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US Nuclear Test Sites: A Comprehensive Overview of America's Atomic Legacy
Introduction:
The United States' history is intrinsically linked to the development and testing of nuclear weapons. From the dawn of the atomic age to the end of above-ground testing, the nation conducted hundreds of nuclear detonations, leaving behind a complex legacy of environmental impact, scientific advancement, and ethical considerations. This in-depth article explores the key US nuclear test sites, examining their locations, the number of tests conducted at each, the environmental consequences, and the ongoing efforts towards cleanup and remediation. We delve into the historical context, the scientific purposes behind the tests, and the long-term effects on the surrounding communities and environments. Prepare to uncover the untold stories behind these sites – a critical piece of America's past and a vital consideration for its future.
I. Nevada Test Site (NTS): The Heart of American Nuclear Testing
The Nevada Test Site, located in Nye County, Nevada, is arguably the most well-known and significant US nuclear test site. Established in 1951, it hosted over 1,000 nuclear tests, encompassing atmospheric, underground, and even a few underwater detonations. The sheer scale of testing at the NTS is staggering, contributing significantly to the overall amount of radioactive fallout across the United States and beyond. We'll discuss specific test series like Operation Plumbbob and Operation Hardtack, detailing the types of weapons tested and the subsequent environmental consequences. The ongoing monitoring and cleanup efforts at the NTS, including the challenges of managing long-lived radioactive isotopes, will also be discussed.
II. Pacific Proving Grounds: Atmospheric Testing in the Marshall Islands
The Pacific Proving Grounds, primarily located in the Marshall Islands, represents a different chapter in the story of US nuclear testing. From 1946 to 1958, the US conducted 67 atmospheric nuclear tests in this region, including the devastating Castle Bravo test, which released significantly more radiation than anticipated. The consequences for the Marshallese people and the environment have been catastrophic, leading to ongoing health problems, land contamination, and displacement. This section will analyze the human cost of these tests, focusing on the long-term health effects on the indigenous population and the environmental damage inflicted upon this fragile ecosystem.
III. Other Significant US Nuclear Test Sites: A Broader Perspective
While the Nevada Test Site and the Pacific Proving Grounds dominate the narrative, other sites played significant, albeit smaller, roles in the US nuclear weapons program. This section explores these locations, including:
New Mexico (Trinity Site): The site of the first atomic bomb detonation in 1945. We'll explore the historical significance of this event and its lasting environmental impact.
Alaska: Several smaller tests were conducted in Alaska, often in remote locations. We will examine the specific rationale behind these tests and their impact on the Alaskan environment.
IV. The Environmental and Health Consequences of Nuclear Testing
The long-term environmental and health effects of US nuclear testing are far-reaching and continue to be a subject of intense study and debate. This section will examine the following:
Radioactive Fallout: The dispersion of radioactive particles through the atmosphere and the subsequent contamination of soil, water, and the food chain.
Long-term Health Effects: The increased incidence of cancers, birth defects, and other health problems in populations exposed to nuclear fallout.
Environmental Remediation: The ongoing efforts to clean up contaminated sites and mitigate the long-term environmental impact of nuclear testing.
V. The Ethical and Political Dimensions of Nuclear Testing
Beyond the scientific and environmental aspects, the history of US nuclear testing raises profound ethical and political questions. This section will explore:
The Cold War Context: The geopolitical factors that drove the massive expansion of the US nuclear weapons program.
Indigenous Populations and Nuclear Justice: The disproportionate impact of nuclear testing on indigenous communities and the ongoing struggle for justice and compensation.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Law: The international legal framework governing nuclear weapons and the efforts to prevent their proliferation.
VI. Conclusion: Lessons Learned and Future Considerations
The legacy of US nuclear test sites is a complex and multifaceted one. This concluding section summarizes the key takeaways from the preceding chapters and discusses the ongoing challenges and opportunities in managing the legacy of nuclear testing. We consider the lessons learned, the importance of transparency and accountability, and the need for ongoing research and monitoring to fully understand the long-term consequences of these activities. The lasting impact on the environment and human health serves as a powerful reminder of the profound responsibility that comes with the development and deployment of nuclear weapons.
