Christmas Island - post-nuclear paradise

In this week for remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it's only fair to juxtapose a somewhat different viewpoint. Several islands in the South Pacific used for the testing of atomic bombs in the 1950s are now spectacularly beautiful and lush nature preserves, with no visible evidence of the previous destruction, and few reminders of the nuclear explosions. Bikini Atoll and Christmas Island* were discussed in an excellent article at Slate last year. Herewith some excerpts:

Between 1957 and 1962, this former British colony in the equatorial Pacific played involuntary host to 30 nuclear explosions... ranged from a 3,000-kiloton explosion 8,200 feet in the air and far out to sea, to a 24-kiloton "balloon-suspended air burst over land." (For comparison, the bomb dropped at Hiroshima had about a 15-kiloton yield.)

In the intervening decades since the era of nuclear-weapons testing, the natural world has quietly rebounded. Today, Christmas Island, Bikini Atoll and other Cold War proving grounds, like Monte Bello north of Perth, Australia, constitute some of the most ecologically intact corners of the world, emitting not radiation but a peculiar allure; it's atomic tourism with a naturalist spin.

Marine biologists diving at Bikini have returned with glowing reports. Inspecting a mile-wide crater left by a hydrogen bomb that exploded with a force 1,000 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, researchers recently found the lagoon to be 80 percent covered by thriving corals...

This nature-despite-nukes contrast can be seen at other former test sites, such as the waters surrounding Alaska's Amchitka Island where, 40 years ago, the U.S. conducted three underground explosions. The same is true of the desolate dunes of a former French test site in Algeria, and even the scrublands inside the fence at the Nevada Test Site...

Contrary to popular belief, previously bombed geographies are not transformed into lifeless, poisoned landscapes for the next 50,000 years. Hiroshima and Nagasaki look just like every other bustling Japanese city, and crawling around in the grass of a city park there is no different than doing so in Seattle or Milan, Italy, or Auckland, New Zealand, at least as far as radiation hazard is concerned... Radioactive fallout, and the dizzyingly complex study of it, depends on factors such as microclimates, local geography, wind, altitude of detonation, size of the bomb and environmental conditions on the ground like soils, rock type and vegetation...

"When we were looking into this trip, I did consider the weapons," recalls Garry. "I wondered if it might look like a concrete wasteland or something." But after a week spent kayaking in the aquamarine flats, snorkeling among kaleidoscopic reef fish, and then, at the seabird colony, appreciating the chance to spot rare bird species such as the phoenix petrel and red-footed booby, Phillips laughed at his pre-trip preconceptions. "The contrast of it is amazing. I mean, the hydrogen bomb is the most powerful and destructive thing there is, right? Yet out here, this place, and the reefs we saw yesterday -- it's just gorgeous."

Much more at the link. And see also this Sydney Morning Herald article on Bikini Atoll. By posting this, I'm not trying in any way to minimize the human suffering attendant on nuclear weaponry, but it's worth considering these atolls when pondering post-apocalyptic scenarios.

*there are several "Christmas" islands. This is not the Australian one with all the crabs. The one in this link is Kiritimati.