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Cold war the relationship between usa and ussr
Cold war with the United States and the Soviet Union
Cold war the relationship between usa and ussr
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During the years of 1945 and 1989 the United States and the Soviet Union were involved in a Cold War. (“The rewards of being wrong,” 2002) In the few years leading up to 1948, the Soviet Union had been lagging in the production of nuclear weapons. (“1942-2002 60 years of nuclear,” 2002) In order to help speed up production, nuclear weapons were being made at a plant in Kyshtym in Soviet Russia. This plant was a plutonium production reactor for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel processing, called the Mayak plant. (“1942-2002 60 years of nuclear,” 2002) The plant was built hastily between the years of 1945 and 1948, when it then produced weapon grade plutonium and uranium. (“1942-2002 60 years of nuclear,” 2002) Nuclear physicists had poor knowledge about nuclear physics, making many of the decisions they made dangerous. The nuclear reactors at the plant were near lake Techa, which they continually contaminated. (CIA Historical Review Program, 1999) All of the reactors that were on the lake used an open cycle cooling system, where they pulled in lake water then discharged the contaminated water back into lake. (CIA Historical Review Program, 1999) It would be because of unrepaired fissures in these tanks that a nuclear reaction would occur and send a radioactive plume into the atmosphere.
In order to stop some contamination, bypass canals were built to isolate the lake from the river, and a storage facility for nuclear waste was built, as well as coolers around them. (CIA Historical Review Program, 1999) A chain reaction occurred when one of the cooling tanks malfunctioned and was not repaired, ultimately causing the explosion. (CIA Historical Review Program, 1999) Without proper care these improvements proved to be not so hel...
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.... (2007) Nuclear war I and other major nuclear disasters of the 20th century 2007, pp. 237–240. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books?id=3_2ILEQQqpIC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=mayak+nuclear+disaster+1957&source=bl&ots=kwLJcvP77S&sig=lig2rLrAYFsf6DoiuQFBV2e-b2I&hl=en&ei=8BarStKnCMP_kAWMmKCVBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=mayak%20nuclear%20disaster%201957&f=false
Soran, D. & Stillman, D. (January 1982) An analysis of the alleged Kyshtym disaster. Retrieved from http://www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/14/724/14724059.pdf
The rewards of being wrong. (2013). Wilson Quarterly, 37(2), 68-70.
Image References
Jan Rieke. (24 November 2010). Map of the East Urals Radioactive Trace (EURT): area contaminated by the Kyshtym disaster. [photogragh]. Retrieved from http://libguides.scf.edu/content.php?pid=107184&sid=1354168
Due to political aspirations, government bureaucracy, and greed 111 men lost their lives and devastated the lives of loved ones and a community. While, I believe that it was collection of people who is to blame for the explosion one person who could have really avoided this situation was Robert M. Medill and his assistant Robert Weir. Robert Medill, Director of the Illinois of Bureau of Mines and Minerals, was a man filled with greed and power and did nearly nothing to fix the hazardous condition in Centralia. Medill department were very aware of the dangerous conditions at the mine but ignored requests to correct violations. Instead, Medill and Weir’s handling of the inspection reports and other communications were not conducive to clearing
The engineers in Visit Sunny Chernobyl created a new frontier past the safety zone because they want to test the limits of the reactor. What the scientists didn’t account for is that fact that the reactors already had the potential of a dangerous chain reaction. (Blackwell 6) Consequently, their boundary destroying led to catastrophic consequences and the total annihilation of a land area because of massive radiation. Blackwell thought Chernobyl was so horrific he expressed that no one should visit without a “working understanding of radiation and how it’s measured” (Blackwell 7). These are some horrific consequences that followed from surpassing the
“On July 16, 1945, a six-kilogram sphere of plutonium exploded over the New Mexico desert with a force equal to 20,000 tons of dynamite” (Stoll 1). Shortly after, “on August 6 and 9, the United States dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” (Stoll 1). The levels of radiation released caused a lot of damage to humans and the environment .
Imagine working with radioactive materials in a secret camp, and the government not telling you that this material is harmful to your body. In the book Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown, she takes her readers on a journey to expose what happened in the first two cities that started producing plutonium. Brown is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has won a handful of prizes, such as the American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize for the Best Book in International European History, and was also a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow. Brown wrote this book by looking through hundreds of archives and interviews with people, the evidence she found brought light to how this important history of the Cold War left a nuclear imprint on the world today.
