Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons – a Pacific Islands Priority
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Grappling with the Bomb: Britain's Pacific H-Bomb Tests
Timeline and glossary Nuclear timeline, 1945–1963 16 July 1945 Alamogordo, United States conducts first-ever nuclear New Mexico, USA test, codenamed ‘Trinity .’ 6 August 1945 Hiroshima, Japan US aircraft Enola Gay drops the atomic weapon ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people immediately and an estimated 100,000 people within six months . 9 August 1945 Nagasaki, Japan US aircraft Bockscar drops the atomic weapon ‘Fat Man’ on Nagasaki, killing 70,000 people immediately and tens of thousands in following months . 30 June 1946 Bikini Atoll, Marshall Under Operation Crossroads, United Islands States conducts the first of two atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. ‘Able’ and ‘Baker’ are the first of 67 atmospheric tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946–1958 . 6 August 1948 Hiroshima, Japan Hiroshima’s first Peace Festival. 29 August 1949 Semipalatinsk, USSR conducts first atomic test Kazakhstan RDS-1 in Operation Pervaya molniya (Fast lightning), dubbed ‘Joe-1’ by United States . 1950–1954 Korean peninsula United States, Britain and Australia, under a United Nations mandate, join military operations in Korea following clashes between forces from the south and north of Korea. The Democratic People’s Republic is backed by the newly created People’s Republic of China . 3 October 1952 Monte Bello Islands, Under Operation Hurricane, United Western Australia Kingdom begins its nuclear testing program in Australia with a 25 kiloton atomic test . xi GRAPPLING WITH THE BOMB 1 November 1952 Bikini Atoll, Marshall United States conducts its first Islands hydrogen bomb test, codenamed ‘Mike’ (10 .4 megatons) as part of Operation Ivy . -
Information Regarding Radiation Reports Commissioned by Atomic Weapons
6';ZeKr' LOOSE MIN= C 31 E Tot' Task Force Commander, Operation Grapple 'X' A 0 \ Cloud Sampling 1. It is agreed that the meteorological conditions at Christmas Island, although ideal in sane ways, pose oonsiderable problems in others. First31„ the tropopause at Christmas Island varies between 55,000 and 59,000 ft; thin is in contrast to the tropopause in the U.S. Eniwetok area which is more usually around 45,000 ft. and, under conditions of small, i.e. under two megaton bursts, may give quite different cloud ooncentrations. In the Eniwetok area the mushroom tends to leave some cloud at tropopause and then go on up producing a small sample at tropopause level, but the main body being much higher does not cause the problem of "shine" that is caused at Christmas Island where the difference of 12,000 to 15,000 extra feet in tropopause level tends to result in the upward rise of the oloud immediately after this level being slower and the spread immediate thereby causing an embarrassing amount of "shine" to the cloud samplers who must be over 50,000 ft. The other thing which I think must be borne in mind is the temperature at the 60,000 ft. level in the Christmas Island area. If this is minus 90° or over, trouble may well be expected from "flame-out" in rocket assisted turbo-jet aircraft. It is frequently minus 82° at 53,000 ft. 2. We have tended to find in past trials that the area between the base of the cloud and the sea is, to all intents and purposes, free from significant radiation. -
Andrew S. Burrows, Robert S. Norris William M
0?1' ¥t Andrew S. Burrows, Robert S. Norris William M. Arkin, and Thomas B. Cochran GREENPKACZ Damocles 28 rue des Petites Ecuries B.P. 1027 75010 Paris 6920 1 Lyon Cedex 01 Tel. (1) 47 70 46 89 TO. 78 36 93 03 no 3 - septembre 1989 no 3809 - maWaoOt 1989 Directeur de publication, Philippe Lequenne CCP lyon 3305 96 S CPPAP no en cours Directeur de publication, Palrtee Bouveret CPPAP no6701 0 Composition/Maquette : P. Bouverei Imprime sur papier blanchi sans chlore par Atelier 26 / Tel. 75 85 51 00 Depot legal S date de parution Avant-propos a ['edition fran~aise La traduction fran~aisede cette etude sur les essais nucleaires fran~aisentre dans Ie cadre d'une carnpagne mondiale de GREENPEACEpour la denuclearisation du Pacifique. Les chercheurs americains du NRDC sont parvenus a percer Ie secret qui couvre en France tout ce qui touche au nucleaire militaire. Ainsi, la France : - a effectub 172 essais nucleaires de 1960 a 1988. soil environ 10 % du nornbre total d'essais effectues depuis 1945 ; - doit effectuer 20 essais pour la rnise au point d'une t6te d'ame nuclhaire ; - effectual! 8 essais annuels depuis quelques annees et ces essais ont permis la mise au point de la bombe a neutrons des 1985 ; - a produit, depuis 1963, environ 800 tetes nuclbaires et pres de 500 sont actusllement deployees ; - a effectue pks de 110 essais souterrains a Mururoa. Les degats causes a I'atatI sont tres importants. La rbcente decision oflicielle du regroupement des essais en une seule carnpagne de tirs annuelle n'a probablement pas ete prise uniquernent pour des imperatifs econamiques ou de conjoncture internationale. -
60 Anniversary of Valiant's First Flight
