The true horrors of nuclear testing was not given much thought prior to 1950 despite radioactivity being dispersed throughout the U.S. during that time. However, the detrimental effects of the bombs dispersion of radioactivity became more and more evident to the people throughout the 1950’s which spurred public protests and concerns. It was at this time where people started to find out that the radioactivity began to have effects on mother’s milk and babies’ teeth which was something many found disturbing. When people started to see that the effects of radioactivity had begun to really affect their lives, the fear became widespread. This resulted in nuclear tests being banned in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater by the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963. Although this was a step in the right direction, it proved to do only little in the long run as loopholes in the treaty were found. According to the treaty, nuclear tests could not been done in the atmosphere, outer space, or underwater however, nothing was stated that prevented testing being operated underground. Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened and the results from the nuclear testing were still terrifying and horrendous which proved that the treaty had not fixed everything. Tests done underground resulted in immense amounts of plutonium, caesium-135 and iodine-129 being released underground. That was not all as although testing was done underground, exposure occurred beyond the testing site if radioactive gases were leaked or vented which actually happened quite frequently. Many was done to try and prevent nuclear testing but it proved to be easier said than done. On January 27th, 1951, nuclear testing was done on the Nevada Test Site. Many tests were ca... ... middle of paper ... ... harder to see what was up there such as incoming Russian missiles. Another reason was to see whether or not an explosion would do any damage to objects nearby. The scientific basis for these proposals are still not clear today but it was definitely an event that turned many heads and raised questions. It was not a great idea to say the least as it was stupid, useless and reckless. It is scary to know that our military is willing to detonate bombs hundreds of miles up into space which is one of the most pristine and beautiful areas of our Earth, without knowing what the consequences would be. Furthermore, the tests created entirely new radiation belts which became a danger for manned space flights as well as create an artificial extension of the Van Allen belts that was widely visible. We all know that rockets are not un-fallable which is why this was not ethical.
“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.
Steele Dorn, Ka ren. “Time bombs keep going off for cancer-plagued families in Idaho who lived downwind of nuclear testing in the 1950s.” Downwinders (October 24, 2004). 11 April 2005
...ad a grudge from the Cold War. More importantly, the absence of a containment structure is especially important. As pointed out by Rhodes article about Chernobyl, "Post-accident analyses indicate that if there had been U.S.-style containment, none of the radioactivity would have escaped, and there would have been no injuries or deaths" (Rhodes "Chernobyl", PBS). Chernobyl wouldn’t have been the traumatic event that it was if the Soviets were technologically advanced and obviously, if they trained their personnel that managed radioactive materials. In the end the stubbornness of the Soviets was an important aspect of Chernobyl as it stopped them from asking for help and the prevailing operating philosophy at the time in the Soviet Union, which did not trust automation and relied on operators who did not understand the process turned out bring about this upheaval.
The Truman Administration wanted to enhance the countries knowledge on the effects of nuclear weapons on its ships and equipment. Until that point, nuclear testing was done on the behavior of nuclear weapons. During the summer of 1946, a joint task force was given the mission to test the effects of nuclear radiation on ships, equipment and material. Formed in the winter of 1946, Joint Task Force 1 was made up of Navy, Army and civilian personnel (“Operation Crossroads, 1946”). The test was done using two atomic bombs, ABLE and BAKER.
The development of the atomic bomb and chemical warfare forever changed the way people saw the world. It was a landmark in time for which there was no turning back. The constant balancing of the nuclear super powers kept the whole of humankind on the brink of atomic Armageddon. Fear of nuclear winter and the uncertainty of radiation created its own form of a cultural epidemic in the United States. During these tense times in human history officials made controversial decisions such as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dangerous biological experiments and bombs tests were carried out in the name of the greater good and national defense. Some historians and scientists argue that the decisions and acts carried out by the U.S. during World War II and the Cold War were unethical because of the direct damage they did. The United States' decisions were moral because it can be proven their actions were aimed at achieving a greater good and those that were put in potential danger volunteered and were informed of the risk.
In today’s society, many countries and even citizens of the United States question the U.S. government’s decision to get involved in nuclear warfare. These people deemed it unnecessary and stated that the U.S. is a hypocrite that preaches peace, but causes destruction and death. Before and during World War II the U.S. was presented with a difficult decision on whether or not to develop and use the atomic bomb. The U.S. decided to develop the atomic bomb based on the fear they had for the safety of the nation. In August 1939 nuclear physicists sent manuscripts to Albert Einstein in fear the Germany might use the new knowledge of fission on the uranium nucleus as way to construct weapons.