Unknown. "Siberia, Disasters Timeline, 21st Century." Siberia, Disasters Timeline, 21st Century. CNT Group, 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.
Hopefully, with accurate analysis and innovation, my research will teach the world of its past so this disaster doesn’t occur in the future. B - Summary of Evidence Chernobyl (chrn byl) is an uninhibited city in north Ukraine, near the Belarus boundary, on the Pripyat River. Ten miles to the north, in the town of Pripyat, is the Chernobyl nuclear powerstation, site of the worst nuclear reactor disaster in history ("Chernobyl", Columbia Encyclopedia). To specify, on April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in Ukraine, injuring human immune systems and the genetic structure of cells, contaminating soils and waterways. Nearly 7 tons of irradiated reactor fuel was released into the environment—roughly 340 million curies.
In 1988 Robert Stone directed a documentary film titled Radio Bikini: the most terrifying and unbelievable story of the nuclear age. The film documented the United States’ nuclear weapons tests in a small chain of islands known as Bikini Atoll. This paper discusses the background of Bikini Atoll to include the native population, the preparation of the tests, the results of the tests, and what we learned from the tests. This paper will also show that the movie was not completely objective. Various references were used to show the events, circumstances and accounts for what took place in the experiments.
Flanary, W. (2008). Environment effects of the Chernobyl accident. Retrieved November 1st, 2013 from /http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/152617
The development and usage of the first atomic bombs has caused a change in military, political, and public functionality of the world today. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki revolutionized warfare by killing large masses of civilian population with a single strike. The bombs’ effects from the blast, extreme heat, and radiation left an estimated 140,000 people dead. The bombs created a temporary resolution that lead to another conflict. The Cold War was a political standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States that again created a new worldwide nuclear threat. The destructive potential of nuclear weapons had created a global sweep of fear as to what might happen if these terrible forces where unleashed again. The technology involved in building the first atomic bombs has grown into the creation of nuclear weapons that are potentially 40 times more powerful than the original bombs used. However, a military change in strategy has came to promote nuclear disarmament and prevent the usage of nuclear weapons. The technology of building the atomic bomb has spurred some useful innovations that can be applied through the use of nuclear power. The fear of a potential nuclear attack had been heightened by the media and its release of movies impacting on public opinion and fear of nuclear devastation. The lives lost after the detonation of the atomic bombs have become warning signs that changed global thinking and caused preventative actions.
Chernobyl was the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century. On April 26th, 1986, one of four nuclear reactors located in the Soviet Union melted down and contaminated a vast area of Eastern Europe. The meltdown, a result of human error, lapsed safety precautions, and lack of a containment vessel, was barely contained by dropping sand and releasing huge amounts of deadly radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere. The resulting contamination killed or injured hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the environment. The affects of this accident are still being felt today and will be felt for generations to come.
The world’s conflict over nuclear weapons all began with President Truman’s decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II was coming to a close but Japan would not surrender. So, on August 6, 1945, the bomb Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima. It was triggered by a gun mechanism where a small piece of uranium-235 was fired down a barrel into a larger piece. This caused an explosion of 15 kilotons, or 15,000 tons of TNT, killing 90,000 to 166,000 people. Surprisingly, Japan did not surrender, so on August 9, 1945, the bomb Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. It was triggered when shock waves from high explosives set off the plutonium-239 core. It caused an explosion of 20 kilotons, or 20,000 tons of TNT, and killed 60,000 to 80,000 people. This second attack really sent the message to Japan, and they finally surrendered on August 15, 1945. World War II was finally over, but the Cold War began with the reveal of the United States’ nuclear power. It is believed that dropping the bombs saved both Japanese and American lives by ending the w...
...sted for radioactive elements to find the levels at least 50 times greater than what would be considered natural radioactivity. Could this be proof of an ancient nuclear war in Mohenjo-Daro? Ancient astronaut theorists believe that it is.
There are two possible causes. The first one is that the operator’s error. The turbine was exploded while it was testing, and the operator ignored the rules and regulations. The operator turned off the technical protection systems, and all the safety barriers. It was happened, because of insufficient education and training, and it caused the lack of knowledge of nuclear reactor. He just ignored the steps of test, and chose the dangerous short cut to finish the test quickly. The other possible cause is incorrect operating instructions and design. This argument announced in 1992. Both possible causes were lobbied from different groups. And Soviet Union did not offer enough data; therefore still the exact cause is veiled. (IAEA, 2005)