March 1: #MoronDay
#JamesHarveyRobinson on moron as "a person who doesn't think."
> It was so violent that it overwhelmed the measuring instruments, indicating that the bomb was much more powerful than scientists had anticipated...The #AtomicEnergyCommission announced this was the first in a series of tests to be carried out in the area... the #Enewetak weapon forced together nuclei of hydrogen to unleash an even greater destructive force.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/1/newsid_2781000/2781419.stm
#NoNukes #MarshallIslands

"US military atomic cleanup crews were sent out in the wake of American nuclear testing, and many paid a heavy price, veterans say"

Business Insider: https://shrtm.nu/nAsE

"Ken Brownell, who was a carpenter when he served in the military in the late 1970s, was sent to the Marshall Islands in 1977 to build a base camp for hundreds of soldiers assigned to cleanup operations. These cleanup efforts involved a concrete dome that was built on #Runit Island, one of 40 islands that make up #Enewetak Atoll, which was used to deposit soil and debris contaminated by radiation.

The goal, Brownell said, was supposedly to make the area habitable again for the Marshallese people after all the #nuclear testing that happened during the US occupation.

But despite the US military's efforts to clean up the islands, Brownell said there was one, massive problem — it just couldn't be done"

@nuclearhumanities @sts @histodons #RMI #coldwar #EnvHist