WHAT'S UP WITH NUCLEAR?
Have we made any
mistakes?
June 16, 1945:Our world’s most Ominous anniversary: On This Day
68 Years Ago the Nuclear Age began when the U.S. Detonated The First
Atomic Bomb in what is now called Trinity, New Mexico. Subsequently
on August 6, 1945, the US bombed Hiroshima, Japan, with an atomic
bomb in an effort to end World War II. Three days after the Hiroshima
bombing, another atomic bomb, called the “Fat Man” killed 73,000
and injured 74,000 people in Nagasaki leading to the surrender of
Japan & the end of the war.
Pacific islands surrounded a deep sapphire lagoon, Enewetak coral
atoll was a beautiful place to launch the world's first hydrogen
bomb. Between 1948 & 1958, 43 weapons exploded over it. Among
these was Ivy Mike, a world-first hydrogen bomb, 500 times bigger
than Hiroshima’s Little Boy, that destroyed the entire island of
Elugelab. By the time testing ceased, the entire atoll was highly
radioactive, its reefs and islands dotted with craters that each
measured several hundred feet in diameter.
1949:
SEMIPALATINSK, KAZAKHSTAN: The Soviets detonated their first
nuclear device here. Anastacia Kyseleva saw her first atomic mushroom
cloud from the fields near her village. Soldiers came and ordered
everyone outside – a move experts now suspect was made to protect
residents from potential house collapses. "It looked like a
sunset," says Ms. Kyseleva. Some stood frozen, staring; others
ran toward the bomb. "Those people who followed it, they either
died or they couldn't walk afterwards."
Feb. 1, 1951 Helen Bush Jenkins set up her camera on a Los Angeles
rooftop in the darkness. The picture captured an atomic test blast in
Nevada. The sky went from pitch black to daylight then back to black
again.
1954:
The Castle Bravo test created the worst radiological disaster in
the United States' testing history. Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, 1
March 1954. yielded 15 megatons and was the largest nuclear weapon
ever detonated by the United States. By accident, the inhabited
atolls of Rongelap, Rongerik and Utirik were contaminated with
radioactive fallout, as was the Japanese fishing trawler Lucky
Dragon. The controversy over radioactive fallout from testing
activities caused great international concern.
Operation Mosaic G2-19 June 1956 -Monte Bello Islands, Australia.
Yield: 98 kt This was the highest yield test ever conducted in
Australia. Since the test yield broke an assurance made personally by
PM Anthony Eden of the UK to PM Robert Menzies of Australia that the
yield would not exceed 2.5 time that of Hurricane (thus about 62 kt),
the true yield was concealed until 1984.
The H bomb was not clean. It delivered large amounts of fallout
capable of immediate harm hundreds of miles from blast point. That
the United Kingdom should continue with the pre 1954 mythology (the
myth that H bombs are clean) in the modern courts is
incomprehensible. The British weapons used in Australia astonished
the US monitoring crews with their dirtiness.
1957:
Originally named Windscale, Cumberland (now Sellafield, Cumbria)
this is the site of the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain's
history. It was ranked in severity at level 5 on the 7-point
International Nuclear Event Scale. The nuclear core reaction erupted
into a severe fire, totally damaged the reactor, & released
radiation into the surroundings. After more than 50 years the
radiation levels have subsided & the government will attempt to
dismantle this nuclear plant.
In 1957, the British military began conducting nuclear tests in
the Pacific Ocean and based themselves on Christmas Island. The tests
ended six years later and parts of the island were sealed off for
decades. in this 1962 test you see the spectators watching. (???)
1957:Mayak Nuclear Plant is one of the biggest nuclear facilities
in the Russian Federation. The facility has experienced 20 or more
accidents affecting at least half a million people in the past 45
years. On 29th September, 1957, the failure of the cooling system for
a tank storing thousands of tons of nuclear waste resulted in a
chemical explosion having a force estimated at about 75 tons of TNT.
This released radioactivity over 15,000 sq. miles. A large area was
left barren and unusable.
1961, a nuclear plant 40 mi from Idaho Falls underwent the first
reactor core meltdown in American history, & the only failure
that ever directly killed anyone. Jack Bynes & Richard Legg were
killed on-site (Legg was pinned to a ceiling by flying metal), &
Richard McKinley died shortly after. The event was instrumental in
tightening procedures for nuclear energy production. The reactor’s
central control rod had been raised close to twice what would be
expected to cause a meltdown – by whom?
1966. A B-52 bomber carrying 4 nuclear weapons dropped them in
Spain on the southern Mediterranean Coast after a midair collision
from a routine refueling. Seven American crewmen were killed. 2 of
the bombs hit the ground and ruptured, leaving a large area
dangerously contaminated. One stayed intact, & the final one
landed in the Mediterranean. The international incident led to the
banning of all American nuclear cargo over Spanish airspace. The
cleanup really never got done.
Yucca Flat, December 18. 1970 After the Baneberry test, involving
the detonation of a 10 kiloton nuclear device underneath Yucca Flat
in Nevada, the plug sealing the shaft from the surface failed and
radioactive debris vented into the atmosphere. Eighty six workers at
the site were exposed to radiation.
Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pa. On March 28, 1979,the worst
nuclear disaster in U.S. history shook the nation to its core.The
island is home to 2 nuclear reactors. One of them continues to
function & deliver power. The second one has not been run again
since that day when a few malfunctions & a series of human errors
resulted in a partial nuclear meltdown. About 20 tons of radioactive
uranium spilled out of the reactor core and almost burned through the
five-inch thick steel floor.
K-431 Chazhma Bay, August 10. 1985 During refuelling in
Vladivostok, Russia, the Echo II class submarine (like the one seen
above) suffered an explosion, sending a radioactive cloud of gas into
the air. Ten sailors were killed in the incident and 49 people were
observed to have radiation injuries.
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that
occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in
Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR), which was under the jurisdiction of Moscow.
An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive
contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over Western USSR and
Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power accident in history,
and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the
International Nuclear Event Scale.
1987:
Goiania Accident, September 13, 87 More than 240 people were
exposed to radiation when a junkyard dealer in Goiania, Brazil, broke
open an abandoned radiation therapy machine & removed a small
highly radioactive cake of cesium chloride. Children, attracted to
the bright blue of the radioactive material, touched it & rubbed
it on their skin, resulting in the contamination of several city
blocks which had to be demolished.
www.time.com/...
The Davis-Besse nuclear generating station in Ohio, where a
football-size hole overlooked by NRC inspectors nearly caused a
catastrophe in 2002
March 11, 2011:
Picture of Fukushima nuclear catastrophe as the meltdown of the
reactors begins. (Fairewinds)
2013: Cleanup operations at the Western hemisphere's most
contaminated nuclear site in Hanford, Washington. To build an atomic
bomb during World War II, the US created the first-ever plutonium
reactor. 68 years later,Hanford remains off limits because it has 53
million gallons of radioactive waste stored in aging tanks. With
billions of dollars a year invested in cleanup, some 12,000 people
work at Hanford, which at 586 square miles is twice the size of
Singapore. Estimated 20 years to clean up.
The original novel, a fictional story of suspense and terror,
published in hardcover, predicted all that could possibly be coming.
Now that Fukushima has occurred we see how dangerous these plants can
be. This is an updated version. Get prepared for disaster survival!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WDRWXY