Chapter 7, Boom! Summary and Analysis

On November 1, 1952, the United States exploded a hydrogen bomb in the Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific Ocean. No one knew what this bomb would do and it could potentially have ignited all the oxygen, ending life. On March 1, 1954, a bigger bomb was dropped over the Bikini atoll. However, the bomb also came with big problems. Radioactive ash fell on nearby islands, making many people sick and even killing some. Japanese fishing boats that had been caught in the ash unloaded their catch in port, distributing the tainted fish to the population.

Afterward, the United States used Nevada as a test site more frequently, although it continued to use other places as well. By 1958, the average child in the United States carried ten times more strontium than the year before. The tests were moved underground, but sometimes those blasts created...