17th May 2011 60th Anniversary of Valiant’s First Flight First Flight 18th May 1951 Wednesday 18th May 2011 will mark the 60th Anniversary of the first flight of the Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant. Part of the Royal Air Forces V-Bomber nuclear deterrent during the 1950’s and 1960’s, the Valiant was the first of the V-bombers to make it into the air, when prototype WB210 took to the skies on 18th May 1951. The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford is home to the world’s only complete example, Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant B (K).1 XD818. The Valiant is on display in the Museums award winning National Cold War Exhibition, the only place in the world where you can see all three of Britain’s V-Bombers: Vulcan, Victor and Valiant on display together under one roof. This British four jet bomber went into active RAF service in 1955 and played a significant role during the Cold War period. With a wingspan of 114ft, over 108ft in length and a height of over 32ft, the Valiant had a bomb capacity of a 10,000lb nuclear bomb or 21 x 1,000lb conventional bombs. In total 107 aircraft were built, each carrying a crew of five including two pilots, two navigators and an air electronics officer. The type was retired from RAF service in 1965 due to structural problems. RAF Museum Cosford Curator, Al McLean says: "The Valiant was the first of the V-bombers to enter service, the first to drop a nuclear weapon and the first to go into combat. -
Britain's Pacific H-Bomb Tests
Introduction From the beginning of the nuclear age, the United States, Britain and France sought distant locations to conduct their Cold War programs of nuclear weapons testing. For 50 years between 1946 and 1996, the islands of the central and south Pacific and the deserts of Australia were used as a ‘nuclear playground’ to conduct more than 315 atmospheric and underground nuclear tests, at 10 different sites.1 These desert and ocean sites were chosen because they seemed to be vast, empty spaces. But they weren’t empty. The Western nuclear powers showed little concern for the health and wellbeing of nearby indigenous communities and the civilian and military personnel who staffed the test sites. In the late 1950s, nearly 14,000 British military personnel and scientific staff travelled to the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (GEIC) in the central Pacific to support the United Kingdom’s hydrogen bomb testing program. In this military deployment, codenamed Operation Grapple, the British personnel were joined by hundreds of NZ sailors, Gilbertese labourers and Fijian troops.2 Many witnessed the nine atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at Malden Island and Christmas (Kiritimati) Island between May 1957 and September 1958. Today, these islands are part of the independent nation of Kiribati.3 1 Stewart Firth: Nuclear Playground (Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1987). 2 Between May 1956 and the end of testing in September 1958, 3,908 Royal Navy (RN) sailors, 4,032 British army soldiers and 5,490 Royal Air Force (RAF) aircrew were deployed to Christmas Island, together with 520 scientific and technical staff from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE)—a total of 13,980 personnel. -
The Human Cost of Nuclear Weapons
The human cost Autumn 2015 97 Number 899 Volume of nuclear weapons Volume 97 Number 899 Autumn 2015 Volume 97 Number 899 Autumn 2015 Editorial: A price too high: Rethinking nuclear weapons in light of their human cost Vincent Bernard, Editor-in-Chief After the atomic bomb: Hibakusha tell their stories Masao Tomonaga, Sadao Yamamoto and Yoshiro Yamawaki The view from under the mushroom cloud: The Chugoku Shimbun newspaper and the Hiroshima Peace Media Center Tomomitsu Miyazaki Photo gallery: Ground zero Nagasaki Akitoshi Nakamura Discussion: Seventy years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Reflections on the consequences of nuclear detonation Tadateru Konoé and Peter Maurer Nuclear arsenals: Current developments, trends and capabilities Hans M. Kristensen and Matthew G. McKinzie Pursuing “effective measures” relating to nuclear disarmament: Ways of making a legal obligation a reality Treasa Dunworth The human costs and legal consequences of nuclear weapons under international humanitarian law Louis Maresca and Eleanor Mitchell Chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear events: The humanitarian response framework of the International Committee of the Red Cross Gregor Malich, Robin Coupland, Steve Donnelly and Johnny Nehme Humanitarian debate: Law, policy, action The use of nuclear weapons and human rights The human cost of nuclear weapons Stuart Casey-Maslen The development of the international initiative on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and its effect on the nuclear weapons debate Alexander Kmentt Changing the discourse on nuclear weapons: The humanitarian initiative Elizabeth Minor Protecting humanity from the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons: Reframing the debate towards the humanitarian impact Richard Slade, Robert Tickner and Phoebe Wynn-Pope An African contribution to the nuclear weapons debate Sarah J. -
Library of Congress Subject Headings for the Pacific Islands
Library of Congress Subject Headings for the Pacific Islands First compiled by Nancy Sack and Gwen Sinclair Updated by Nancy Sack Current to January 2020 Library of Congress Subject Headings for the Pacific Islands Background An inquiry from a librarian in Micronesia about how to identify subject headings for the Pacific islands highlighted the need for a list of authorized Library of Congress subject headings that are uniquely relevant to the Pacific islands or that are important to the social, economic, or cultural life of the islands. We reasoned that compiling all of the existing subject headings would reveal the extent to which additional subjects may need to be established or updated and we wish to encourage librarians in the Pacific area to contribute new and changed subject headings through the Hawai‘i/Pacific subject headings funnel, coordinated at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.. We captured headings developed for the Pacific, including those for ethnic groups, World War II battles, languages, literatures, place names, traditional religions, etc. Headings for subjects important to the politics, economy, social life, and culture of the Pacific region, such as agricultural products and cultural sites, were also included. Scope Topics related to Australia, New Zealand, and Hawai‘i would predominate in our compilation had they been included. Accordingly, we focused on the Pacific islands in Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia (excluding Hawai‘i and New Zealand). Island groups in other parts of the Pacific were also excluded. References to broader or related terms having no connection with the Pacific were not included. Overview This compilation is modeled on similar publications such as Music Subject Headings: Compiled from Library of Congress Subject Headings and Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies. -
Worldwide Nuclear Explosions
Worldwide Nuclear Explosions Xiaoping Yang, Robert North, and Carl Romney Science Applications International Corporation, Center for Monitoring Research, 1300 N. 17th Street, Arlington, VA 22209 Paul G. Richards Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964 I. Introduction The first nuclear test, Trinity, exploded near Alamogordo, New Mexico, U.S.A., on 16 July 1945, marked the beginning of the nuclear explosive testing. Since then there is evidence that 2039 additional explosions have been conducted by seven countries (China, France, India, Pakistan, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States) during 1945-1998, according to information in the Nuclear Explosion Database at the Center for Monitoring Research (CMR) (Yang et al., 2000a; http://www.pidc.org). For completeness, the CMR database also includes the possible but disputed occurrence of an atmospheric nuclear explosion on 22 September 1979, with the "responsible country" listed as "Unknown”. This paper summarizes information on worldwide nuclear explosions extracted from the CMR database. 1 The CMR Nuclear Explosion Database contains comprehensive data relevant to nuclear monitor- ing research (e.g. origin time, location, and yield) on nuclear explosions worldwide. To ensure the completeness of information, data have been collected from a variety of sources, ranging from government announcements to media reports. The database has been maintained and updated on a regular basis as new data became available and as errors have been corrected. In general, an event in the database has several “origins” (data on location, time of occurrence, and confidence bounds). A preferred origin for any given event has been selected based on the most complete and accurate information on the coordinates and time of each explosion. -
Naval Accidents 1945-1988, Neptune Papers No. 3
-- Neptune Papers -- Neptune Paper No. 3: Naval Accidents 1945 - 1988 by William M. Arkin and Joshua Handler Greenpeace/Institute for Policy Studies Washington, D.C. June 1989 Neptune Paper No. 3: Naval Accidents 1945-1988 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Overview ........................................................................................................................................ 2 Nuclear Weapons Accidents......................................................................................................... 3 Nuclear Reactor Accidents ........................................................................................................... 7 Submarine Accidents .................................................................................................................... 9 Dangers of Routine Naval Operations....................................................................................... 12 Chronology of Naval Accidents: 1945 - 1988........................................................................... 16 Appendix A: Sources and Acknowledgements........................................................................ 73 Appendix B: U.S. Ship Type Abbreviations ............................................................................ 76 Table 1: Number of Ships by Type Involved in Accidents, 1945 - 1988................................ 78 Table 2: Naval Accidents by Type -
Radiation Exposures and Compensation of Victims of French Atmospheric Nuclear Tests in Polynesia
Radiation Exposures and Compensation of Victims of French Atmospheric Nuclear Tests in Polynesia Sébastien Philippe1,* Sonya Schoenberger2,3, Nabil Ahmed4 1 Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University, 221 Nassau St, 2nd floor, Princeton NJ 08540, USA 2 Department of History, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall Bldg 200, Stanford, CA 94305, USA 3 Yale Law School, 127 Wall St, New Haven, CT 06511, USA 4 Faculty of Architecture and Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Alfred Getz vei 3, 7491 Trondheim, Norway *To whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected] Abstract Between 1966 and 1974, France conducted 41 atmospheric nuclear weapon tests in Polynesia. Radioactive fallout impacted downwind atolls and islands leading to the external and internal exposure of the local populations to ionizing radiation. By law, individuals who were exposed to radiation in the context of these tests can file compensation claims with the French government if they develop certain radiogenic cancers. A claimant who meets the basic eligibility criteria (place, time, and type of disease) automatically benefits from the presumption of a causal link between radiation exposure and the development of their illness, unless the exposure is deemed too low. Since 2017, an effective dose threshold of 1 mSv per year has been used in the claims adjudication process. Decisions as to whether claimants have met this 1 mSv threshold in a given year are often made on the basis of data from government dose reconstruction studies carried out in 2005 and 2006. Using new information available from recently declassified documents on the radiological impact of French atmospheric nuclear tests in Polynesia, as well as atmospheric transport modeling of radioactive fallout, this article shows that maximum doses to the public for key atmospheric tests may have been underestimated by factors of 2 to 10 and estimates that the total population exposed above the compensation threshold of 1 mSv/yr could be greater than ~110,000. -
Britain's Pacific H-Bomb Tests by Nic Maclellan
LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Grappling with the Bomb: Britain’s Pacific H-Bomb Tests by Nic Maclellan Page 1 of 3 Book Review: Grappling with the Bomb: Britain’s Pacific H-Bomb Tests by Nic Maclellan In Grappling with the Bomb: Britain’s Pacific H-Bomb Tests, Nic Maclellan gathers together oral history and archival materials to bring forth a more democratic history of the British hydrogen bomb test series Operation Grapple, conducted in the South Pacific between 1957-58. Centralising the experiences and voices of Pacific islanders still affected by the detonations and still fighting for recognition and recompense from the UK government, this book — available to download here for free — offers a textured, multi-layered story that gives urgent attention to historical legacies of nuclear harm and injustice, writes Tom Vaughan. Grappling with the Bomb: Britain’s Pacific H-Bomb Tests. Nic Maclellan. ANU Press. 2017. Find this book: Sixty years after the British hydrogen bomb test series Operation Grapple was conducted in the South Pacific, its remaining survivors — now octogenarians — continue to fight for recognition and recompense from the UK government. The Grapple series, running from May 1957 to September 1958, consisted of nine nuclear detonations across test sites on Malden and Christmas (Kiritimati) Islands and announced the UK’s arrival as the world’s third thermonuclear power. As a shrinking Empire trickled through Britannia’s fingers, Grapple briefly salved the rapidly developing British condition of postcolonial melancholia by anointing the UK with destructive capabilities disproportionate to its diminishing influence, and helping to secure British ‘seats at the table’ in global affairs for decades to come. -
The Humanitarian Impact and Implications of Nuclear Test Explosions in the Pacific Region Tilman A
International Review of the Red Cross (2015), 97 (899), 775–813. The human cost of nuclear weapons doi:10.1017/S1816383116000163 The humanitarian impact and implications of nuclear test explosions in the Pacific region Tilman A. Ruff* Dr Tilman A. Ruff is an infectious diseases and public health physician. Dr Ruff is Associate Professor at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne; Co- President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War; Founding Chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; and International Medical Adviser for Australian Red Cross. Abstract The people of the Pacific region have suffered widespread and persisting radioactive contamination, displacement and transgenerational harm from nuclear test explosions. This paper reviews radiation health effects and the global impacts of nuclear testing, as context for the health and environmental consequences of nuclear test explosions in Australia, the Marshall Islands, the central Pacific and French Polynesia. The resulting humanitarian needs include recognition, accountability, monitoring, care, compensation and remediation. Treaty architecture to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons and provide for their elimination is considered the most promising way to durably end nuclear testing. Evidence of the * This paper is humbly dedicated to the victims and survivors of nuclear explosions worldwide working for the eradication of nuclear weapons. The author thanks Nic Maclellan for his helpful suggestions. © icrc 2016