Article Outline:
Title: US Nuclear Test Sites: A Comprehensive Overview
Introduction: Briefly introduce the topic and the scope of the article.
Chapter 1: Nevada Test Site (NTS): Detail the history, number of tests, types of tests, and environmental consequences of the NTS.
Chapter 2: Pacific Proving Grounds: Focus on the Marshall Islands tests, emphasizing the human and environmental impact.
Chapter 3: Other Test Sites: Briefly discuss other significant sites like Trinity Site and Alaskan test locations.
Chapter 4: Environmental and Health Consequences: Detail the long-term effects of radiation exposure and environmental contamination.
Chapter 5: Ethical and Political Dimensions: Discuss the Cold War context, indigenous rights, and international law.
Conclusion: Summarize the key findings and discuss future considerations.
(Each chapter would then be expanded upon in detail, as outlined above in the main article body.)
FAQs:
1. What was the purpose of US nuclear testing? Primarily to develop and test nuclear weapons during the Cold War, for both military strategy and technological advancement.
2. How many nuclear tests did the US conduct? Over 1,000, the vast majority at the Nevada Test Site and the Pacific Proving Grounds.
3. What are the long-term health effects of nuclear testing? Increased incidence of cancer, birth defects, and other health problems in exposed populations.
4. What are the environmental consequences of nuclear testing? Soil and water contamination, damage to ecosystems, and long-term radioactive contamination.
5. What is the Nevada Test Site? The primary location for US underground nuclear testing, with over 1,000 tests conducted.
6. What happened in the Marshall Islands? The US conducted atmospheric nuclear tests, resulting in significant environmental damage and long-term health problems for the Marshallese people.
7. What is being done to clean up contaminated sites? Ongoing efforts include monitoring, remediation, and long-term management of radioactive waste.
8. What ethical considerations are associated with nuclear testing? The disproportionate impact on indigenous populations, the violation of international norms, and the long-term consequences for human health and the environment.
9. Is nuclear testing still happening in the US? No, above-ground testing ceased decades ago, and underground testing is heavily regulated and significantly reduced.
Related Articles:
1. The History of the Atomic Bomb: A chronological overview of the development and use of atomic weapons.
2. The Cold War Arms Race: An analysis of the geopolitical competition driving nuclear weapons development.
3. Environmental Remediation of Contaminated Sites: A discussion of the technological and logistical challenges involved in cleaning up radioactive contamination.
4. The Effects of Radiation on Human Health: A detailed examination of the biological mechanisms by which radiation causes disease.
5. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: A detailed examination of the treaty's aims, provisions, and effectiveness.
6. The Marshall Islands Nuclear Legacy: A focused study on the specific impacts of nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands.
7. The Nevada Test Site: A Scientific and Historical Perspective: A more scientifically-focused exploration of the Nevada Test Site's research contributions.
8. Nuclear Waste Management and Disposal: A discussion of the technological challenges and policy considerations involved in safely storing radioactive waste.
9. Nuclear Justice and Indigenous Rights: An exploration of the legal and ethical aspects of nuclear testing’s impact on indigenous communities.
