4½ miles high over Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. “Within hours, the atoll was covered with a fine, white, powder-like substance,” the Marshall Islands health minister would later testify, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation. From 1946 to 1958, 67 U.S. nuclear tests pulverized the tranquil reefs and islands of the central Pacific. That was the message reiterated by U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on a recent tour of Pacific islands to discuss climate change. In 1983, the Marshall Islands signed a compact of free association with the United States, granting the island nation the right to govern itself.

Source: Washington Post May 20, 2019 11:04 UTC