The Manhattan Project; The name is more or less known to everyone. The duration of this project is from 1942-46. It was officially closed on 15 August 1947. The main purpose of this project was to carry out German nuclear research data during World War II and to conduct its own nuclear research. It later gave the world the gift of a superhuman force, called the 'atomic bomb'.
The beginning of the nuclear age was marked by the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945, which was the first test of a nuclear weapon. The first nuclear explosion in history took place 35 miles southeast of New Mexico in the United States with a force equal to 22 kilotons of TNT. Nagasaki and Hiroshima later witnessed the monstrous destruction of this deadly weapon.
Nuclear weapons have never been used on the battlefield since the United States exploded in World War II.But within the next few years, the Soviet Union also emerged as a nuclear power. By 1974, that number had risen to five countries [1]; The United Kingdom, France and China are added. Later, countries like India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea joined Qatar. Despite being a nuclear power, South Africa withdrew from the race in May 1993 [2] through a parliamentary decision.
Nuclear-powered countries conduct nuclear tests to show their power. In the post-World War II era, the major part of the US-Soviet Cold War was to demonstrate its strength through nuclear weapons tests. However, on 5 August 1963 in Moscow, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) [3]. At present, there are 123 states that have agreed to this agreement.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2,053 nuclear weapons were successfully tested between 1945 and 2006, with the United States and the Soviet Union running 85 percent of them. Of these, 530 nuclear weapons, or 25 percent, were successfully tested in the atmosphere and oceans, and 1,517 nuclear weapons, or 75 percent, were successfully tested underground.
About 54 percent of the atmospheric and oceanic tests are the responsibility of the Soviet Union, which equates to 265 megatons of TNT.
The amount of energy emitted in the U.S. atmospheric nuclear weapons test is about 200 megatons of TNT. The United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and China are all located in the Northern Hemisphere, where 90 percent of the nuclear tests are carried out. Note that the lion's share of the world's population lives in the Northern Hemisphere.
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According to the UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) [4], the lion's share of responsibility for man-made radioactivity in the atmosphere and aquatic environment over the past 60 years has been nuclear weapons testing. According to them, radioactive isotopes of carbon, uranium, plutonium, strontium and iodine are released into the atmosphere and water as a result of nuclear tests.Carbon-14 radioactive isotopes quickly combine with oxygen in the air to form radioactive carbon monoxide and radioactive carbon dioxide, and as part of global carbon deposits in the atmosphere, oceans and oceans. This radioactive carbon is terrible, because the half-life of this atom is about 5,630 years.
Research on marine fish in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of North America has shown that by the year 2000, the amount of radioactive material in marine fish has risen to alarming levels, almost three times the normal radioactivity levels.
The most successful test of a nuclear weapon in U.S. history was conducted at a Nevada test site. According to UNSCEAR [4],About 600 nuclear weapons have been tested here, of which at least 32 nuclear weapons tests have found significant amounts of iodine-131 radioactive isotopes released into the atmosphere and groundwater [4]. Studies on grasses and their milk for cattle in Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Ooming, New Mexico, and Northern Arizona in 1951–56 showed that the grasses had high rates of chromosomal and DNA mutations, and normally high levels of radioactive milk [5].Over the next 40 years, the rate of thyroid cancer in these regions has risen from 8 per 10,000 to an average of 25, which is alarmingly higher than any other region in the United States.
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The area reserved for nuclear weapons testing in the Soviet Union was the Semipalatinsk region of present-day Kazakhstan [7]. The levels of radioactive uranium in the atmosphere and groundwater of the region are studied. According to the World Health Organization, where the normal level is only 15 micrograms per liter of water, the level is several times higher in the Semipalatinsk region.According to a 2010 BBC report, one in 20 babies in Semipalatinsk is still born with a physical disability.
Similarly, 23 nuclear tests were carried out at the Jianjiang test site in China from 1974-80. According to current research, the incidence of cancer there is about 30-35 percent higher than in other parts of Asia.
The most notable event in the history of nuclear weapons testing was the 1954 nuclear test at Bikini Atoll on Castle Bravo Island in the Marshall Islands [5].The unexpected chain sale of the lithium-6 atom caused the weapon to explode with a monstrous power of 15 megatons instead of the potential 8 megatons, causing a huge amount of uncontrolled radioactive waste to spread to the Pacific Ocean, which later spread to Japan, Australia and the Indian Ocean. Immediately many aquatic creatures floated dead, which later took on a worse shape.
Although the island has been declared habitable since 1974, the radioactivity there was 50 roentgen in 1982, where it was supposed to have 5 roentgen, which is 10 times more than normal. A 1997 study found that the death rate from cervical cancer in the Marshall Islands was 80 times higher than normal. The death rate from lung cancer is 4 times higher than normal.
Despite thousands of threats to nuclear weapons testing, the rush to test weapons and demonstrate capabilities is not stopping. It remains to be seen how many generations will be able to sustain the dream of peace in a world where powerful nations under the control of the world are doing this to exert their geopolitical influence, demonstrating nuclear power to establish their power in the needs of people and markets.Nuclear weapons tests may not be part of our equation, but they are a big part of it - not just the use of these weapons, but tests can be a big disaster.