| us nuclear test sites: United States Nuclear Tests , 2000 This document lists chronologically and alphabetically by name all nuclear tests and simultaneous detonations conducted by the United States from July 1945 through September 1992. Two nuclear weapons that the United States exploded over Japan ending World War II are not listed. These detonations were not tests in the sense that they were conducted to prove that the weapon would work as designed (as was the first test near Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945), or to advance nuclear weapon design, or to determine weapons effects, or to verify weapon safety as were the more than one thousand tests that have taken place since June 30,1946. The nuclear weapon (nicknamed Little Boy) dropped August 6,1945 from a United States Army Air Force B-29 bomber (the Enola Gay) and detonated over Hiroshima, Japan had an energy yield equivalent to that of 15,000 tons of TNT. The nuclear weapon (virtually identical to Fat Man) exploded in a similar fashion August 9, 1945 over Nagaski, Japan had a yield of 21,000 tons of TNT. Both detonations were intended to end World War II as quickly as possible. Data on United States tests were obtained from, and verified by, the U.S. Department of Energy's three weapons laboratories -- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California; and Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico; and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Additionally, data were obtained from public announcements issued by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and its successors, the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, and the U.S. Department of Energy, respectively. |
| us nuclear test sites: The Nevada Test Site Emmet Gowin, 2019-10-08 Emmet Gowin likes to ask a provocative question: Which country on earth has had the largest number of nuclear bombs detonated within its borders? The answer is the United States. Covering approximately 680 square miles, the Nevada National Security Site, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site, was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992; 1,021 announced nuclear tests occurred there, 921 of which were underground. The site, which is closed to the public, including its airspace, contains 28 areas, 1,100 buildings, 400 miles of paved roads, 300 miles of unpaved roads, 10 heliports, and two airstrips. Its surface is covered with subsidence craters from testing, and in places looks like the moon. In 1996, Gowin received permission to document the landscape by air, after over a decade of working to secure access. These aerial views of environmental devastation--made quietly majestic but no less potent in the hands of a master photographer--unveil environmental travesties on a grand scale. While groups of images from the Nevada Test Site series have been published previously, this book will produce the largest number yet, and three quarters of the pictures will not have been published at all. Gowin is the only photographer to have been granted access to this site, which is now permanently closed, post-9/11. Other than images made by the government for geographic purposes, no other images of this landscape exist. The book will feature a preface by photographer Robert Adams (America, b. 1937), whose photographic and written work is concerned with landscape, urbanization, and activism. It will also feature an afterword by Gowin on how he made the images, and their significance to him today.--Provided by publisher. |
| us nuclear test sites: The Five Series Study Institute of Medicine, Medical Follow-up Agency, Committee to Study the Mortality of Military Personnel Present at Atmospheric Tests of Nuclear Weapons, Heather O'Maonaigh, Harriet Crawford, William F. Page, Susan Thaul, 2000-03-02 More than 200,000 U.S. military personnel participated in atmospheric nuclear weapons tests between 1945 and the 1963 Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Questions persist, such as whether that test participation is associated with the timing and causes of death among those individuals. This is the report of a mortality study of the approximately 70,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen who participated in at least one of five selected U.S. nuclear weapons test series1 in the 1950s and nearly 65,000 comparable nonparticipants, the referents. The investigation described in this report, based on more than 5 million person-years of mortality follow-up, represents one of the largest cohort studies of military veterans ever conducted. |
| us nuclear test sites: Under the Cloud Richard Lee Miller, 1986 In a chilling documentary history of America's above-ground nuclear tests conducted during the 1950s and early 1960s, Miller takes on the subject and universalizes it, at the same time giving it the flavor of a Dos Passos novel (Kirkus Reviews). |
| us nuclear test sites: Britain, Australia and the Bomb L. Arnold, M. Smith, 2006-09-29 Britain, Australia and the Bomb tells the story of the unique partnership between the two countries to develop nuclear weapons in the 1940s and 1950s. This new edition includes fresh evidence about the weapons under development, the effects of the tests on participants, and the recent clean-up of the testing range. |
