Atomic Bomb Tests Research Articles

The Physics of the Carbon Cycle: About the Origin of CO2 in the Atmosphere

Aims: Examination of the correctness of some assumptions of IPCC regarding climate. Discussion of consequences. Methodology: Explanation of terms used by IPCC and clarification of consequences, identification of prerequisites for the validity/applicability of these terms and scrutiny of their fulfillment under real-world conditions, discussion of consequences. Results: Based on the laws of physics and logic, two central terms used by IPCC, i.e. the fixed "airborne fraction", and the constant "CO2-budget” cannot exist in reality. The first states that about 50 % of the CO2 emitted by humans (the “airborne fraction”) stay in the atmosphere for centuries or longer (the other about 50 % leaving it within maximum a few years), the latter is the maximum value of cumulative net global anthropogenic emissions that is allowed, if global warming should be kept below a given level, for example 2 °C. According to their definition, both values are independent of the temporal distribution of the anthropogenic emissions. But physics speaks against their existence. And also the “Bern Cabon Cycle Model”, used by IPCC as an alternative method to analyze the carbon cycle, cannot be correct, because it is based on incorrect physical boundary conditions. The inadmissibility of the two terms is also supported by observations of the fast decay of 14CO2 after the atomic bomb test stop agreement. Conclusion: If the considerations made here are correct, IPCC's assessment of the sharp increase in CO2 concentration being a consequence of anthropogenic releases implodes. Consequently, the assessment of global warming to be man-made is justified no more, and the necessity to terminate all anthropogenic releases of CO2 for climate protection reasons becomes superfluous. The considerations made here appear to be very reliable, but in view of the far-reaching consequences, a careful review by the scientific community seems to be urgently needed.

Bodies in space: XR documentary in Australia

ABSTRACT This article discusses a selection of interactive and immersive works from the past twenty years in Australia and argues that these have emerged from a specific cultural and geographical perspective in relation to space and place. In the context of settler colonial or migrant Australians, who have fraught and unresolved relationships to place, technologies that intervene with and implicate the audience can further expand documentary's capacity to frame, interpret and challenge these relationships. In this article, we discuss five specific interactive and immersive Australian documentary works. Each of these projects re-frames an encounter with space and place through the methods by which the participant-as-audience is situated in relation to the subject matter and virtual environment. The article explores the controversial asylum-seeker documentary game, Escape From Woomera ([2003]. Australia: EFW Collective); Lynette Wallworth's Collisions which recounts the atomic bomb testing in the desert (2012); Oscar Raby's examination of history, identity and witnessing, Assent (2013); Joan Ross's examination of the colonial relationship to the environment in Did you ask the river? (2019) and Tyson Mowarin's VR of the Ngarluma people of North Western Australia and the threats to their culture and land in the VR work Thalu: Dreamtime is Now (2018).

The Kuroshio radiocesium stream.

The Fukushima accident released short-lived Cs-134 and longer-lived Cs-137 to the ocean. The amount, although substantial, is much less than that produced during the atomic bomb tests 60years ago. But, the latter has received little attention. Here we found only Cs-137 in waters near the origin of the Kuroshio. The speed of the Kuroshio current generally decreases with water depth, yet, the Cs-137 activity increases with depth to reach a subsurface maximum of 2.4Bqm-3. As a result, a core of high Cs-137 flux, or a radiocesium stream, exists at approximately 200-400m in depth. In total, the Kuroshio transports about 1PBqyear-1 Cs-137 northward between 121 and 123°E, 1000 times more than the 0.73-1.0TBqyear-1 discharged to the ocean at Fukushima in 2016-2018.

Reply to Dapra: The Likelihood of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Genetic Disease from the 1945 Trinity Atomic Bomb Test.

Reply to Dapra: The Likelihood of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Genetic Disease from the 1945 Trinity Atomic Bomb Test.

