However, with regards to nuclear testing, in 1958 he published a study in which he hypothesized that for each explosion of a one megaton hydrogen bomb, at least 6,000 people would die from cancer due to the radiation exposure from it. These deaths would not occur all at once and would not be easily distinguishable from other cancer related deaths, but rather would occur over multiple decades. Despite this, those deaths would be no less tragic.
Years later, more research was done concerning the long term effects of nuclear testing. The American Cancer Society's website states that 10-40 years could pass from the time of radiation exposure to the time that the cancer develops. Further, a 1991 study done by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War determined that around 2.4 million deaths could occur due to radiation and radioactive materials taken in by people from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. And not surprisingly, the greatest man-made contribution to radiation exposure is due to this atmospheric testing.
Not only does nuclear testing affect shear lives, but a study done in Norway concerning how Soviet nuclear testing affected pregnant women and in turn their children. The study found that there was a correlation with a child being exposed to radiation during its third and fourth month in the womb and lower educational achievement, a greater likelihood of not completing high school, a lower salary as an adult and a lower IQ for men at 18 years old. Apply this to the 635,050 births from the selected time period in Norway, and it becomes evident that nuclear testing has a drastic effect on a population decades later.
And this study was only in Norway, imagine the consequences that are taking place around the world.
Works Cited:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/11/10/the-health-effects-of-a-nuclear-test-can-last-decades/?utm_term=.9399128a6928
https://www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/the-effects-of-nuclear-testing/general-overview-of-theeffects-of-nuclear-testing/
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1975/sakharov-bio.html
Interesting post, Ari! I didn't think about how radiation could affect pregnant women and the children in their wombs. If such nuclear testing could cause such adverse affects to their futures and education, it could have also held detrimental effects on the economy and general well being of Norway! In fact, according to Greenpeace, every human alive now and over the next tens of thousands of years will carry radioactive elements created by nuclear tests, research and deployment, causing an increase in their lifetime cancer risk. In especially contaminated regions, such as Chernobyl, there has been a sharp increase in thyroid cancer, severe mental retardation due to prenatal exposure, and genetic damage in human, animal and plant life. Even now there is still no solution to the problem of radioactive waste nor are there technologies that can clean up radiation.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.greenpeace.org/archive-international/en/campaigns/peace/abolish-nuclear-weapons/the-damage/
It's very interesting that Sakharov estimated 6,000 people would die per megaton bomb. It's also very worrying; it turns out there have been over 2,000 nuclear bomb tests, all of which contribute to atmospheric radiation. Not all of these bombs have been one megaton (though that just means they'll cause fewer deaths), but there have also been some HUGE bombs. The biggest nuclear bomb ever detonated was the USSR's Tsar Bomba, which was a whopping 58 megatons. According to Sakharov, that's almost 350,000 cancer deaths from that bomb alone.
ReplyDeleteSources: https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/nucleartesttally
http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-nuclear-detonations-in-history-2016-12/#1-the-tsar-bomba-9
Ari, cool post! This was a really enlightening post on the reality of the consequences posed by nuclear testing. Similarly to nuclear testing, the explosion of Chernobyl in Ukraine was a major turning point in the world. The Animal Planet TV show "River Monsters" travelled to Chernobyl and found mutant Wells catfish in the cooling ponds of the reactor. More that 200,000 square kilometers of Europe was contaminated with caesium-137. Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine were hit with radioactive strontium and plutonium particles. The half live of radioactive materials is the time it takes half of the material to decay. The half lives of plutonium and other materials in Chernobyl are thousands of year. Plants in the surrounding areas absorbed the radioactive materials, and for decades till now and decades to come, "In addition, the milk produced in some parts of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine may still have high levels of caesium-137." Human scientific advancement comes with both a price yet also a reward; in the case of nucelar tests and weonponry, I think it is a terrible thing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx