Islanders from three US nuclear test-affected atolls are filing lawsuits in US courts seeking more than US$1 billion compensation. Bikini Atoll will file a claim during March, 60 years after the US Navy removed their population to start the first post-World War II nuclear tests. Twenty-three nuclear tests were carried out at Bikini, including the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb the largest US weapon ever tested. Enewetak Atoll is also preparing court action, along with Rongelap Atoll, which was engulfed in radioactive fallout after a nuclear accident.
From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
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