Response to Shonka: The Likelihood of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Genetic Disease from the 1945 Trinity Atomic Bomb Test.

8408 Trumbull Ave. SE Albuquerque, NM 87108 [email protected] The author declares no conflicts of interest.

Radiocarbon in the Land and Ocean Components of the Community Earth System Model

AbstractLarge amounts of the carbon‐isotope 14C, entering Earth's carbon cycle, were produced in the atmosphere by atomic bomb tests in the 1950s and 1960s. Here, we forced the ocean and land components of the Community Earth System Model with atmospheric 14CO2 over the historical period to constrain overturning time scales and fluxes. The uptake of bomb 14C by the land model is lower than observation‐based estimates. This mismatch is likely linked to too‐low 14C uptake by vegetation as the model overestimates 14C/C ratios of modern soils. This suggests model biases in forest productivity or wood carbon allocation and turnover, and, in turn, a bias in the forest sink of anthropogenic carbon. The ocean model matches the observation‐based global bomb 14C inventories when applying the quadratic relationship between gas transfer piston velocity and wind speed of Wanninkhof (2014), https://doi.org/10.4319/lom.2014.12.351 and the wind products from Large and Yeager or the Japanese Reanalysis Project. Simulated natural radiocarbon ages in the deep ocean are many centuries older than data‐based estimates, indicating too slow deep ocean ventilation. The sluggish circulation causes large biases in biogeochemical tracers and implies a delayed deep ocean uptake of heat and carbon in global warming projections. Our study suggests that 14C observations are key to constrain carbon fluxes and transport timescales for improved representations of land and ocean biogeochemical cycles and Earth system model projections.

Cesium in Biology, Pancreatic Cancer, and Controversy in High and Low Radiation Exposure Damage-Scientific, Environmental, Geopolitical, and Economic Aspects.

Radionuclide contamination in terrestrial ecosystems has reached a dangerous level. The major artificial radionuclide present in the environment is cesium-137 (137-Cs). In humans, animals, and plants cesium ion (Cs+) behaves like potassium ion (K+) and it is localized mainly inside the cells. Pancreas and salivary glands secrete Cs in the intestine thus eliminating about 14% of ingested Cs with the feces, the remaining 86% is eliminated by the kidney with the urine. Ingested radiocesium can also cause in humans several cases of pancreatitis with secondary diabetes (type 3c), which are both on the rise in the world. The Author studied the correlation between the geographical map of mortality from pancreatic cancer (PC) and the map of nuclear plant accidents, atomic bomb testing, and radioactive fallout. The worldwide death rate of PC is increasing, but the exact cause is still not known. Published data in medical literature at World, European and Italian levels are reviewed and compared. 137-Cs, with a half-life of about 30 years, is still present in the environment for about 300–600 years. Autoradiographic studies in mice have shown that 137-Cs is concentrated in greater quantity in the pancreas, particularly in exocrine cells, where most malignant PCs originate. Some methods of radiocesium removal and PC prevention are also suggested. But there is still a persistent, and not entirely disinterested, the controversy between damage from high and low exposure to ionizing radiations.

The first atomic bomb test created a quasicrystal

The first atomic bomb test created a quasicrystal

Response to Shonka on the Likelihood of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Genetic Disease From the 1945 Trinity Atomic Bomb Test.

Response to Shonka on the Likelihood of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Genetic Disease From the 1945 Trinity Atomic Bomb Test.

Accidental synthesis of a previously unknown quasicrystal in the first atomic bomb test

The first test explosion of a nuclear bomb, the Trinity test of 16 July 1945, resulted in the fusion of surrounding sand, the test tower, and copper transmission lines into a glassy material known as "trinitite." Here, we report the discovery, in a sample of red trinitite, of a hitherto unknown composition of icosahedral quasicrystal, Si61Cu30Ca7Fe2 It represents the oldest extant anthropogenic quasicrystal currently known, with the distinctive property that its precise time of creation is indelibly etched in history. Like the naturally formed quasicrystals found in the Khatyrka meteorite and experimental shock syntheses of quasicrystals, the anthropogenic quasicrystals in red trinitite demonstrate that transient extreme pressure-temperature conditions are suitable for the synthesis of quasicrystals and for the discovery of new quasicrystal-forming systems.

