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A Nuclear Model

January 24, 2018

WHOI scientist Allyn Vine created this model of the Bikini Islands in the Pacific Ocean in 1946 to explore how radioactivity from an underwater explosion from a U.S. nuclear weapons test might spread through the archipelago’s lagoon. The target area is the black spot at right. WHOI scientists studied the impact of the nuclear tests on the ocean, examining how ocean circulation moved radioactive materials and how waves generated by the blasts reached nearby islands. In 2015, WHOI scientists Ken Buesseler and Matt Charette returned to Bikini Atoll to study the sources, flow, and extent of radioactive contaminants nearly 70 years after the nuclear test. (Image courtesy of WHOI Archives)