Exploring the Fallout: The Aftermath of Trinity and the Impact on Public Health
One takeaway from the film “Oppenheimer” is that when the government acquires something, they will fully exploit it and may use deceitful tactics if needed.
The first nuclear explosion in the world took place on July 16, 1945, when a plutonium implosion device was tested at a site 210 miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico, on the plains of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, called the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of the Dead Man). The test was code-named "Trinity." Since then, the United States conducted approximately 1,054 nuclear tests until 1992. The US government ceased nuclear bomb testing after 1992 primarily because the Cold War had concluded, making extensive nuclear testing seem unnecessary, and due to increasing international concerns about the hazards of radioactive fallout, leading to a push for nuclear arms control agreements. This marked the beginning of a unilateral moratorium on testing by the United States in 1992, which was further strengthened by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, prohibiting all nuclear explosions on Earth.
Between 1945 and 1992, tests were carried out in the atmosphere, underwater, and underground. These tests occurred at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), the Pacific Proving Grounds (including the Marshall Islands and off Kiritimati Island in the Pacific), the Atlantic Ocean, Alaska, Colorado, Mississippi, and New Mexico. However, most of the tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
It has been disclosed that from 1951 to 1992, Mercury, Nevada, served as the location for testing 928 large-scale nuclear weapons.
The 2023 documentary film "Downwind" explores the deadly impact of nuclear testing in the United States on its citizens. Radioactive fallout from atmospheric detonations (mushroom clouds) and underground tests (venting) was carried unpredictably by the wind to individuals residing "downwind." According to the United States Department of Justice, "downwinders" are people living in counties downwind of the Nevada Test Site in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona.
The film highlights that radiation exposure caused various illnesses, primarily cancer. Nuclear fallout material exists in many forms, with iodine-131 being particularly worrisome due to its potential to increase thyroid cancer risk. Accurately determining the radiation dose and associated risk is challenging, but a 1999 National Cancer Institute report estimated that nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada site could have resulted in 11,300 to 212,000 additional thyroid cancer cases during that period. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that iodine-131 is not the only radioactive substance in fallout impacting health. For instance, strontium-90 can affect bone marrow and raise the risk of leukemia.
Despite the U.S. government's reluctance to acknowledge fault, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) on July 10, 2000. This Act, which expired in July 2024, provided one-time financial compensation to individuals who developed certain diseases from radiation exposure linked to aboveground nuclear weapons testing or work in uranium mining, milling, and ore transportation. It mainly benefited "downwinders" residing near test sites, onsite test participants, and uranium workers. In 2022, the Act was nearing expiration, but President Joe Biden extended the filing deadline by two more years.
The remunerations set in 1990 have stayed the same, even with inflation.
• $50,000 to individuals residing or working "downwind" of the Nevada Test Site
• $75,000 for workers participating in atmospheric nuclear weapons tests
• $100,000 for uranium miners, millers, and ore transporters
So far, RECA has distributed almost $2.6 billion in benefits to nearly 40,000 claimants, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics. Nonetheless, more than 13,000 claims have been denied, and downwinders are eligible for compensation only if they resided in Utah, Nevada, or Arizona during the time of above-ground testing.
Residents near the Trinity nuclear test site in New Mexico, unlike those near the Nevada test site, were unaware of the project and were not included in the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act support for affected downwinders.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) notably declined to permit a House vote on a Senate-approved bill, which had garnered significant bipartisan support, aimed at extending and broadening the program to include populations impacted but not covered by the initial program, such as downwinders in New Mexico affected by the first nuclear test explosion.
The U.S. government is once more considering bomb testing. This madness persists. On June 27, 2024, Robert O’Brien, who served as a national security adviser under former President Trump, wrote in a Foreign Affairs article titled “Making the Case for Trump’s Foreign Policy” that the United States must uphold technical and numerical superiority over the combined nuclear arsenals of China and Russia. To achieve this, he argued, Washington should conduct real-world tests of new nuclear weapons for reliability and safety for the first time since 1992, rather than relying solely on computer simulations.
Restarting U.S. nuclear testing is both technically and militarily unwarranted. Additionally, it would trigger a worldwide series of nuclear tests, increase global tensions, and severely undermine international nonproliferation efforts during a period of increased nuclear risk.
Since 1945, the majority of the 2,056 nuclear test explosions worldwide were carried out to create new and more lethal nuclear bombs. The U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories now operate a well-funded and advanced Stockpile Stewardship Program to sustain the U.S. arsenal. This program has given U.S. weapons scientists a more profound comprehension of nuclear weapons dynamics than during the era of nuclear explosive testing. In summary, according to the highest-ranking officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), nuclear explosive testing is not necessary for "safety and reliability."
O’Brien’s 2024 proposal reflects statements made by the Trump administration, which announced in 2018 that the United States would not ratify the CTBT and officially reduced the time needed to resume nuclear testing from 24-36 months to 6-10 months. In May 2020, senior Trump national security officials reportedly considered conducting a U.S. nuclear test explosion as a demonstration to intimidate China and Russia during negotiations. Later that year, Trump’s “arms control” adviser warned that the United States would outspend China and Russia in a nuclear arms race if they did not agree to U.S. proposals.
The Trump administration's threats regarding nuclear testing did not lead to a change in Chinese or Russian nuclear activities. Instead, China has increased its nuclear weapons development, and in 2023, Russia retracted its 2000 ratification of the CTBT to align with the U.S. position. Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to restart nuclear testing if the United States does so. China, having conducted 45 nuclear tests before halting in 1996, would probably seize the opportunity to test new warhead designs if U.S. leaders were to foolishly resume explosive testing first.
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