The effects of ionizing radiation on domestic dogs: a review of the atomic bomb testing era.

ABSTRACTDogs were frequently employed as laboratory subjects during the era of atomic bomb testing (1950–1980), particularly in studies used to generate predictive data regarding the expected effects of accidental human occupational exposure to radiation. The bulk of these studies were only partly reported in the primary literature, despite providing vital information regarding the effects of radiation exposure on a model mammalian species. Herein we review this literature and summarize the biological effects in relation to the isotopes used and the method of radionuclide exposure. Overall, these studies demonstrate the wide range of developmental and physiological effects of exposure to radiation and radionuclides in a mid‐sized mammal.

Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age

Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age

The secondary sex ratio in Italy over the past eighty years (1940 to 2019) and potential impact of radiological contamination after atmospheric nuclear testing and after Chernobyl: Temporal change-point analysis using Markov Chain Monte Carlo

In Europe, the male to female ratio at birth (secondary sex ratio: SSR; sex odds: SO) is 1.04–1.06, is influenced by many factors and is declining in industrialized countries. This study was carried out to identify possible impacts of fallout by atomic bomb tests or by the Chernobyl event on SSR in Italy. Italy is a country without commercial nuclear power generation for the last four decades and thus nearly free of radiological confounders. Counts of annual male and female live births in Italy are provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and by the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT). This study included 57.7 million live births (1940–2019) with overall SSR 1.05829. The Italian SSR trend was modelled with linear and non-linear logistic regression. Trend changes, i.e., periods with level shifts were estimated with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Two distinct idealized level shifts were identified superimposed on a uniform secular downward trend. The first one is seen towards the end of the 1960s with a jump sex odds ratio (SOR) 1.00681, p < 0.0001. The second one occurred in 1987 with SOR 1.00474, p < 0.0001. In each of the 3 periods separated by the two jumps, SSR uniformly decreased with trend SOR per 100 years of 0.98549, p < 0.0001. In conclusion, the secular trend in the Italian SSR showed two marked level shifts, at the end of the 1960s and from 1987 onward. These follow the release of radioactivity by atmospheric atomic bomb tests during the 1960s and by Chernobyl in 1986 and corroborate the hypothesis that ionizing radiation increases SSR.

Beyond the Black and White TV: Asian and Latin American Spectacle in Cold War America by Benjamin M. Han

