Nuclear waste dumped throughout the republic, along with thousands of above-ground nuclear tests and accidents, had killed millions of persons over thirty years.
And, by the way, did she know that the radiation level at the time of the above-ground nuclear-weapons tests in the 1960s was said to have been higher than now.
NTS also performed "piggyback" testing of effects of nuclear detonation during the above-ground tests.
Other sources of plutonium in the environment are fallout from numerous above-ground nuclear tests (now banned).
Thousands of sheep died in 1953 in Nevada and Utah after an above-ground nuclear test.
The Johnston Atoll area was used during the 1950s and 1960s as an American nuclear weapons test site-for both above-ground and underground nuclear tests.
As compared with an above-ground test, the radioactive debris released to the atmosphere was reduced by a factor of ten.
The first nuclear detonation was an above-ground test, "Trinity", conducted in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.
A year later the U.S. signed a Limited Test Ban Treaty barring above-ground tests.
The protests are larger now even than in the 1960's and 1970's, when France carried out dozens of above-ground nuclear tests in the South Pacific.