Nuclear Weapons Testing Facts August 18, 1991
Nevada Desert Experience PO Box 4487 Las Vegas, NV 89127 Telephone: 702-646-4814 FAX: 702-386-5984
NUCLEAR BOMB AND WEAPONS TESTING FACTS
The US explodes nuclear bombs underground at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The NTS is 1350 square miles in size, larger than the state of Rhode Island. The 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley recognizes the Western Shoshone Nation's right to the land.[1] Despite Shoshone objections, the US Department of Energy (DOE) operates the NTS for testing nuclear bombs and weapons.
Nearly 5000 persons work for the nuclear weapons testing program in the Las Vegas/NTS areas. The research, develop-ment and testing budget for the US in FY 1990 was nearly $2 billion.[2] Millions of dollars are now being allocated to assess and begin clean-up of the environmental damage at NTS.
Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California design and perfect nuclear weapons for the US testing program. Both labs are managed by the University of California. The main NTS contractors are EG&G (Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier), its subsidiary, REECo (Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Co.), and Raytheon.
NTS became the location for on-continent nuclear weapons testing in 1951. Previous to that the first nuclear bomb test took place in the atmosphere in New Mexico.
Nuclear bombs were dropped in Japan on the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Between 1946 and late-1962 atmospheric and underground nuclear tests were conducted by the US in the Marshall Islands, Christmas Island and Johnston Atoll in the Pacific south of Hawaii, and over the South Atlantic Ocean. In addition to Nevada, several underground nuclear weapons tests since 1962 have been in Colorado, Mississippi, New Mexico, & Amchitka, an Aleutian Island off Alaska's coast.[3]
Atomic veterans are those men and women in the armed forces who were exposed to radiation from these nuclear weapons tests. Some flew through radioactive clouds or marched to ground-zero; others cleaned ships that had been contaminated, recovered instruments, and/or were docked in bombing areas. Civilians who received radiation doses where they live are called Downwinders. Congress has legislated compensation for atomic veterans, test site workers and those Downwinders in Utah and Nevada who have been exposed to radiation fallout from the aboveground nuclear weapons tests. Congress has not yet authorized the funds for this compensation.
Nuclear weapons tests are conducted within vertical shafts hundreds of feet underground and in horizontal tunnels into mountains. According to DOE, the purpose of testing nuclear bombs is (1) to check for reliability of stockpiled weapons, (2) to test new safety features,(3) to test new weapon designs, and (4) to determine the effects of explosion-produced radiation on military hardware.
Radiation ventings occur routinely as part of the clean-up process after an underground nuclear weapons test. According to DOE controlled ventings present no danger to human health, and no radiation leaks occur. There is growing evidence in the international scientific community that long-term exposure to low-level radiation results in lowered resistance to certain diseases as well as possible genetic changes.
INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO LIMIT NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING
The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) of 1963 requires that all tests be underground. Public outcry about health effects from aboveground tests helped bring about the PTBT. In the prologue of this treaty signatory nations agree to continue negotiations to end all nuclear weapons tests.[4]
The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970 requires that nuclear nations refrain from transferring nuclear weapon devices and/or nuclear weapons technology to non-nuclear nations. It binds non-nuclear nations from developing or obtaining nuclear weapons in exchange for a share in the technology of the peaceful uses of atomic energy. The NPT requires a commitment by the nuclear nations to negotiate an end to the nuclear arms race. The prologue to the NPT recalls the earlier PTBT agreement that nuclear nations work toward discontinuing nuclear weapons testing altogether.[5]
In 1995, the NPT nations will meet to decide whether to extend the treaty. Many of the non-nuclear nations at the NPT review meetings in 1990 made the extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty dependent on progress being made toward an end to all nuclear weapons testing, specifically toward a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
The Threshold Test Ban Treaty of 1974 (ratified in 1990), limits the explosive power of nuclear weapons tests to 150 kilotons. (The Hiroshima bomb was 12 - 15 kilotons.)
International efforts for a complete ban on nuclear weapons testing culminated in an Amendment Conference to the PTBT at the UN in January, 1991. The US and United Kingdom (UK) oppose a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and can veto an amendment. In spite of this the Conference passed a statement to continue to work toward an amendment. The US and UK were the sole "no" votes in this effort to end nuclear weapons testing.
The Global Anti-Nuclear Alliance (GANA), an international citizens organization has recently formed to coordinate worldwide efforts to end nuclear weapons testing. GANA grew out of the May, 1990, International Citizens Congress for a Nuclear Test Ban in Kazakhstan, USSR.
OTHER NATIONS TESTING NUCLEAR WEAPONS
The UK, before 1962, tested nuclear weapons in Australia and Christmas Island. Since 1962, the UK has tested weapons with the US. In 1990, the UK/US conducted one nuclear weapons test at the NTS. The UK is a signatory to both the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) and Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The USSR nuclear weapons testing program, due to citizen pressure, may be moved from Kazakhstan to Novaya Zemlya above the Arctic Circle. The USSR has initiated moratoriums on nuclear weapons tests and has tested only once since October, 1989. The USSR has signed both the PTBT and NPT.
China tested above ground from 1964-1980. The two most recent tests were detonated at Lop Nor in 1990. The Chinese will not end nuclear weapons tests until the US and USSR have greatly reduced their nuclear arsenals and stopped testing. China has not signed the PTBT, but tests underground as that treaty requires. Recently China has agreed to sign the NPT.
The French have conducted six nuclear weapons tests on islands in the South Pacific thus far in 1991. Some South Pacific Islanders link the end of nuclear weapons testing with their independence from France. France recently signed the NPT, but has not signed the PTBT.
KNOWN NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTS [6 & 7]
Year of Atmospheric Underground Total 1990 1991 First Test
USA-1945 212 721 933 8 4 USSR-1949 215 499 714 1 - FRANCE-1960 48 142 190 4 6 UK-1952 21 22 43 1 - CHINA-1964 22 14 36 2 - INDIA-1974 1 1
Sources:
[1] Western Shoshone National Council, Western Shoshone Nation Newsletter, Vol.I, no.1, 1991.
[2] International Foundation, Toward a Comprehensive Nuclear Warhead Test Ban, 1991. pg. 39.
[3] U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office, Announced US Nuclear Tests: July 1945 through December 1990. Springfield, VA: National Technical Information Service, 1990. pg. viii.
[4] National Academy of Sciences-Nuclear Arms Control Washington, DC: Natl Academy Press, 1985. pgs. 336-368.
[5] Ibid, pg. 196.
[6] "Nuclear Notebook," Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Vol. 47, No. 3, April, 1991. pg. 49.
[7] "Nuclear Notebook," Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Vol. 47, No. 4, May, 1991. pg. 49.
Current as of August 18, 1991 by Mary H. Lehman Nevada Desert Experience,