Reviewed by: Beyond the Black and White TV: Asian and Latin American Spectacle in Cold War America by Benjamin M. Han Victor Wu (bio) Beyond the Black and White TV: Asian and Latin American Spectacle in Cold War America, by Benjamin M. Han. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2020. 216 pp. $27.95 paper. ISBN 978-1-9788-0383-1. Benjamin M. Han’s debut book, Beyond the Black and White TV, reexamines the oft-overlooked roles of Asian and Latin American ethnic entertainers in American television against the backdrop of the cultural Cold War. Because the Asia-Pacific and Latin America were two critical geopolitical spaces for the expansion of US hegemony, Han argues that the transnational circulation of Asian and Latin American performers on US commercial television functioned as Cold War cultural diplomacy that promoted American internationalism and waged ideological battles against the encroaching threat of communism in those regions. Han draws upon Marxist philosopher Guy Debord’s concept of spectacle as a “false representation of reality through the mass dissemination of images” (7) to postulate that the “ethnic spectacle” mediated by Cold War– era television fabricated a narrative of the United States as being a bastion of racial equality and democracy. Han asserts that this narrative was birthed in direct response to Soviet criticism of its anti-Black racism, which was growing increasingly visible due to the civil rights movement and was damaging the nation’s image on a global scale. Beyond the Black and White TV specifically examines the variety show as a site of transnational cultural interventionism that was informed by a “triangulation among Cold War geopolitics, globalism, and U.S. racial logics” (19). Because the variety show “functioned as both education and entertainment” (4), it was uniquely suited for America’s rebranding efforts. Variety shows often featured white hosts, who served as cultural interlocuters that interviewed ethnic entertainers about their backgrounds and sang American popular songs alongside them. This emphasis on international understanding, along with the surge of Asian and Latin American performers beginning in the early 1950s, allowed the variety show to project a false image of America as an antiracist nation. While variety show broadcasts initially only targeted domestic audiences and American military personnel abroad, Han shows how these broadcasts served as an “early itineration of global television” (19) that in the late 1950s provided [End Page 345] the blueprint for the dissemination of American Cold War narratives through transnational networks. The book is split into four modular chapters detailing four geographically separate yet unexpectedly analogous spaces where television played a significant role in America’s political agenda during the Cold War: Las Vegas, Korea, Cuba, and Hawaii. Han uses a wide range of historical materials such as television archives and oral histories to trace the development of television as well as the careers of ethnic performers such as the Kim Sisters, the De Castro Sisters, Alfred Apaka, and Don Ho. He examines not just the contexts of their careers but also the contents of their performances, interrogating the ways in which they contested and reinforced investment in whiteness. Chapter 1 looks at Las Vegas as a culturally and militarily significant locus during the Cold War. One of the earliest televised broadcasts of Las Vegas was of the atomic bomb testing on Yucca Flat in 1951, which served as Las Vegas’s introduction to the American public imaginary as a city crucial to national security. This was a far cry from Sin City’s previous negative association with crime, and entertainment personalities saw television as an opportunity to clean up the city’s image and promote American internationalism. Han posits that the later influx of Asian and Latin American entertainers in the 1950s to the Las Vegas nightlife and television scene was part of an attempt to portray the city as an integrated, family-friendly destination. And by the late 1970s, entertainment personalities were using television to capitalize on ethnic spectacle in order to “shed previous depictions of Las Vegas” (37). Consequently, the American government used these televisual images to show off Las Vegas as a racially integrated city that “was representative of American ideals and values” (33). Han explores how...

The Likelihood of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Genetic Disease (Transgenerational Effects) from Exposure to Radioactive Fallout from the 1945 Trinity Atomic Bomb Test.

The potential health consequences of the Trinity nuclear weapon test of 16 July 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico, are challenging to assess. Population data are available for mortality but not for cancer incidence for New Mexico residents for the first 25 y after the test, and the estimates of radiation dose to the nearby population are lower than the cumulative dose received from ubiquitous natural background radiation. Despite the estimates of low population exposures, it is believed by some that cancer rates in counties near the Trinity test site (located in Socorro County) are elevated compared with other locations across the state. Further, there is a concern about adverse pregnancy outcomes and genetic diseases (transgenerational or heritable effects) related to population exposure to fallout radiation. The possibility of an intergenerational effect has long been a concern of exposed populations, e.g., Japanese atomic bomb survivors, survivors of childhood and adolescent cancer, radiation workers, and environmentally exposed groups. In this paper, the likelihood of discernible transgenerational effects is discounted because (1) in all large-scale comprehensive studies of exposed populations, no heritable genetic effects have been demonstrated in children of exposed parents; (2) the distribution of estimated doses from Trinity is much lower than in other studied populations where no transgenerational effects have been observed; and (3) there is no evidence of increased cancer rates among the scientific, military, and professional participants at the Trinity test and at other nuclear weapons tests who received much higher doses than New Mexico residents living downwind of the Trinity site.

Accounting for Unfissioned Plutonium from the Trinity Atomic Bomb Test.

The Trinity test device contained about 6 kg of plutonium as its fission source, resulting in a fission yield of 21 kT. However, only about 15% of the Pu actually underwent fission. The remaining unfissioned plutonium eventually was vaporized in the fireball and after cooling, was deposited downwind from the test site along with the various fission and activation products produced in the explosion. Using data from radiochemical analyses of soil samples collected postshot (most many years later), supplemented by model estimates of plutonium deposition density estimated from reported exposure rates at 12 h postshot, we have estimated the total activity and geographical distribution of the deposition density of this unfissioned plutonium in New Mexico. A majority (about 80%) of the unfissioned plutonium was deposited within the state of New Mexico, most in a relatively small area about 30-100 km downwind (the Chupadera Mesa area). For most of the state, the deposition density was a small fraction of the subsequent deposition density of Pu from Nevada Test Site tests (1951-1958) and later from global fallout from the large US and Russian thermonuclear tests (1952-1962). The fraction of the total unfissioned Pu that was deposited in New Mexico from Trinity was greater than the fraction of fission products deposited. Due to plutonium being highly refractory, a greater fraction of the Pu was incorporated into large particles that fell out closer to the test site as opposed to more volatile fission products (such as Cs and I) that tend to deposit on the surface of smaller particles that travel farther before depositing. The plutonium deposited as a result of the Trinity test was unlikely to have resulted in significant health risks to the downwind population.

The LNT Issue Is About Politics and Economics, Not Safety.

The Sykes commentary advocates “a more sensible, graded approach for protection from low dose ionizing radiation” until the LNT dose-response issue is resolved. It urges scientists to stop criticizing the LNT model that links radiation to a risk of cancer and accept regulatory use of the threshold model to “protect” people, but with higher limits. It fails to mention the 120-year history of successful low-dose treatments of a wide variety of serious diseases, including cancers. The commentary ignores published evidence of a threshold at 1.1 Gy for radiogenic leukemia and a dose-rate threshold at about 0.6 Gy per year for lifespan shortening. LNT came from politicized science, replete with scientific misconduct and conflict of interest. Its acceptance created a false cancer scare that was likely intended to stop atomic bomb testing, but it has severely damaged human welfare. Many vitally important low-dose therapies were discarded when the radiation scare was disseminated in 1956. The rapid growth of nuclear energy ended with the media-inflamed public panic after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Extreme implementation of the precautionary principle made it uneconomic. Availability of a low-dose therapy for lung inflammation could have dramatically decreased the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plants in the Light of Ionizing Radiation: What Have We Learned From Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Other "Hot" Places?

Perhaps the main factor determining success of space travel will be the ability to control effects of ionizing radiation for humans, but also for other living organisms. Manned space travel will require the cultivation of food plants under conditions of prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation. Although there is a significant literature concerning the effects of acute high dose rate exposures on plant genetics, growth, and development, much less is known concerning the effects of chronic low dose irradiation especially those related to the impacts of the high energy protons and heavy ions that are encountered in the space environment. Here, we make the argument that in situ studies of the effects of radionuclides at nuclear accident sites (e.g., Chernobyl and Fukushima), atomic bomb test sites, and areas of naturally high radiation levels, could provide insights concerning the mechanisms of radiation effects on living systems that cannot be assessed short of conducting research in space, which is not yet feasible for large scale, long term, multigenerational experiments. In this article we review the literature concerning the effects of chronic low-dose rate radiation exposure from studies conducted in Chernobyl, Fukushima, and other regions of the world with high ambient radiation levels (parts of India in particular). In general, mutation rates and other measures of genetic damage are considerably elevated, pollen and seed viability are reduced, growth rates are slower, and the frequency of developmental abnormalities is increased, although there is considerable variation among taxa for these effects. In addition, there are interactions between radiation and other environmental stressors (e.g., temperature, drought, heavy metals) that may play important roles in determining susceptibility to radiation induced stress.

