The authoritative guide to ensuring science and technology make life on Earth better, not worse.

Environmental impacts of underground nuclear weapons testing

By Sulgiye Park, Rodney C. Ewing | March 7, 2024

View of the crater left by the Sedan underground nuclear test of July 6, 1962 at the Nevada Test Site, part of the Plowshare Program. The test served to assess possible non-military applications of nuclear explosions. When the device buried 635 feet deep exploded, the 104-kiloton blast displaced 12 million tons of earth and created a crater 1,280 feet wide. See the size of the roads in the bottom-right of the picture for a sense of scale. (Credit: US Government / National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office Photo Library, Public domain)

Environmental impacts of underground nuclear weapons testing

By Sulgiye Park, Rodney C. Ewing | March 7, 2024

Loading...
References

Adushkin, Vitaly V, and Alexander Spivak. 2015. Underground Explosions. Washington, DC. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA627744.pdf

Allen, R. T., and R. E. Duff. 1969. “Effect of Material Properties on Cavity Size From an Underground Nuclear Explosion.” Nuclear Applications 6 (6). Taylor & Francis: 567–572. doi: 10.13182/NT69-A28286

Atomic Energy Commission. 1971b. Baneberry Accident Report. Washington, DC.

Atomic Energy Commission. 1971a. Environmental Statement Cannikin. Washington, DC.

Atomic Heritage Foundation. 2016. Limited or Partial Test Ban Treaty (LTBT/PTBT).

Blume, L. 2022. “U.S. Nuclear Testing’s Devastating Legacy Lingers, 30 Years after Moratorium.” National Geographic, September 22.

Blume, L. 2023. “Collateral Damage: American Civilian Survivors of the 1945 Trinity Test.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 79 (4): 232–237. doi: 10.1080/00963402.2023.2223078

Boardman, C. R., D. D. Rabb, and R. D. McArthur. 1964. “Responses of Four Rock Mediums to Contained Nuclear Explosions.” Journal of Geophysical Research 69 (16)3457–3469. doi: 10.1029/JZ069I016P03457

Brady, W. J., K. K. Horton, and B. F. Eubank. 1984. Operations Nougat and Whetstone. https://www.dtra.mil/Portals/125/Documents/NTPR/newDocs/UnthReport/1962-1965_DNA6320F_Operations_Nougat_and_Whetstone.pdf

Carlson, 2005. Nevada Test Site Guide. National Nuclear Security Administration. https://nnss.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/DOENV_715_Rev1.pdf

Commoner, B. 1958. “The Fallout Problem.” Science 127 (3305): 1023–1026. doi: 10.1126/SCIENCE.127.3305.1023

Commoner, B. 1959. “Estimates of Radiation Dose from Strontium-90 Due to Fallout.” Science 130 (3377): 720–722. doi: 10.1126/SCIENCE.130.3377.720

Congressional Budget Office. 2021. Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2021-2030. Congressional Budget Office. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57240

Congressional Research Service. 2022. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA): Compensation Related to Exposure to Radiation from Atomic Weapons Testing and Uranium Mining. Congressional Research Service. https://crsreports.congress.gov

Diaz-Maurin, F. 2023. “Russia Suspends New START and Is Ready to Resume Nuclear Testing.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 23. https://thebulletin.org/2023/02/russia-suspends-new-start-and-is-ready-to-resume-nuclear-testing/

Drozdenko, T. 2023. “Why the Congressional Strategic Posture Report Is Not about Nuclear Deterrence, but Warfighting.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November 8. https://thebulletin.org/2023/11/why-the-congressional-strategic-posture-report-is-not-about-nuclear-deterrence-but-warfighting/

Environmental Protection Agency. 2002. Radionuclides in Drinking Water: A Small Entity Compliance Guide. Environmental Protection Agency. www.epa.gov/safewater.

Ewing, R. C. 1999. “Radioactivity and the 20th Century.” In Mineralogical Society of America Reviews in Mineralogy, edited by Peter Burns and Robert J. Finch, 38:1–22.

Federal Radiation Council, and Radiation Protection Division. 1961. “Federal Guidance Report No. 2: Background Material for the Development of Radiation Protection Standards.” Federal Radiation Council, and Radiation Protection Division.

General Assembly. 1996. UN Doc. A/50/1027. General Assembly. https://treaties.un.org/doc/source/docs/A_RES_50_1027-E.pdf

Glasstone, S., and P. J. Dolan. 1977. “Residual Nuclear Radiation and Fallout.” In The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, 1st ed., 1:390. United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of Energy.

Hecker, S. S. 2013. “The Story of Plutonium Mountain.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 69 (5). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0096340213504891

International Atomic Energy Agency. 2007. Estimation of Global Inventories of Radioactive Waste and Other Radioactive Materials. Vol. 1. International Atomic Energy Agency.

