Nuclear Testing Engenders Environmentalism
As mentioned in the previous article, the massive amounts of fallout released during the 1950’s are still present around the globe. Historian, Laura Bruno, describes in her article that the nuclear tests’ radioactive isotopes created and released as the “first environmental pollutant to take on the dimensions of a global threat.” She continues in her article that “as a result of fallout, scientists learned that pollutants could travel over long periods and distances, and that they could be accumulated in a reservoir in organic matter. This research revealed how interconnected different ecosystems are and led to the view that our global environment cannot tolerate endless pollutants” (Bruno, 2003).
Prior to World War II’s Manhattan Project and America’s effort to build an atomic bomb, there was limited knowledge on how radioactive particles were used in nuclear testing, how they spread, the persistence, the accumulation of radioisotopes, and how they would affect the environment.
The first systematic studies were likely made in 1943 at the Hanford plutonium plant. The Applied Fisheries Laboratory used x-rays to observe radioactive effects on salmon and trout in the Columbia River. Once the Hanford reactor began operating, samples were taken from the river which showed increased levels of radioactive material surrounding the plutonium plant (Anter, 2019). The laboratory traced several radioactive isotopes in water, which allowed them to develop a method to measure nuclear fallout.
The development of tools for analyzing fallout allowed different isotopes to be measured during the Cold War. These particles affected air, water, soil, plants, animals, and humans. Project Gabriel, commissioned by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1949, sought to determine how many atomic bombs could be detonated without radioactive contamination to cause severe health effects from environmental contamination. Plutonium, strontium-90 (Sr-90), and yttrium-90 were the most dangerous isotopes released by fission weapons. Project Gabriel found that strontium-90 was the most hazardous resulting from nuclear detonations, due to the high amounts released into the atmosphere. Moreover, due to its similarity to calcium, living organisms could absorb it. In humans, this isotope accumulates in the bones and remains present in the body for several decades.
Following the discoveries made in Project Gabriel, Project Sunshine sought to determine the concentration and behavior of strontium-90 in the environment. The project’s report devoted substantial attention to methods of gathering their data from human remains, and concluded that there was a more pronounced accumulation of Sr-90 in adults, as infant bones have a faster growth rate. Project Sunshine, among other projects, was intended to remain classified from the public. However, when the project was leaked in 1953, the AEC received public backlash from the method in which they conducted this study. Upon the discovery of these research projects, the public started to become suspicious of the government’s assurances on the harmlessness of fallout. Citizens living near atomic test sites in the Nevada desert believed they experienced health disorders due to the fallout.
As suspicions over the effects of fallout rose, a thermonuclear accident at the Bikini atoll in 1954 had worldwide significance. After the detonation of the Bravo device, the fallout cloud did not follow the predicted route due to the high winds. This allowed the fallout cloud to extend over a vast area outside the security zone. More than 250 individuals, including Marshallese, American military personnel, and Japanese fishermen, developed radiation sickness from the cloud. Some the severe cases of radiation sickness attracted public attention. The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare program discovered that 5% of fish caught after the cloud dispersed were too radioactive for consumption.
The Bikini incident and several other Pacific surveys raised public awareness of the harmful effects of fallout. It was discovered that even countries without an atomic program were affected by fallout. The fact that isotopes spread globally and are quickly introduced into the human food chain could no longer be kept a secret by AEC. This increased awareness and became the ground for the environmental movement (Bruno, 2003).
Weapons Testing and Climate Science
Climate science and nuclear weapon testing have a long-term and intertwined relationship. As a consequence of the Fukushima disaster, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization tracked the radioactive plume emanating from damaged Japanese nuclear reactors. The global network of monitoring stations, a sophisticated model descendant of computer models created for testing fallout from weapon testing, successfully measured airborne radionuclides.
Over time, the methods of tracking radiation through the atmosphere have a practical application that extends far beyond the nuclear industry. For example, this method has been crucial for measuring anthropogenic climate change and tracing its major contributors. This includes measuring radioactive carbon and the way it cycles through the atmosphere, the oceans, and the biosphere. Some of the earliest global climate models relied on numerical methods similar to those developed by nuclear weapon designers. Even today, environmental scientists use mathematical models based on nuclear testing. Namely, these models have been created to predict and analyze the shock waves produced by nuclear explosions.
During the Cold War, the countries fighting for nuclear domination built facilities to create and test weapons. The labs in these facilities were equipped with powerful supercomputers with expertise in modeling and managing collected data sets to investigate the nuclear fallout. Today, they are used to observe climate change models. Researcher, Paul Edwards, states in his article that “the laboratories built to create the most fearsome arsenal in history are doing what they can to prevent another catastrophe – this one caused not by behemoth governments at war, but by billions of ordinary people living ordinary lives within an energy economy that we must now reinvent” (Edwards, 2012).
The impact of nuclear testing on the climate is another significant historical intersection between climate science and nuclear activities. Nuclear weapon designers have opened many possibilities to research and better understand the atmosphere. The knowledge about atmospheric carbon dioxide and its role in the greenhouse effect has helped both environmental scientists and political leaders understand the full extent of nuclear activities and the environmental damage caused by it.
Moratorium on Nuclear Testing
From 1945 until 1998, there were over 2000 nuclear tests conducted worldwide. Today, after thousands of detonations and irreparable damage in terms of human casualties and environmental damage, none of the world’s nuclear-armed states are conducting nuclear tests for the first time since the beginning of the nuclear age. In 1990, the Soviet Union proposed a moratorium on nuclear testing, and the United Kingdom and the United States agreed to a comprehensive ban on all nuclear testing. The last nuclear tests were conducted throughout the early 1990’s, after which, on 24 September 1996, 182 countries signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CNTBT).
Nuclear Activities Today
Despite the ratification of the CNTBT in several countries, several nuclear tests were conducted in North Korea, India, and Pakistan between 1998-2017. These countries broke the de facto moratorium that the CTBT had established with this action. India conducted two underground tests, with the government emphasizing that the explosions were for military testing. Pakistan reacted to India’s move by conducting two underground nuclear tests, after which both countries immediately announced unilateral moratoriums on nuclear testing and have conducted no nuclear tests since 1998. North Korea is the only country that has conducted nuclear tests in the 21st century. All tests were discovered by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty verification regime. The regime is designed to detect any nuclear explosion on Earth – underground, underwater, or in the atmosphere. After determining North Korea’s compliance with the CTBT, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted sanction resolutions.
Sources:
Anter, S. (2019). 5 facts about Hanford. Colombia Riverkeeper. Retrieved from https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/news/2019/8/5-facts-about-hanford
Bruno, L.A. (2003). The bequest of the nuclear battlefield: Science, nature, and the atom during the first decade of the Cold War. Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 33(2), 237-260. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1525/hsps.2003.33.2.237
Edwards, P.N. (2012). Entangled histories: Climate science and nuclear weapons research. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 68(4), 28-40. Retrieved from DOI: 10.1177/0096340212451574