I'd like to say happy Earth Day but am unfortunately in a more somber mood. For the few, the proud loyal followers of this blog (aka my mother, shout out to mom!) this isn't a happy post and of course will not gain more readers with it's serious nature but I feel it's necessary to be said.
I would like to talk about what we as humans have done in regards to nuclear fission and fusion.
This past weekend I checked out a fictional book from my library that follows a young lady who was born on the day of the Chernobyl disaster in Pripyat, the town closest to the Chernobyl reactor, and her journey to gain revenge for all the negative effects of the nuclear movement. The things she speaks of I was not familiar with so I decided to start learning a bit more about the world's nuclear journey. What I found has brought up a lot of emotions including shock, disgust, horror, and remorse. Spending my formative years in Richland, Washington, closest town to the Hanford Site that was a key player in the nuclear movement in the 40s and 50s, you would think we were taught about our nuclear history as a country and world. In fact, one of the high schools in Richland has a "bomber" as their mascot. Here's what their logo looks like:
Every once in a while you would hear of conterversy regarding this logo and having learned about our nuclear history, I would agree that it's horrific to be used as a high school's mascot. As you can see, my education seriously lacked information about the realities of nuclear testing.
Whenever I find something that I don't know much about, I like to read up on things to educate myself. I believe that with knowledge, we as humans can be enlightened, explore new horizons and most importantly learn from mistakes that have been made. Without this knowledge, how can future generations make good choices? It is in this vein that I would like to share what I've learned about atomic bomb testing as well as the most recent disaster of Chernobyl.
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| "Fat Man", Nagasaki |
Atomic Bomb Testing
The first atomic bomb detonated on Earth was named Trinity and it was set off on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. It's shocking to see video and pictures of these bombs going off. Here's Trinity at 16 milliseconds:
At this stage, it looks like an amazingly terrifying ball of molten explosiveness. It then balloons up to the mushroom cloud seen above. Here's a video of that explosion:
Between 1945 and 1962, the United States held 331 nuclear testings. They were conducted mainly in Nevada, New Mexico, and parts of the Pacific Ocean as well as the Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific. The tests were done to research the affects of atomic bombs on various things like structures, animals, water, water-going vessels and the atmosphere. Here are some shocking things I found out and witnessed:
- A fleet of vessels was placed in the Pacific ocean in one of the many bomb tests done on a myriad of atolls to measure the affects of blasts done below and above the surface of the water. Animals such as goats were placed on some of these boats, confined, to test their reaction. As the wave of the blast enveloped the boats, these poor animals had no chance of survival.
- Many of these tests done in the Pacific Ocean have left massive craters in the ocean floor miles wide and have devastated all life on and around these precious atolls.
- In countless tests done in the deserts of New Mexico and Nevada, structures were set up to test their durability in a nuclear blast. In addition to inanimate things, animals were also placed in pens or cages in the blast range. In videos, you can see what appears to be gerbils first cooking in their cages and then what appears to be their skin being ripped off as subsequent waves rip through the area.
- In a test known as "Teak" in 1958, a bomb was detonated nearly 50 miles above the Earth's surface and it created an EMP that silenced radio transmissions for nearly 8 hours.
- In the Trinity test, the ground of the 1/2 mile crater created by the bomb was turned into a green glass that 50 years later was still radioactive.
A month after the first nuclear bomb was detonated and tested, we used two bombs to help bring an end to WWII at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Hiroshima, it is estimated that over 70,000 people were killed instantly and in Nagasaki, the estimate is over 42,000 people died. Pictures taken after the bombs show mostly skeletons. There was no flesh even left on the bodies.
The questions I have are simple. Why did we see fit to continue testing after seeing the horrific affects of just a few bombs? Why did we choose to use these bombs as an act of war? I understand that fighting the war would have produced many casualties on both sides and the bombs were used as a way to bring a swift end to the war. Was the immediate and eventual loss of so many Japanese lives worth it? What are the environmental effects of all the bomb tests and how have they affected our world?
Chernobyl
On April 26, 1986, a perfect chain of events occurred to produce what is known as the Chernobyl Disaster. One of the reactors exploded sending a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere.
You can see in this picture that the high levels of radioactivity were even affecting the film in the camera of this photographer as the radioactivity came up from under the camera producing white marks.
They ended up enclosing the structure in a sarcophagus that is today in the process of being enclosed again as it is showing signs of wear and tear. This process will more than likely need to be repeated as the half-life of plutonium is over 200,000 years. This means that site will be highly radioactive far past our lifetime. Today, the town of Pripyat is still vacant as well as most of the surrounding area. They tried to wash off the toxic dust that had landed on the surrounding landscape to minimize the radioactivity but it is still there.
I'm sure that at least the reaction to Chernobyl could have been better had we known how best to deal with a catastrophe of this proportion. Unfortunately, not much experience existed at the time. To this day, the former Soviet Union has changed acceptable radiation levels to skew statistics of people who have been negatively affected by this disaster. I'm sure we will never know the full toll that was taken by not only the people in the blast and plume areas but the men who came in and risked their lives to contain the disaster.
I must be crazy. To me it seems like we can find so many better ways that are not harmful to the environment or humans to produce energy. And if we can all agree to be peaceful, there should be no need to ramp up production of weapons of mass destruction. Of course, this is a highly idealistic view I'm sure is not shared by many. It just scares me to think of what undocumented effects all this nuclear activity has produced on our planet. At what point do we stop and say this isn't worth it? I mean sure, it is now providing a lot of jobs at places like the Hanford Site to manage the clean-up of all the waste produced from this nuclear era. But is it worth it? I don't think so.
My hope is that you take this Earth Day and ponder what affect you have on the planet. What are you doing to make the world you live in a better place? It can start with recycling that plastic frozen food tray or using a water bottle instead of buying disposable ones. How can you help in your region? Are you aware of the environmental issues plaguing your area and what are you doing to help? If we can just start to take steps towards action, what kind of positive effects can we bring about?
All it takes is the power of one.
Happy Earth Day
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