Approximately 235,000 military personnel participated at one of 230 U.S. atmospheric nuclear weapons tests from 1945 through 1962. At the Nevada Test Site (NTS), the atomic veterans participated in ...military maneuvers, observed nuclear weapons tests, or provided technical support. At the Pacific Proving Ground (PPG), they served aboard ships or were stationed on islands during or after nuclear weapons tests.
Participants at seven test series, previously studied with high-quality dosimetry and personnel records, and the first test at TRINITY formed the cohort of 114,270 male military participants traced for vital status from 1945 through 2010. Dose reconstructions were based on Nuclear Test Personnel Review records, Department of Defense. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) and Cox and Poisson regression models were used in the analysis.
Most atomic veterans were enlisted men, served in the Navy at the PPG, and were born before 1930. Vital status was determined for 96.8% of the veterans; 60% had died. Enlisted men had significantly high all-causes mortality SMR (1.06); officers had significantly low all-causes mortality SMR (0.71). The pattern of risk over time showed a diminution of the 'healthy soldier effect': the all-causes mortality SMR after 50 years of follow-up was 1.00. The healthy soldier effect for all cancers also diminished over time. The all-cancer SMR was significantly high after 50 years (SMR 1.10) primarily from smoking-related cancers, attributed in part to the availability of cigarettes in military rations. The highest SMR was for mesothelioma (SMR 1.56) which was correlated with asbestos exposure in naval ships. Prostate cancer was significantly high (SMR 1.13). Ischemic heart disease was significantly low (SMR 0.84). Estimated mean doses varied by organ were low; e.g., the mean red bone marrow dose was 6 mGy (maximum 108 mGy). Internal cohort dose-response analyses provided no evidence for increasing trends with radiation dose for leukemia (excluding chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)) ERR (95% CI) per 100 mGy −0.37 (−1.08, 0.33); n = 710, CLL, myelodysplastic syndrome, multiple myeloma, ischemic heart disease, or cancers of the lung, prostate, breast, and brain.
No statistically significant radiation associations were observed among 114,270 nuclear weapons test participants followed for up to 65 years. The 95% confidence limits were narrow and excluded mortality risks per unit dose that are two to four times higher than those reported in other investigations. Significantly elevated SMRs were seen for mesothelioma and asbestosis, attributed to asbestos exposure aboard ships.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
A commentary on the review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is presented. NPT review conferences are organized every five years since 1975. The purpose for ...the timely review of NPT is to ensure that the terms and conditions of the treaty are being followed properly.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
63.
Nuclear Test Ban Haak, Hein; Dahlman, Ola; Mykkeltveit, S
2009, 20090123, 2008-07-31, 20090401
eBook
The book gives a broad presentation in laymen's language of the creation and the implementation of the treaty prohibiting nuclear test explosions (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: CTBT), one of ...the key guarantors of nuclear non-proliferation. The writers, who personally guided this work for more than 25 years, give a unique insight into the challenging international work to establish a complex technological system with global coverage in a political environment. Extensive nuclear testing has occurred and this is comprehensively reviewed, as are the arguments in favour of a test ban and efforts to implement one. The Conference on Disarmament in Geneva witnessed unprecedented efforts by scientists from around the world to form a common understanding of how to verify a test ban treaty and develop a prototype global verification system, work that was significant in building confidence at the height of the Cold War. The political negotiations and the Treaty itself are briefly analysed, but the main part of the book is devoted to more than a decade of effort by the Preparatory Commission for the CTBT Organization to implement the Treaty and its verification system: the most comprehensive verification system ever created, with a global coverage connecting more than 300 monitoring stations and including an intrusive on-site inspection regime. The first, most promising test results are also presented. An essential element of the book is its assessment of the experience gained through many years of political, managerial and technical activity. Such lessons, if well learned, can benefit the negotiations of future international treaties where verification is crucial, such as in arms control, disarmament or the environment.
Full text
Available for:
FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The order of magnitude of the explosive yield of the 1945 Trinity nuclear weapon test is estimated through a high-school-level kinetic energy argument.
