Pacific

US takes part in Marshalls' Bravo commemoration

15:00 pm on 28 February 2014

The United States Ambassador to the Marshall islands, Thomas Armbruster, says 60 years since the Bravo nuclear test on Bikini Atoll is a significant anniversary and one the US wants to mark.

The Marshall Islands has been commemorating Nuclear Survivors Remembrance Day in memory of those who suffered the fallout from the blast on the 1st of March 1954.

The 15 megaton bomb yielded a force 1,000 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during the Second World War and caused health and environmental problems around the Marshall Islands.

Mr Armbruster says the anniversary marks many years of co-operation between the United States and the Marshall Islands people who have received about US$600 million in compensation.

"We're certainly thankful for their contribution to global security during those difficult times of the cold war and we've had continuing programmes with them regarding health and environmental monitoring. This is an occasion we very much want to mark."

Mr Armbruster says the US and the Marshall Islanders do not see eye to eye on all the issues but they are trying to work them through.