After the developments of the Cold War, the proliferation of nuclear weapons has had a profound effect on the way in which we enact foreign policy, and evaluate global balances of power. Apart from the direct damage that these weapons demonstrated for the first and only times in Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II, the effects of the weapons testing following these events themselves are matters of concern. Although the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1996 stopped testing by 2013, we still see the far-reaching impacts today.
The effect of nuclear testing on the environment is significant in itself. According to the Arms Control Association:
" Most of the test sites are in the lands of indigenous peoples and far from the capitals of the testing governments. A large number of the early tests—528—were detonated in the atmosphere, which spread radioactive materials through the atmosphere. Many underground nuclear blasts have also vented radioactive material into the atmosphere and left radioactive contamination in the soil."
According to a 2014 study, these tests directly contribute to global warming, due to the release of a variant of Carbon 14, which oxidizes and is difficult to remove, due to its incredibly long half life. As far as marine regions are concerned, a lot of the aforementioned Carbon 14 makes its way into the larger carbon sinks of the ocean, accompanied by Strontium 90 and Cesium 137. As a result, rainfall on terrestrial crop operations contains amounts of these isotopes, and results in genetic alterations in plants, resulting in a threat to local population health through the food chain. In Russia, the country with the highest number of nuclear warheads in the world, the ex-Soviet region of Semipalatinsk is the most heavily contaminated of test sites, with the doses of ionizing radiation reaching 10 mSv (millisieverts, units of ionizing radiation), as compared to the 2.4 mSv exposure to worldwide citizens annually. The IAEA estimates that once a permanent civilization is built there, the annual exposure for those citizens would be 140 mSv. Till date, it has tested 715 nuclear weapons, of which 219 have been atmospheric, or above-ground, and 496 underground. We see the influence of these tests near Novaya Zemlya, where the infamous Tsar Bomb test was detonated. It carried the equivalent of 58 million tonnes of TNT, or the amount of explosives used in WWII, multiplied by 10. This is the largest explosion to have occured from a man-made bomb in history. Its detonation 2 miles above the ground caused the global dispersion of radioactive material, after its penetration of the cloud layer into the stratosphere, resulting in the marine pollution as earlier described. In China, the Lop Nur region in the western side was a major nuclear test site, where 23 tests took place, contaminating the Xianjiang province, along with Eastern Kazakhstan. As far as India and Pakistan, their nuclear tests have been 3 and 2 respectively, so no substantial environmental impact has been found as a result of their testing. However, the UK, which has tested 45 total, resulted in the widespread pollution in Australia of Maralinga, Emu Field, and Montebello. French nuclear testing of 210 weapons primarily in the Polynesian islands and Algeria led to widespread pollution of the marine environments and desert regions respectively, with disproportionate effects to the local population, an idea that we will explore shortly. North Korea's nuclear testing is comparatively limited, with 6 underground tests having taken place - the latest of which occured in 2013. As for the United States, it has done 1,030 nuclear tests (not counting the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), making it the largest tester in the world. As a result, the U.S. has been responsible for a large part of environmental pollution; most notably, the Castle Bravo nuclear test contaminating the Bikini atoll in 1954. According to the Nuclear Weapons Tests and Environmental Consequences: A Global Perspective study:
[T]he values of absorbed radiation dose recorded were as high as 6 Gy (in the case of Japanese fishing vessel. Lucky Dragon, close to the contaminated area, with 23 people on board), in comparison, for example, with the 1 mGy (milliGrays, a unit of ionizing radiation) value of the average individual effective dose of radiation due to natural radioactive materials in the Earth’s crust and cosmic radiations during 1 year...
To put this number in perspective, 5 Grays or more is generally enough to kill an adult within 14 days. In spite of the Bikini atoll tests, the 215 atmospheric tests in the Pacific and on the Nevada test site led to the widespread infusion of the radioactive isotopes in water-bodies, corals, and fish. Overall, the nuclear testing that these countries participated in had widespread and tangible environmental damage.
In terms of the human and indigenous peoples component, the use of land that belonged to native peoples, the subsequent destruction of that land, and the exposure to the radiation was the secondary and more insidious form of demolition. France's nuclear testing took place largely in French Polynesia and Algeria, in which thousands experienced blindness, deafness, birth defects, and cancers. Regions frequented by desert nomads, and occupied by rural communities collecting scrap metal were the direct recipients of radiation. In the Chinese nuclear tests, the rate of cancer in the region is 30-35% higher in Xianjiang province, according to a 2009 study. As far as Russia, India, Pakistan, and the UK are concerned, the testing was done in a remote enough location, or there were fewer tests to not create a discernible, immediate effect on local populations. Lastly, comes the U.S. The major impact on the populations exposed was thyroid cancer. To summarize the study which I have referred to several times, the release of an iodine isotope into the atmosphere and soil contaminated through runoff and airborne movement Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, northern Arizona, and New Mexico. Runoff, atmospheric dispersion, retention by wildlife all directly contributed to increased risk of thyroid cancer.
Interestingly enough, the way that grasses and vegetation hold onto radionuclides means that the consumption of these by livestock transmits these isotopes directly to the body in doses higher than natural. Especially through milk, there was a drastic increase in exposure to children, which are more susceptible to such diseases. Apart from this fact, the U.S. owes millions of dollars in reparations and damages to the people of Bikini atoll, who bore the brunt of this exposure, and were constantly relocated in a futile effort to protect them from the harms of the newly developed thermonuclear bomb.
It's strange to think about how something that seems much like ancient history is more recent than we think, and that we can still see its far-reaching results today. The testing of nuclear weapons in the past 70 years or so is a prime example of this.
Thank you for reading
(Additional notes: all the links to the original study and news articles are hyperlinked and embedded into the body of the blog itself)
(This blog is organized based on the ranking of each country in terms of the amount of nuclear warheads they possess. You can find the link to this data here.)
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