Bikini resettlement and second removal, 1968 to 1978

In April of 1978, medical examinations performed by U.S. physicians revealed radiation levels in many of the now 139 people on Bikini to be well above the U.S. maximum permissible level.

The Interior Department then announced plans to move the people from Bikini “within 75 to 90 days,” and so in September of 1978, Trust Territory officials arrived on Bikini to once again evacuate the people who were living on the atoll.

In 1967, U.S. government agencies began considering the possibility of returning the Bikinian people to their homelands

There’s virtually no radiation left and we can find no discernible effect on either plant or animal life

The population of islanders on Bikini slowly increased over the years until in June of 1975, during regular monitoring of Bikini, radiological tests discovered

In October of 1975, after the contemplation of these new, terrifying and confusing reports on the radiological condition of their atoll, the Bikinians filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court demanding that a complete scientific survey of Bikini and the northern Marshalls be conducted.