Kassenova, Togzhan. 2009. “The Lasting Toll of Semipalatinsk’s Nuclear Testing.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 28. https://thebulletin.org/2009/09/the-lasting-toll-of-semipalatinsks-nuclear-testing/

Kersting, A. B. 1999. “Migration of Plutonium in Ground Water at the Nevada Test Site.” Nature 397 (6714): 56–59. https://www.nature.com/articles/16231

Kimball, D. 2023. The Nuclear Testing Tally 1945–2017. Arms Control Association. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/nucleartesttally

Laczniak, R. J., J. A. Cole, D. A. Sawyer, and D. A. Trudeau. 1996. Summary of Hydrogeologic Controls on Ground-Water Flow at the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey. https://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/1996/4109/report.pdf

Loeb, B. S. 1991. The Limited Test Ban Treaty. The Politics of Arms Control Treaty Ratification. 1st ed. Vol. 1. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-137-04534-8_5

Maxwell, R. M., A. F. B. Tompson, J. T. Rambo, S. F. Carle, and G. A. Pawloski. 2000. “Thermally Induced Groundwater Flow Resulting from an Underground Nuclear Test.” In Computational Methods in Water Resources XIII, edited by L. Sykes, Bentley, Brebbia C, Gray W, and Pinder G, 1st ed., 1:45–50. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema http://www.llnl.gov/tid/Library.html

McEwan, A. C. 1988. “Environmental Effects of Underground Nuclear Explosions.” In Nuclear Weapon Tests: Prohibition or Limitation, edited by Jozef Goldblat and David Cox, 1:75–79. Oxford University Press.

Mikhailov, V.N. 1999. Catalog of Worldwide Nuclear Testing. Begell-Atom. https://www.begellhouse.com/databases/e-WCNT.html

Morris, R. H., L. M Gard, and R.P. Snyder. 1972. “Visible Geological Effects of the CANNIKIN Event.” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 62 (6): 1519–1526.

Novikov, A. P., S. N Kalmykov, S. Utsunomiya, R. C. Ewing, F. Horreard, A. Merkulov, S. B. Clark, V. V. Tkachev, and B. F. Myasoedov. 2006. “Colloid Transport of Plutonium in the Far-Field of the Mayak Production Association, Russia.” Science 314 (5799): 638–641. doi: 10.1126/science.1131307

Penrose, W. R., W. L. Polzer, E. H. Esslngton, D. M. Nelson, and K. A. Orlandlnl. 1990. “Mobility of Plutonium and Americium through a Shallow Aquifer in a Semiarid Region.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 24 (32): 228–234. doi.org/10.1021/es00072a012

Pravalie, R. 2014. “Nuclear Weapons Tests and Environmental Consequences: A Global Perspective.” Ambio 43 (6): 729–744. doi: 10.1007/s13280-014-0491-1

Reiss, L. Z. 1961. “Strontium-90 Absorption by Deciduous Teeth.” Science 134 (3491): 1669–1673. doi: 10.1126/SCIENCE.134.3491.1669

Rubinson, P. 2011. “‘Crucified on a Cross of Atoms’: Scientists, Politics, and the Test Ban Treaty*.” Diplomatic History 35 (2): 283–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2010.00950.x

Sato et al. 2022. “What the Bomb Has Done: Victim Relief, Knowledge, and Politics.” In Living in a Nuclear World From Fukushima to Hiroshima, edited by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Soraya Boudia, and Kyoko Sato, 1st ed. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge.

Schoengold, Carole R., and Joe. A Stinson. 1997. Operations Nougat, Flintlock, Latchkey, Bowline, and Emery. Defense Special Weapons Agency. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA330336.pdf

Smith, D. K. 1995. “Characterization of Nuclear Explosive Melt Debris.” Radiochimica Acta 69: 157–167. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1524/ract.1995.69.3.157/pdf

Smith, D. K., D. L. Finnegan, and S. M. Bowen. 2003. “An Inventory of Long-Lived Radionuclides Residual from Underground Nuclear Testing at the Nevada Test Site, 1951-1992.” Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 67 (1): 35–51. doi: 10.1016/S0265-931X(02)00146-7.

Sublette, Carey. 2001a. Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Program. Nuclear Weapon Archive.

Sublette, Carey. 2001b. What Are the Real Yields of India’s Test? Nuclear Weapon Archive.

Teller, E., W. K. Talley, G. H. Higgins, and G.W. Johnson. 1968. The Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosives. New York: McGraw Hill.

Tompson, A. F.B., C. J. Bruton, G. A. Pawloski, D. K. Smith, W. L. Bourcier, D. E. Shumaker, A. B. Kersting, S. F. Carle, and R. M. Maxwell. 2002. “On the Evaluation of Groundwater Contamination from Underground Nuclear Tests.” Environmental Geology 42 (2–3): 235–247. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00254-001-0493-8

Travis, B. J., and H. E. Nuttall. 1985. “A Transport Code for Radiocolloid Migration: With an Assessment of an Actual Low-Level Waste Site.” Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 44: 969–976. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1557/PROC-44-969

UNSCEAR. 1993. Report to the General Assembly (Annex B—Exposures from Man-Made Sources of Radiation).https://www.unscear.org/unscear/uploads/documents/publications/UNSCEAR_1993_Annex-B.pdf

Voelz G. L, and I. G. Buican. 2000. “Plutonium and Health – How Great Is the Risk?” Los Alamos Science, Number 26. https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/00818013.pdf

Wellerstein, A. n.d. NukeMap. Https://Nuclearsecrecy.Com/Nukemap/

Together, we make the world safer.

The Bulletin elevates expert voices above the noise. But as an independent nonprofit organization, our operations depend on the support of readers like you. Help us continue to deliver quality journalism that holds leaders accountable. Your support of our work at any level is important. In return, we promise our coverage will be understandable, influential, vigilant, solution-oriented, and fair-minded. Together we can make a difference.


Get alerts about this thread
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments