Since the first nuclear test at Alamagordo, New Mexico in July 1945, the five nuclear weapons states, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China have conducted 2,035 nuclear tests. Every test, costing up to US$70 million each, has helped to add new generations of weapons to arsenals of the nuclear states. Even with the end of the cold war, nuclear testing continues, a reminder that the nuclear arms race is not over.
STOP ALL NUCLEAR TESTING NOW
In November 1990, Russia declared a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. In April 1992, France also announced a moratorium on nuclear testing. In the latter half of 1992, the United States joined the moratorium, which also forced the United Kingdom to join (it uses the US test site at Nevada). Since 1992 China has been the only country conducting nuclear tests.
However, in June 1995 the newly elected French President, Jacques Chirac, announced that France would break the moratorium and begin a series of eight nuclear tests at Moruroa atoll in the South Pacific starting in September. Preparations for those tests are now underway. France is conducting these tests in order to develop new nuclear weapons and retain a nuclear capability well into the next century.
As with many facts about nuclear weapons, the details about nuclear testing have been kept very secret by all five nuclear powers. The following figures are based on known public information.
One of the most tragic examples of the dangers from nuclear testing is the legacy from the "Bravo" Test on Bikini atoll in 1954. The US military failed to warn and evacuate people on nearby Pacific islands who were directly downwind of the radioactive fallout. Children played in the 'atomic snow' from the radioactive cloud which passed above them, completely unaware of the dangers. Since then the islanders have been relocated a number of times because their homes are still contaminated. They cannot eat local produce. People are still suffering from cancers and ill health from the radiation. There have been high rates of stillbirths, and what the islanders call 'jellyfish babies' which die soon after birth because of the dreadful deformities resulting from exposure to radiation. No independent scientific team has been permitted to undertake a thorough investigation of Moruroa, and no independent health assessment of the people of French Polynesia has been permitted. However, brief investigations have revealed deep cracks and fissures and evidence of subsidence on the atoll. Moruroa is like a large water-permeable and unregulated radioactive waste dump, and many scientists believe radioactivity is already leaking into the lagoon and surrounding ocean. As the atoll ages and suffers more blasts from nuclear tests, it becomes even more vulnerable to leakage. If Moruroa were to fracture or break up, long-lasting, high-level radioactivity from over 120 nuclear tests could leak or spill into the Pacific ocean causing incalculable and irreparable harm to the marine environment and local health.
Extract from "Testimonies : Witnesses of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific"
Toimata has four surviving children. While her husband was working at Moruroa, she had six other babies who died. "Our first and eldest child was born in 1975. She always seems to be sick with a chronic cough and stomach pains but she goes to school and is doing alright there. My second baby was born prematurely at seven and a half months and died the day he was born. My third baby was born at home at full term but died two weeks later. She had a skin problem. Her skin would come off immediately if it was touched. The doctors said that the baby was fine but obviously she was not. No one knows the cause of her condition. Eugene, my fourth baby, was born at full term but died when he was two months old. He had diarrhoea and we took him to Mamao, the hospital in Tahiti. The diarrhoea continued for some time. When it stopped, it was replaced by another condition. The baby became rigid, like wood. Every part of his body was racked by continuous muscular contractions and he had a high temperature. It was impossible to open his fists. The doctors would not talk about his condition. He was a Mamao for two weeks and then he died. The doctors did not tell us anything and refused to fill out his death certificate."
A COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY
Negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to end all nuclear testing for all time have been taking place for the past two years at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (UNCD) in Geneva.
Such a ban should include small explosions and other technologically advanced testing programmes, and would:
1. Pave the way for nuclear disarmament Perfecting new weapons undermines Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations to disarm (see below). Also a negotiated and verifiable CTBT would create a more stable context for disarmament talks.
2. Reduce the risks to health and the environment Further accidents or leakage of radioactive materials from testing would be stopped.
3. Help stop nuclear proliferation A CTBT would make it more difficult for non-nuclear states to develop a nuclear arsenal.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) came into force in 1970. Under the terms of the Treaty, the nuclear weapons states agreed to eliminate their nuclear weapons. In return, the non-nuclear weapons states agreed not to manufacture or acquire nuclear weapons. At the time, stopping all nuclear testing through a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was seen as a key step to stopping and reversing the arms race.
The final decision of the NPT Review and Extension Conference in New York in May 1995, stated that the nuclear weapons states should exercise the "utmost restraint" on nuclear testing until a Comprehensive Test Ban was completed no later than 1996. Both France and China have clearly broken their pledge to exercise 'utmost restraint' : China conducted a test just three days after the close of the NPT Conference, and France is now planning a series of tests as intensive as any it conducted at the height of the cold war. In doing so they could jeopardise the whole future of the test ban talks.
Discussions have also been delayed by political disagreements and attempts to get round the Treaty by developing other ways of producing new nuclear warheads using computer simulations, much smaller nuclear explosions or tests referred to as hydronuclear experiments.
In addition to the five nuclear weapons states, there are also the nuclear arsenals of Israel, India and Pakistan. Israel is thought to have about 200 nuclear weapons, while the status of the nuclear arsenals of India and Pakistan is unknown. As long as the five nuclear weapons states continue to develop more and newer nuclear weapons, several other countries will squander their resources in attempts to join the nuclear club. Nuclear testing is part of nuclear weapons production and proliferation. Fifty years after the dawn of the nuclear age, it is time to stop.
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