| us nuclear test sites: Grappling with the Bomb Nic Maclellan, 2017-09-26 Grappling with the Bomb is a history of Britain’s 1950s program to test the hydrogen bomb, code name Operation Grapple. In 1957–58, nine atmospheric nuclear tests were held at Malden Island and Christmas Island—today, part of the Pacific nation of Kiribati. Nearly 14,000 troops travelled to the central Pacific for the UK nuclear testing program—many are still living with the health and environmental consequences. Based on archival research and interviews with nuclear survivors, Grappling with the Bomb presents i-Kiribati woman Sui Kiritome, British pacifist Harold Steele, businessman James Burns, Fijian sailor Paul Ah Poy, English volunteers Mary and Billie Burgess and many other witnesses to Britain’s nuclear folly. |
| us nuclear test sites: Day of Two Suns Jane Dibblin, 1998-04-21 Between 1946 and 1958, the U.S. conducted some 66 nuclear bomb tests in the Marshall Islands. In 1959, this scattering of coral atolls was again chosen as the testing site for a new generation of weapons—long-range missiles fired in the U.S. Then in 1984 a missile fired from California was intercepted by one from Kwajalein atoll: SDI, or Star Wars, was declared a realizable dream. As military researcher Owen Wilkes has noted: If we could shut down the Pacific Missile Range, we could cut off half the momentum of the nuclear race. This is the story of the preparations for war which every day impinge on tire lives of Pacific Islanders caught on the cutting edge of the nuclear arms race. It is the story of a displaced people contaminated by nuclear fallout, forcibly resettled as their own islands become uninhabitable, and reduced to lives of poverty, ill-health, and dependence. It is also a stirring account of the Marshall Islanders themselves, of their resilience and protest, and of their attempts to seek redress in the courts. It is a shocking and timely study. |
| us nuclear test sites: Restricted Data Alex Wellerstein, 2021-04-09 Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the problem of secrecy, wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a new regime of secrecy was put into place. It was unlike any other previous or since. Nuclear secrets were given their own unique legal designation in American law (restricted data), one that operates differently than all other forms of national security classification and exists to this day. Drawing on massive amounts of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time at the author's request, Restricted Data is a narrative account of nuclear secrecy and the tensions and uncertainty that built as the Cold War continued. In the US, both science and democracy are pitted against nuclear secrecy, and this makes its history uniquely compelling and timely-- |
| us nuclear test sites: 100 Suns Michael Light, 2013-04-03 Between July 1945 and November 1962 the United States is known to have conducted 216 atmospheric and underwater nuclear tests. After the Limited Test Ban Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1963, nuclear testing went underground. It became literally invisible—but more frequent: the United States conducted a further 723 underground tests, the last in 1992. 100 Suns documents the era of visible nuclear testing, the atmospheric era, with one hundred photographs drawn by Michael Light from the archives at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the U.S. National Archives in Maryland. It includes previously classified material from the clandestine Lookout Mountain Air Force Station based in Hollywood, whose film directors, cameramen and still photographers were sworn to secrecy. The title, 100 Suns, refers to the response by J.Robert Oppenheimer to the world’s first nuclear explosion in New Mexico when he quoted a passage from the Bhagavad Gita, the classic Vedic text: “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One . . . I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” This was Oppenheimer’s attempt to describe the otherwise indescribable. 100 Suns likewise confronts the indescribable by presenting without embellishment the stark evidence of the tests at the moment of detonation. Since the tests were conducted either in Nevada or the Pacific the book is simply divided between the desert and the ocean. Each photograph is presented with the name of the test, its explosive yield in kilotons or megatons, the date and the location. The enormity of the events recorded is contrasted with the understated neutrality of bare data. Interspersed within the sequence of explosions are pictures of the awestruck witnesses. The evidence of these photographs is terrifying in its implication while at same time profoundly disconcerting as a spectacle. The visual grandeur of such imagery is balanced by the chilling facts provided at the end of the book in the detailed captions, a chronology of the development of nuclear weaponry and an extensive bibliography. A dramatic sequel to Michael Light’s Full Moon, 100 Suns forms an unprecedented historical document. |
