coral island in the Ralik chain of the Marshall Islands, west-central Pacific Ocean. It is about 230 acres (93 hectares) in area. Islanders from Bikini, site of U.S. atomic-bomb tests, were moved to Kili in 1949. Some of the Bikinians who returned to Bikini in the mid-1970s had to return to Kili in 1978, as their home atoll remained too contaminated by nuclear waste for habitation. Coconuts are grown on the island, and there is a cold-storage facility for fish and a modern port complex. Pop. (1980) 489.