Cost of fear and radiation protection actions: Washington County, Utah and Fukushima, Japan {Comparing case histories}

Purpose: The purpose of this manuscript is to evaluate the role of regulatory limits and regulatory action on the total impact of nuclear contamination and accidents. While it is important to protect the public from excessive radiation exposures it is also critical to weigh the damage done by implementing regulations against the benefits produced. Two cases: Actions taken as a result of radioactive fallout in Washington County, Utah in 1953 from the atomic bomb testing in Nevada, and the actions implemented post release of radioactive materials into the environment from the damaged nuclear power reactor at Fukushima, Japan, are compared.Materials and methods: The Washington County radiation exposures and doses, resulting from the Nevada nuclear weapons tests, were taken from published reports, papers, and historical records. The protective actions taken were reviewed and reported. Recent publications were used to define the doses following Fukushima. The impact and/or results of sheltering only versus sheltering/evacuation of Washington County and Fukushima are compared.Results: The radiation dose from the fallout in Washington County from the fallout was almost 2–3 three times the dose in Japan, but the regulatory actions were vastly different. In Utah, the minimal action taken, e.g. sheltering in place, had no major impact on the public health or on the economy. The actions in Fukushima resulted in major negative impact precipitated through the fear generated. And the evacuation. The results had adverse human health and wellness consequences and a serious impact on the economy of the Fukushima region, and all of Japan.Conclusions: When evacuation is being considered, great care must be taken when any regulatory actions are initiated based on radiation limits. It is necessary to consider total impact and optimize the actions to limit radiation exposure while minimizing the social, economic, and health impacts. Optimization can help ensure that the protective measures result in more good than harm. It seems clear that organizations who recommend radiation protection guidelines need to revisit the past and current guides in light of the significant Fukushima experience.

Neurodevelopmental effects of low dose ionizing radiation exposure: A systematic review of the epidemiological evidence

BackgroundThe neurodevelopmental effects of high doses of ionizing radiation (IR) in children are well established. To what extent such effects exist at low-to-moderate doses is unclear. Considering the increasing exposure of the general population to low-to-moderate levels of IR, predominantly from diagnostic procedures, the study of these effects has become a priority for radiation protection. ObjectivesWe conducted a systematic review of the current evidence for possible effects of low-to-moderate IR doses received during gestation, childhood and adolescence on different domains of neurodevelopment. Data sourcesSearches were performed in PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE and Psychinfo on the 6th of June 2017 and repeated in December 2018. Study eligibility criteriaWe included studies evaluating the association between low-to-moderate IR doses received during gestation, childhood and adolescence, and neurodevelopmental functions. Study appraisal and synthesis methodsStudies were evaluated using the Cochrane Collaboration′s risk of bias tool adapted to environmental sciences. A qualitative synthesis was performed. ResultsA total of 26 manuscripts were finally selected. Populations analyzed in these publications were exposed to the following sources of IR: atomic bomb (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), diagnostic/therapeutic radiation, and Chernobyl and nuclear weapon testing fallout.There was limited evidence for an association between low-to-moderate doses of IR and a decrease in general cognition and language abilities, that is, a causal interpretation is credible, but chance or confounding cannot not be ruled out with reasonable confidence. Evidence for a possible stronger effect when exposure occurred early in life, in particular, during the fetal period, was inadequate. Evidence for an association between IR and other specific domains, including attention, executive function, memory, processing speed, visual-spatial abilities, motor and socio-emotional development, was inadequate, due to the very limited number of studies found. Limitations, conclusions, and implications of key findingsOverall, depending on the domain, there was limited to inadequate evidence for an effect of low-to-moderate IR doses on neurodevelopment. Heterogeneity across studies in terms of outcome and exposure assessment hampered any quantitative synthesis and any stronger conclusion. Future research with adequate dosimetry and covering a range of specific neurodevelopmental outcomes would likely contribute to improve the body of evidence. Systematic review registration numberThe systematic review protocol was registered in PROSPERO (registration number CRD42018091902).