| us nuclear test sites: Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program National Research Council, Division on Earth and Life Studies, Board on Radiation Effects Research, Committee to Assess the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program, 2005-10-01 The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was set up by Congress in 1990 to compensate people who have been diagnosed with specified cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to nuclear-weapons tests at various U.S. test sites. Eligible claimants include civilian onsite participants, downwinders who lived in areas currently designated by RECA, and uranium workers and ore transporters who meet specified residence or exposure criteria. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees the screening, education, and referral services program for RECA populations, asked the National Academies to review its program and assess whether new scientific information could be used to improve its program and determine if additional populations or geographic areas should be covered under RECA. The report recommends Congress should establish a new science-based process using a method called probability of causation/assigned share (PC/AS) to determine eligibility for compensation. Because fallout may have been higher for people outside RECA-designated areas, the new PC/AS process should apply to all residents of the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, and overseas US territories who have been diagnosed with specific RECA-compensable diseases and who may have been exposed, even in utero, to radiation from U.S. nuclear-weapons testing fallout. However, because the risks of radiation-induced disease are generally low at the exposure levels of concern in RECA populations, in most cases it is unlikely that exposure to radioactive fallout was a substantial contributing cause of cancer. |
| us nuclear test sites: American Ground Zero Carole Gallagher, 1993 One photojournalist's decade-long commitment, a gripping collection of portraits and interviews of those whose lives were crossed by radioactive fallout. |
| us nuclear test sites: Mortality of Veteran Participants in the CROSSROADS Nuclear Test Institute of Medicine, Committee on the CROSSROADS Nuclear Test, 1996-11-11 In 1946, approximately 40,000 U.S. military personnel participated in Operation CROSSROADS, an atmospheric nuclear test that took place at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Congress passed a law directing the Veterans Administration to determine whether there were any long-term adverse health effects associated with exposure to ionizing radiation from the detonation of nuclear devices. This book contains the results of an extensive epidemiological study of the mortality of participants compared with a similar group of nonparticipants. Topics of discussion include a breakdown of the study rationale; an overview of other studies of veteran participants in nuclear tests; and descriptions of Operation CROSSROADS, data sources for the study, participant and comparison cohorts, exposure details, mortality ascertainment, and findings and conclusions. |
| us nuclear test sites: Adverse Reproductive Outcomes in Families of Atomic Veterans Institute of Medicine, Committee to Study the Feasibility of, and Need for, Epidemiologic Studies of Adverse Reproductive Outcomes in the Families of Atomic Veterans, 1995-07-17 Over the past several decades, public concern over exposure to ionizing radiation has increased. This concern has manifested itself in different ways depending on the perception of risk to different individuals and different groups and the circumstances of their exposure. One such group are those U.S. servicemen (the Atomic Veterans who participated in the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site or in the Pacific Proving Grounds, who served with occupation forces in or near Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or who were prisoners of war in or near those cities at the time of, or shortly after, the atomic bombings. This book addresses the feasibility of conducting an epidemiologic study to determine if there is an increased risk of adverse reproductive outcomes in the spouses, children, and grandchildren of the Atomic Veterans. |
| us nuclear test sites: UFOs and Nukes Robert L. Hastings, 2017-05-12 SECOND EDITION-REVISED AND UPDATEDThe reality of UFO incursions at American nuclear weapons facilities has been convincingly established. Hundreds of U.S. military veterans now openly discuss these ominous incidents and thousands of declassified government documents substantiate their revelations.Over the past four decades, renowned researcher Robert Hastings has interviewed more than 150 of those veterans regarding their involvement in these astounding cases. On September 27, 2010, CNN live-streamed his UFOs and Nukes press conference in Washington D.C. during which former U.S. Air Force officers described numerous nuclear missiles mysteriously malfunctioning moments after a disc-shaped craft was observed hovering near their underground launch silos.That shocking episode, in March 1967, was merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Documented UFO activity occurred at a plutonium processing plant in Washington State as early as January 1945, months prior to the atomic bombings in Japan. Another incident, in October 2010, involved one missile base in Wyoming being unable to communicate with several of its missile launch control capsules just as a huge cigar-shaped craft slowly flew over them.Significantly, documents smuggled out of Russia in the 1990s confirm that Soviet nukes were also the focus of UFO interest during the Cold War era. On one occasion, in October 1982, a number of missiles temporarily activated for launch, as terrified officers attempted to disrupt the unauthorized count-down. After 15 seconds, the anomaly terminated and the equipment returned to standby status. While this was taking place, an enormous disc silently hovered over the base.In short, the evidence presented in UFOs & Nukes makes clear that humans' deadliest weapons have been, since their development and use during World War II, under intense scrutiny by still-unidentified observers possessing tremendously advanced technology.Given these disclosures, it seems evident that the UFO-Nukes Connection is highly significant and perhaps even the key reason these mysterious aerial craft have appeared in our skies over the past seven decades. |