After the United States developed the atomic at the end of World War II, interest in nuclear technology increased exponentially. People soon realized that nuclear technology could be used for electricity, as another alternative to fossil fuels. Today, nuclear power has its place in the world, but there is still a lot of controversy over the use of nuclear energy. Things such as the containment of radiation and few nuclear power plant accidents have given nuclear power a bad image. However, nuclear power is a reliable source of energy because it has no carbon emissions, energy is available at any time, little fuel is needed for a lot of energy, and as time goes on, it is becoming safer and safer.
"The tops are leaping off the reactor lip" this was the first warning which the control room received before the destructive explosion in Chernobyl that occurred at 1:23 AM local time. Twenty three minute after the warning in the morning of 26 April 1989, the reactor exploded. The Chernobyl nuclear accident was an unexpected catastrophe that can happen in the history of producing nuclear power. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) defined a nuclear accident as an accident that includes any activities that lead to the release of radioactive material and causes significant consequences. The location of Chernobyl city is in the north of Ukraine near the Belarus border. That nuclear accident happened when in reactor number 4 in the Chernobyl nuclear power in the Soviet Union exploded. Because of that extreme explosion, the radioactive emissions dispensed into the environment and caused immediate deaths, illnesses and many health problems. World Health Association (2013) reports that during the accident, one person died immediately and another one died in the hospital due to the harmful injuries he received. Health World Organization (WHO) (2006) also reports that a few weeks after the disaster 28 people died because of the Acute Radiation Sickness(ARS). The Chernobyl nuclear accident is one of the major disasters in the history of nuclear power which had many serious effects on humans and the environment.
Nuclear power was always thought to be far too great to ever be used for harm. Many United States officials came to this belief as well, but only once it was too late. At the end of World War II, it was known that Japan was looking for the easiest way to surrender with the least possible consequences toward. It was known that the dropping of the atomic bomb would kill and injure thousands of innocent lives, and destroy everything in its path. Lastly, it was known that the dropping of the atomic bomb would forever change weaponry because a new type of weapon was born. The United States was not justified in dropping the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki because Japan was on the verge of surrender; it caused harm to thousands of innocent lives, and changed weaponry forever.
In 1962, at 11:00:09 pm local time on July 8th, the United States detonated a thermonuclear warhead riding atop a Thor missile at 400 km above Johnston Island at a distance of 826 miles from Honolulu, Hawaii. That night was one that many on the Hawaii Islands would never forget (Berkhouse, 1962). Operation , as the test was code named by the U.S. military, caused the first damage in the United States from an electromagnetic pulse created by a nuclear detonation. Though the damage was not intended or planned, the 1.4-megaton weapon caused “the failure of street-lighting systems, tripping of circuit breakers, triggering of burglar alarms, and damage to a telecommunications relay facility.” (EMP Commission, 2004, p. 4)
The nuclear bomb was the most devastating weapon ever created by man. It was developed between 1942 and 1945 during the second World War. The project to build the worlds first atomic weapon was called The Manhattan Project. The nuclear bomb was based on the idea of splitting an atom to create energy, this is called fission. Three bombs were created, “Trinity”, “Little Boy”, and “Fat Man”. “Trinity” was dropped on a test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, proving the theories, engineering and mathematics of the bomb to be correct. Shortly after that, not more than 2 months, the U.S. performed the first actual nuclear attack in the history of war. The bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on the town of Hiroshima, instantly killing thousands. “Fat Man” was dropped shortly after on the town of Nagasaki. After the bombing almost all scientist involved with the creation of the bomb regretted its construction and spoke out against the abolishment of nuclear weapons.
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...
The use of nuclear power in the mid-1980s was not a popular idea on account of all the fears that it had presented. The public seemed to have rejected it because of the fear of radiation. The Chernobyl accident in the Soviet Union in April of 1986 reinforced the fears, and gave them an international dimension (Cohen 1). Nevertheless, the public has to come to terms that one of the major requirements for sustaining human progress is an adequate source of energy. The current largest sources of energy are the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas. Fear of radiation may push nuclear power under the carpet but another fear of the unknown is how costly is this going to be? If we as the public have to overcome the fear of radiation and costly project, we first have to understand the details of nuclear energy. The known is a lot less scary then the unknown. If we could put away all the presumptions we have about this new energy source, then maybe we can understand that this would be a good decision for use in the near future.
Nuclear power, the use of exothermic nuclear processes to produce an enormous amount of electricity and heat for domestic, medical, military and industrial purposes i.e. “By the end of 2012 2346.3 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity was generated by nuclear reactors around the world” (International atomic energy agency Vienna, 2013, p.13). However, with that been said it is evident that the process of generating electricity from a nuclear reactor has numerous health and environmental safety issues.