Nuclear weapons do not have to be used in war to have lasting effects. More than 2,000 nuclear weapons were tested in the 20th century, and the impacts on people, public health, and the environment lasted for a generation. The U.S. government has yet to clean up the consequences of nuclear testing that ended decades ago, and today the possibility of restarting nuclear testing is real.
As W. J. Hennigan recently wrote for The Times,edgeIn the series of articles writtenDetailsAs the United States, Russia and China have all been modernizing their testing facilities, none of those countries has conducted underground nuclear tests since signing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996. But the United States and China never ratified the treaty, and Russia withdrew its ratification in November, a setback for international arms control.
Now, commercial satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC show that all three major nuclear powers have been modernizing and expanding their testing infrastructure in recent years, adding new buildings, opening new roads, and digging new tunnels. The photos, analyzed by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, do not prove that nuclear testing will begin any time soon, but they do show that preparations are underway, pending approval from political leaders.
The United States said it was transparent about its expansion in Nevada, where it has conducted 928 nuclear tests. It is currently building a state-of-the-art underground laboratory for subcritical nuclear testing, which uses explosives on nuclear weapon components.but not enough to trigger a nuclear chain reaction experiment.The National Nuclear Safety Administration saidsurrounding support facilities are designed to meet the “security, food, housing and administrative needs” of on-site personnel.
Russia’s Novaya Zemlya test site is located on an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Numerous tests were conducted there from 1955 to 1990. Today, several tunnel entrances have been drilled into the side of a nearby mountain range, through which new construction can be seen. Recently, the site’s largest facility, supporting facilities and new roads were completed.
The most radical changes may have occurred at the Lop Nur site in northwest China. The New York Times published an investigation in December detailing what experts have found. More than 30 buildings have been added or renovated at the main support base alone since 2017. China has also drilled new vertical shafts that can accommodate larger nuclear tests than the old network of horizontal tunnels.
Before the world goes down that path again, it’s vital to see and understand how nuclear testing continues to affect the planet and its people today. To that end, Hennigan takes us through the history of nuclear testing.
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While most of these experiments took place in remote areas far from civilization, the impact they left is lasting. It’s clear in the chronic illness and cancer prevalence among the people around them, and perhaps nowhere is it more evident today than in rural Arkansas. The Marshallese immigrants and their descendants who have settled in the area are estimated to make up about 2% of the population; in the first four months of the coronavirus pandemic, these residents accounted for 38% of the deaths. Hennigan traveled there to tell their story.
The United States has yet to issue a formal apology for the widespread contamination that affected the lives of all Marshallese, but instead paid a “full and final” settlement years before the true damage was known. Marshallese, like the Americans who became ill from surface tests in New Mexico and Nevada between 1945 and 1962,Deserve fair treatment.
Instead, Congress allowed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to expire earlier this month, leaving thousands of uranium miners, Atomic Force veterans and testing victims without federal support. This marked the first time in 34 years that the U.S. government has turned its back on Americans who became ill from radiation exposure during U.S. nuclear weapons mining and testing during the Cold War.
More politicians should support a bill co-sponsored by Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and others to expand and extend this lifesaving aid. There is no excuse for ignorance.
In addition to nuclear testing, history tells us that even with just one nuclear weapon on Earth, there is the possibility of accidents and miscommunications that could mean the end of the world. Throughout the Cold War, humanity was lucky to prevent such disasters from happening. However, we know the consequences of testing, and these mistakes should not be repeated.