| us nuclear test sites: The Greenpeace to Amchitka Robert Hunter, 2005-04-01 Greenpeace is known around the world for its activism and education surrounding environmental and biodiversity issues. With a presence in more than 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Greenpeace is undoubtedly a dominant force in the realm of environmental activism. This is the story of how Greenpeace came to be. In September 1971, a small group of activists boarded a small fishing boat in Vancouver, Canada, and headed north towards Amchitka, a tiny island west of Alaska in the Aleutian Islands, where the US government was conducting underground nuclear tests. At that time, protests against nuclear testing were not common, yet the US tests raised genuine concerns: Amchitka is not only the last refuge for endangered wildlife, but is also located in a geologically unstable region, one of the most earthquake-prone areas in the world. The threat of a nuclear-triggered earthquake or tsunami was real. Among the people sardined in the fishing boat were Robert Hunter and Robert Keziere. The boat, named the Greenpeace by the small group of men aboard, raced against time as it crashed through the Gulf of Alaska, braving the oncoming winter storms. Three weeks was all they had to reach Amchitka in an attempt to halt the nuclear test. Ultimately, the voyage—beset by bad weather, interpersonal tensions and conflicts with US officials—was doomed. And yet the legacy of that journey lives on. In this visceral memoir, based on a manuscript originally written over 30 years ago, Robert Hunter vividly depicts the peculiar odyssey that led to the formation of the most powerful environmental organization in the world. Features 40 black and white photographs taken during the voyage by Robert Keziere. |
| us nuclear test sites: Nevada Test Site Peter W. Merlin, 2016 Since Pres. Harry Truman established the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in December 1950, it has played a vital role in the security of the United States. For four decades, the test site's primary purpose was developmental testing of nuclear explosives. Atmospheric tests conducted over Yucca Flat and Frenchman Flat between 1951 and 1962 involved thousands of Army troops and Marines simulating nuclear battlefield conditions. Civil defense planners studied blast and radiation effects and evaluated bomb shelter designs. Testing moved underground in 1963 to eliminate radioactive fallout. Other projects at the NTS included nuclear rocket engine development for space travel, training for NASA's Apollo astronauts, excavation experiments, radioactive waste storage studies, and aircraft testing. Since the last underground nuclear test in 1992, this geographically diverse testing and training complex north of Las Vegas--known since 2010 as the Nevada National Security Site--has been used to support nuclear stockpile stewardship and as a unique outdoor laboratory for government and industry research and development efforts.--Page 4 of cover. |
| us nuclear test sites: Nuclear Physical Methods in Radioecological Investigations of Nuclear Test Sites Siegfried S. Hecker, Caroline F.V. Mason, Kairat K. Kadyrzhanov, Serge B. Kislitsin, 2000-08-31 Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 7-10 June, 1999 |
| us nuclear test sites: Eisenhower, Science Advice, and the Nuclear Test-Ban Debate, 1945-1963 Benjamin P. Greene, 2007 Based on extensive research in government archives and private papers, this book analyzes the secret debate within the Eisenhower administration over the pursuit of a nuclear test-ban agreement. In contrast to much recent scholarship, this study concludes that Eisenhower strongly desired to reach an accord with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom to cease nuclear weapons testing. For Eisenhower, a test ban would ease Cold War tensions, slow the nuclear arms race, and build confidence toward disarmament; however, he faced continual resistance from his early scientific advisers, most notably Lewis L. Strauss and Edward Teller. Extensive research into previously unavailable government archival sources and collections of private manuscripts reveals the manipulative acts of test-ban opponents and other factors that inhibited Eisenhower s actions throughout his presidency. Meticulously analyzed, these sources underscore Eisenhower's dependence on the counsel of his science advisors, such as Strauss, James R. Killian, and George B. Kistiakowsky, to determine the course he pursued in regard to several components of his national security strategy. In addition to its comprehensive analysis of the test-ban debate, this book makes important contributions to the scholarly literature assessing Eisenhower's leadership and his approach to arms control. |
| us nuclear test sites: The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes, 2012-09-18 **Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award** The definitive history of nuclear weapons—from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project—this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb. This sweeping account begins in the 19th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans’ race to beat Hitler’s Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology—from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence. From nuclear power’s earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story. Richard Rhodes’s ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work. |
