<P> The United States provided $150 million in compensation for damage caused by the nuclear testing program and their displacement from their home island . </P> <P> By 2001, of the original 167 residents who were relocated, 70 were still alive, and the entire population has grown to 2800 . Most of the islanders and their descendants live on Kili, in Majuro, or in the United States . The opportunity for some Bikini islanders to potentially relocate back to their home island creates a dilemma . Only a few living islanders were born there . Most of the younger generation have never lived there or even visited and do not have a desire to return . Unemployment in the Marshall Islands was as of 2013 at about 40 percent . The population is growing at a four percent growth rate, so increasing numbers are taking advantage of terms in the Marshall Islands' Compact of Free Association that allow them to obtain jobs in the United States . </P> <P> A 2017 study led by Steve Palumbi, a Stanford University professor of marine sciences, reported ocean life that seems highly resilient to the effects of radiation poisoning . The team described substantial diversity in the marine ecosystem, with animals appearing healthy to the naked eye, and according to Palumbi, the atoll's "lagoon is full of schools of fish all swirling around the living coral . In a strange way they are protected by the history of this place, the fish populations are better than in some other places because they have been left alone, the sharks are more abundant and the coral are big . It is a remarkable environment, quite odd ." Both corals and long - lived animals such as coconut crabs should be vulnerable to radiation - induced cancers, and understanding how they have thrived in might lead to discoveries about preserving DNA--making Bikini Atoll, according to Pambuli, "an ironic setting for research that might help people live longer" by improving the scientific understanding of cancer . PBS documented field work undertaken by Palumbi and his graduate student Elora López on Bikini Atoll for the second episode ("Violent") of their series Big Pacific . The episode explored "species, natural phenomena and behaviors of the Pacific Ocean" and the way the team is using DNA sequencing to study the rate and pattern of any mutations . López suggested possible explanations for the health of the marine life to The Stanford Daily, such as a mechanism for DNA repair which is superior to that possessed by humans, or a method of maintaining a genome in the face of nuclear radiation . </P> <P> The area has become, in effect, something of an unplanned sanctuary--as has also occurred in Europe in the Chernobyl exclusion zone--where the effects of radiation on animal life is being tested . Making an observation similar to that following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, where serious animal deformities and mutations were abundant only in the immediate aftermath, Palumbi suggested that, as "fish have relatively short life - spans, it is possible the worst - affected fish died off many decades ago...and the fish living in Bikini Atoll today are only subject to low - levels of radiation exposure as they frequently swim in and out of the atoll ." Nurse sharks have two dorsal fins but possibly - mutated individuals with only a single fin were observed . Pambuli and his team have focussed on the hubcap - sized crabs as their coconut diet is contaminated with radioactive caesium - 137 from groundwater and on the corals because both have longer life - spans that allow the scientists "to delve into what effect the radiation exposure has had on the animals' DNA after building up in their systems for many years ." </P>

Who was india president when it's nuclear tests were conducted