The beginning of the atomic age marked the outset of nuclear weapons testing, which is responsible for the radioactive contamination of a large number of sites worldwide. The paper aims to analyze ...nuclear weapons tests conducted in the second half of the twentieth century, highlighting the impact of radioactive pollution on the atmospheric, aquatic, and underground environments. Special attention was given to the concentration of main radioactive isotopes which were released, such as ¹⁴C, ¹³⁷Cs, and ⁹⁰Sr, generally stored in the atmosphere and marine environment. In addition, an attempt was made to trace the spatial delimitation of the most heavily contaminated sites worldwide, and to note the human exposure which has caused a significantly increased incidence of thyroidal cancer locally and regionally. The United States is one of the important examples of assessing the correlation between the increase in the thyroid cancer incidence rate and the continental-scale radioactive contamination with ¹³¹I, a radioactive isotope which was released in large amounts during the nuclear tests carried out in the main test site, Nevada.
Grappling with the Bomb is a history of Britain’s 1950s program to test the hydrogen bomb, code name Operation Grapple. In 1957–58, nine atmospheric nuclear tests were held at Malden Island and ...Christmas Island—today, part of the Pacific nation of Kiribati. Nearly 14,000 troops travelled to the central Pacific for the UK nuclear testing program—many are still living with the health and environmental consequences. Based on archival research and interviews with nuclear survivors, Grappling with the Bomb presents i-Kiribati woman Sui Kiritome, British pacifist Harold Steele, businessman James Burns, Fijian sailor Paul Ah Poy, English volunteers Mary and Billie Burgess and many other witnesses to Britain’s nuclear folly.
Nonnuclear weapons are increasingly able to threaten dual-use command, control, communication, and intelligence assets that are space based or distant from probable theaters of conflict. This form of ...“entanglement” between nuclear and nonnuclear capabilities creates the potential for Chinese or Russian nonnuclear strikes against the United States or U.S. strikes against either China or Russia to spark inadvertent nuclear escalation. Escalation pressures could be generated through crisis instability or through one of two newly identified mechanisms: “misinterpreted warning” or the “damage-limitation window.” The vulnerability of dual-use U.S. early-warning assets provides a concrete demonstration of the risks. These risks would be serious for two reasons. First, in a conventional conflict against the United States, China or Russia would have strong incentives to launch kinetic strikes on U.S. early-warning assets. Second, even limited strikes could undermine the United States’ ability to monitor nuclear attacks by the adversary. Moreover, cyber interference with dual-use early-warning assets would create the additional danger of the target’s misinterpreting cyber espionage as a destructive attack. Today, the only feasible starting point for efforts to reduce the escalation risks created by entanglement would be unilateral measures—in particular, organizational reform to ensure that those risks received adequate consideration in war planning, acquisition decisions, and crisis decisionmaking. Over the longer term, unilateral measures might pave the way for more challenging cooperative measures, such as agreed restrictions on threatening behavior.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This timely book analyzes nuclear weapon and nuclear energy policies in Asia, a region at risk for high-stakes conflict. The contributors explore what drives debates and how decisions are framed, the ...interplay between domestic dynamics and geopolitical calculations in the discourse, and what this means for regional cooperation or competition and U.S. policy in Asia.
The rapid growth in nuclear industries such as uranium ores mining, nuclear energy generation, spent-fuel treatment and nuclear weapon manufacture has caused a legacy of uranium contamination in the ...aquatic environment, which poses a potential threat to the ecological environment and human health. The safe and effective disposal of uranium-contaminated water has thus been an urgent requirement. For decades, various materials have been shown to be capable for removing uranium from aqueous solution by adsorption technique, namely inorganic materials (e.g., clay minerals, metal oxides, mesoporous silica), organic polymers (e.g., resins, cellulose, chitosan), carbon family materials (e.g., mesoporous carbon, carbon nanotubes, graphene oxides), and porous framework materials (e.g., covalent organic frameworks, metal-organic frameworks). In this review, we provide a systematic and comprehensive overview of the researches conducted from 2005 to 2018 for uranium removal from aqueous solution by these emerging materials. The different approaches in the determination of the adsorption mechanisms between uranium and adsorbents are also briefly summarized, involving macroscopic experimental approaches, microscopic spectroscopic and computational approaches. Finally, we discuss the current limitations and propose future research perspectives in hopes of inspiring more dramatic advancements in the material and environment remediation fields.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PDF