| us nuclear test sites: Research Required to Support Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Monitoring National Research Council, Division on Earth and Life Studies, Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources, Panel on Basic Research Requirements in Support of Comprehensive Test Ban Monitoring, 1997-08-01 On September 24, 1996, President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty at the United Nations Headquarters. Over the next five months, 141 nations, including the four other nuclear weapon statesâ€Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdomâ€added their signatures to this total ban on nuclear explosions. To help achieve verification of compliance with its provisions, the treaty specifies an extensive International Monitoring System of seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasonic, and radionuclide sensors. This volume identifies specific research activities that will be needed if the United States is to effectively monitor compliance with the treaty provisions. |
| us nuclear test sites: Catalog of Worldwide Nuclear Testing Viktor Nikitovich Mikhaĭlov, 1999 The Catalog of Worldwide Nuclear Testing is the first ever complete compilation of all nuclear tests. Containing various vital information and data on all 2,049 nuclear tests conducted by the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and China (and the recent tests in India and Pakistan), the Catalog presents a uniform classification analysis of the five nuclear weapon states, including the dynamics, yield, and methods of testing. This unique volume has been compiled by a team of the best specialists of the Russian nuclear weapons establishment, headed by the former Minister of Atomic Energy of Russia, Victor Mikhailov, and including the following experts: I. A. Andryushin, A. K. Chemyshev, R. I. Ilkaev, A. M. Matushchenko, L. D. Ryabev, V. G. Srukov, N. P. Voloshin, and Yu. A. Yudin. |
| us nuclear test sites: Bombing the Marshall Islands Keith M. Parsons, Robert A. Zaballa, 2017-07-26 A narrative history of the nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958. |
| us nuclear test sites: The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Keith A. Hansen, 2006 A brief historical and analytical understanding of the difficulties encountered in negotiating and implementing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and their implications for efforts to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Includes full text of the treaty and supplementary materials. |
| us nuclear test sites: Radiological Conditions at Bikini Atoll International Atomic Energy Agency, 1998 The general concern about the state of the environment has focused the attention of many countries in recent years on the need to remediate areas affected by radioactive residues. The present assessment was requested by the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, with the purpose of obtaining an independent view of the radiological situation on Bikini Atoll, the site of nuclear weapons testing in the period 1946 -1958. In particular, questions were posed about whether the former inhabitants should be permitted to return to their homes and about the nature and extent of any remedial actions which might be necessary. This report presents the results and conclusions of a meeting of international experts convened by the IAEA and chaired by K. Lokan, Australia, in December 1995 to review the available information on the subject. |
| us nuclear test sites: Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea Jeffrey Richelson, 2007-09-17 'Spying on the Bomb' focuses on the past & present nuclear activities of various countries, intermingling what the US believed was happening with accounts of what actually occurred in each country's laboratories, test sites and decision-making councils. |
| us nuclear test sites: Molecular Biology of the Cell , 2002 |
| us nuclear test sites: Lookout America! Kevin Hamilton, Ned O'Gorman, 2019 The story of the Cold War era Lookout Mountain Laboratory, or the 1352nd Photographic Group of the United States Air Force, which employed hundreds of Hollywood studio veterans. Engages with issues of the Cold War state and visual culture-- |
| us nuclear test sites: Amchitka and the Bomb Dean Kohlhoff, 2002 “Amchitka and the Bomb reconstructs thoroughly the decision by the Atomic Energy Commission to use Amchitka Island in the Aleutians as a test site for nuclear missile weaponry . . . utterly disregarding the fact that the island was a wildlife refuge. It will be an important contribution to environmental and Alaska studies and to national defense studies.” - Stephen Haycox, University of Alaska, Anchorage |
| us nuclear test sites: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II Herbert Feis, 2015-03-08 This book discusses the decision to use the atomic bomb. Libraries and scholars will find it a necessary adjunct to their other studies by Pulitzer-Prize author Herbert Feis on World War II. Originally published in 1966. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. |
