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Hard copies of this book available for sale at http://www.ieer.org/ RADIOACTIVE HEAVEN AND EARTH The Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Testing In, On, and Above the Earth A report of the IPPNW International Commission To Investigate the Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Production and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Commission Director Anthony Robbins, M.D. International Physicians for the Prevention . of Nuclear War President of IEER and Technical Consultant to Commission Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D. Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Commission Coordinator Katherine Yih, Ph.D. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War THE APEX PRESS New Yo* ZED BOOKS London Copyright O 1991 International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research All rights reserved The Apex Press is an imprint of the Council on Inter- national and Public Affairs, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, New York 10017 (2121953-6920). Published in the United Kingdom by Zed Books Ltd., 57 Caledonian Road, London N19BU. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. International Commission Radioactive heaven and earth : the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons testing in, on and above the earth : a report of the PPNW International Commission. 1. Public health. Effects of nuclear radiation I. Title 363.1799 ISBN 1-85649-020-3 ISBN 1-85649-021-1 pbk Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Radioactive heaven and earth : the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons testing in, on, and above the earth / Internation- al Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Inc., Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. P* cm. ISBN 0-945257-34- 1 1. Nuclear weapons--Testing--Health aspects. 2. Nuclear weapons--Testing--Envanmental aspects. I. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. 11. Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (Takoma Park, Md.) RA569.R28 1991 363.17'992--dc20 90-25747 CIP Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii Chapter 1. Assessing the Legacy of Nuclear Testing Technical Background Nuclear Explosions and Their Results Total Fission Product Activity and Decay Induced Radioactivity Radiation Exposure Due to Testing Measurement Problems Related to Atmospheric Testing Doses to Test Personnel and Downwinders Hot Spots Practical Problems in Estimating Radiation Dose Measurement Pmblems Related to Undergmund Testing Atmospheric Contamination After Underground Tests Underground Accumulations Non-Radiological Effects of Testing Chapter 2. Methodology 23 General Approach 23 Counting Nuclear Tests Which Include Non-Military Objectives 24 Estimates of Adverse Health Effects 25 Assessing the Effects of Atmospheric Testing 27 Global Effects 27 Local Effects 28 Dose Calculations 28 Assessing the Effects of Underground Testing 30 Chapter 3. Global Effects 33 Global Cancer Risk Estimates 34 Inventory of Long-Lived Radionuclides from Atmospheric Testing 44 Inventory of Long-Lived Radionuclides from Underground Testing 45 vi Radioactive Heaven and Earth Contamination of Space Chapter 4. U.S. Testing in North America Locations, Number, and 'Qpes of Tests Selection of a Test Site Downwind Communities Hot Spots and Other Environmental Contamination Environmental Effects of Underground Testing Chapter 5. U.S. Testing in the Pacific Locations, Number, and wsof Tests Historical Context of Testing Selection of the Marshall Islands as a Test Site The Tests Possible Resumption of Atmospheric Testing Downwind Communities Acute Radiation Effects Long-Tenn Effects of contamination Bikini Enewetak Rongelap Relocation and Clean-Up Policies Health Effects Due to Ciguatera Ciguatera in the Marshall Islands Chapter 6. Soviet Union Locations, Number, and Qpes of Tests Historical Context of Testing Downwind Communities Kazakhstan: Doses and Cancer Fatalities Kazakhstan: Health Effects Other Than Cancer Novaya Zemlya Environmental Effects of Underground Testing Chapter 7. British Testing in Australia Historical Context, Locations, Number, and Types of Tests Downwind Communities Fallout Measurements Dose Estimates and Health Effects Anned Forces Personnel Background to the Studies Contents vii Major Studies Residual Environmental Contamination Chapter 8. British and U.S. Testing at Christmas Island 123 Historical Context, Locations, Number, and 'ZLpes of Tests 123 Downwind Communities 124 Christmas Islanders 124 Tongareva Islanders 126 Armed Forces Personnel 126 Environmental Contamination 131 Chapter 9. French Testing 133 Locations, Number, and Types of Tests 133 Historical Context of Testing 137 Downwind Communities 138 Armed Forces Personnel 141 Hot Spots 142 Environmental Effects of Atmospheric Testing 143 Environmental Effects of Underground Testing at Moruroa 144 Physical Damage to the Reef 144 'Ikiggering of Landslides, Tsunamis, and Earthquakes 145 Venting of Gaseous and Volatile Fission Products 145 Medium- and Long-term Leakage of Fission Products to the Biosphere 146 Transfer of Dissolved Plutonium to the Ocean 148 Ciguatera 149 Chapter 10. China 151 Chapter 11. Other Countries 155 Summary and Conclusions 159 Glossary 173 References 179 PREFACE In December 1988 the International Physicians for the hevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) created the Commission to study the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons production. News ac- counts in the United States had revealed a nuclear weapons production complex replete with health, safety, and environmental problems. PPNW reasoned that similar problems were likely to exist in all nuclear weapons producing countries and set out to get an overview of the size and scope of the problems. The objective of the Commission has been to describe the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons production and testing in scientific yet accessible terms, in order to provide the public with some understanding of the price it is paying simply to build nuclear weapons. The Commission's work will be a success if it encourages local groups of physicians, scientists, and environmentalists to pursue information and accountability at each site that has contributed to the pollution caused by nuclear weapons production. If these groups are successful, governments will respond by supporting intensive and ex- tensive scientific investigations of the damage caused by nuclear weapons production and what must be done to protect the public from foture harm. Many groups and individuals have pitched in to help the Commis- sion. The Commission has organized national task forces in several countries to help gather information and present Commission findings x Radioactive Heaven and Earth to the medical, scientific, and environmental community. The Physicians for Social Responsibility, IPPNW's affiliate organization in the United States, put together a task force at the same time the Com- mission was created, and colleagues in the Soviet Union, France, Britain, India, and China have all taken steps to organize national &roups* The production of nuclear weapoefkom mining of uranium to fabrication and testing of bombs and warheads-has taken place at hundreds of sites around the world and has left a lasting mark on the planet. Because the task of quantifying the effects of the various com- ponents of the process on people and environment was enonnous, the Commission divided the problem into more manageable pieces for study. This first report of the Commission focuses on the health and en- vironmental effects of two kinds of nuclear weapons testing: atrnos- pheric tests (conducted before 1981) and underground tests. It concentrates on the testing programs of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and China, the five acknowledged nuclear powers. The Commission chose to highlight nuclear weapons testing in its first report for several reasons. There are better data available on weapons testing than on almost any other aptof nuclear weapons production. Testing is a discrete issue and is most closely linked, along with weapons design, to continuation of the arms race. Testing is needed to build new and "better" nuclear weapons. A halt in testing would probably signal an end to the arms race in nuclear weapons. The release of this repon also occurs in the year of the Test Ban Treaty Amendment Conference, when international interest in nuclear weapons testing is high. Our study of nuclear weapons testing makes three original and im- portant contributions to the information generally available to the public: 1) It recalculates the number of cancer cases and deaths expected from