# Nuclear Waste from The Bikini Islands

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-waste-from-the-bikini-islands/52095>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 28, 2001, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-waste-from-the-bikini-islands/52095 "2001-01-28T06:00:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2001, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-waste-from-the-bikini-islands/52095/1 "2001-01-28T06:00:42Z")

</div>

Okay. I know I’m probably missing _the_ thread which will answer my question but I did a search (I _am_ doing that more often) and didn’t find an answer to this:

Did the US at any time send ships into this string of islands to test the effects of nuclear fallout from weapons that we test-detonated there, and if so, how was it justified to the sailors at the time?

My reason for asking is that a friend of mine had a co-worker who was a sailor on one of these ships, and he recently died of a cancer that ate away most of his nose and other areas of his body. Until he died, the man supposedly claimed that his death was due to being ordered to set sail for these islands.

I also recently read a news item in which a Russian pilot was ordered to fly his Badger bomber through nuclear dust to see what the effects would be on him and his crew.

Please set me straight on any historical inaccuracies I may have unknowingly committed.

Thanks  
Q

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2001, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-waste-from-the-bikini-islands/52095/2 "2001-01-28T07:52:08Z")

</div>

An [abstract](http://lww.com/health_physics/0017-90787-97abs.html#page187) from _Health Physics_ of an article titled “MORTALITY OF VETERAN PARTICIPANTS IN THE CROSSROADS NUCLEAR TEST” says

> [@](#):
>
> All-cause mortality of the participants was slightly increased over nonparticipants by 5% (p \< .001). Smaller increases in participant mortality for all malignancies (1.4%, p = 0.26) or leukemia (2.0%, p = 0.9) were not statistically significant. These results do not support a hypothesis that radiation had increased participant cancer mortality over that of nonparticipants.

The Navy’s FAQs about Operation Crossroads can be seen here: [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq76-1.htm](http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq76-1.htm)