| us nuclear test sites: Area 51 Annie Jacobsen, 2011-05-17 This compellingly hard-hitting bestseller from a Pulitzer Prize finalist gives readers the complete untold story of the top-secret military base for the first time (New York Times). It is the most famous military installation in the world. And it doesn't exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside of Las Vegas in Nevada's desert, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government — but Area 51 has captivated imaginations for decades. Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems, and nuclear facilities. Others believe that the lunar landing itself was filmed there. The prevalence of these rumors stems from the fact that no credible insider has ever divulged the truth about his time inside the base. Until now. Annie Jacobsen had exclusive access to nineteen men who served the base proudly and secretly for decades and are now aged 75-92, and unprecedented access to fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there for extended periods. In Area 51, Jacobsen shows us what has really gone on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear weapons to building super-secret, supersonic jets to pursuing the War on Terror. This is the first book based on interviews with eye witnesses to Area 51 history, which makes it the seminal work on the subject. Filled with formerly classified information that has never been accurately decoded for the public, Area 51 weaves the mysterious activities of the top-secret base into a gripping narrative, showing that facts are often more fantastic than fiction, especially when the distinction is almost impossible to make. |
| us nuclear test sites: Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Committee on Pain Management and Regulatory Strategies to Address Prescription Opioid Abuse, 2017-09-28 Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring. |
| us nuclear test sites: The Containment of Underground Nuclear Explosions , 1989 |
| us nuclear test sites: The Day the Sun Rose Twice Ferenc Morton Szasz, 1995-04-01 Winner of the Western History Association’s Robert G. Athearn Award for outstanding book on the twentieth-century American West Just before dawn on July 16, 1945, the world’s first nuclear bomb was detonated at Trinity Site in an isolated stretch of the central New Mexico desert. It may have been the single most important event of the twentieth century. The Day the Sun Rose Twice tells the fascinating story of the events leading up to this first test explosion, the characters and roles of the people involved, and the aftermath of the bomb’s successful demonstration. With J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” at last getting his Hollywood close-up in Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster film Oppenheimer, readers can discover the background behind the world’s first atomic blast in Ferenc Morton Szasz’s award-winning history. “Tightly focused, lucidly written, and thoroughly researched,” according to the New York Times Book Review, the book provides “a valuable introduction to how our nuclear dilemma began.” |
| us nuclear test sites: Doom Towns Andrew G. Kirk, 2017 Explains critical technological developments and the policies that drove weapons innovation within the context of the specific environments and communities where testing actually took place ... [and] emphasizes the people who participated, protested, or were affected by atomic testing and explains the decision-making process that resulted in these people and places becoming the only locations and groups to actually experience nuclear warfare during the Cold War-- |
| us nuclear test sites: The Day We Bombed Utah John Grant Fuller, 1984 Reveals the complete history of government atomic bomb tests conducted in southwestern Utah during the 1950s and chronicles the aftermath of the tests-Amazon. |
| us nuclear test sites: Britain and the H-Bomb Lorna Arnold, 2001-06-09 Britain and the H-Bomb reveals why, in the 1950s, the government wanted a British H-bomb, how the scientists and engineers developed it in only three years, and what were the historic consequences of their achievements. |
| us nuclear test sites: US Nuclear Testing Policy , 1990 |
| us nuclear test sites: Nuclear Weapons Technology 101 for Policy Wonks Bruce Goodwin, 2021-05 The making of policy for nuclear security requires a strong grasp of the associated technical matters. That grasp came naturally in the early decades of the nuclear era, when scientists and engineers were deeply engaged in policymaking. In more recent decades, the technical community has played a narrower role, one generally limited to implementing policies made by others. This narrower role has been accentuated by generational change in the technical community, as the scientists and engineers who conceived, built, and executed the programs that created the existing U.S. nuclear deterrent faded into history along with the long-term competition for technical improvements with the Soviet Union. There is thus today a clear need to impart to the new generation of nuclear policy experts the necessary technical context.That is the purpose of this paper. Specifically: to introduce a new generation of nuclear policy experts to the technical perspectives of a nuclear weapon designer, to explain the science and engineering of nuclear weapons for the policy generalist, to review the evolution of the U.S. approach to nuclear weapons design, to explain the main attributes of the existing U.S. nuclear stockpile, to explain the functions of the nuclear weapons complex, and how this all is integrated to sustain deterrence into the future. |
| us nuclear test sites: No More War! Linus Pauling, 1974 |
| us nuclear test sites: Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests United States. Congress. Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 1959 |
