The toxic legacy of nuclear testing

The most intense period of atmospheric testing took place during the 1950s and 1960s when the US, Britain and France exploded hundreds of nuclear bombs across the Pacific Islands, the Nevada desert in the US and in Australia.

As well as poisoning US, French and British soldiers ordered to watch nuclear tests, whole indigenous communities have been devastated. Pacific Islanders, Native Americans in Nevada and Aboriginal peoples in Australia suffered radiation sickness as well as generational cancers, and their lands have been destroyed.

Massive public protests against nuclear testing forced governments to eventually sign up to an international ban on atmospheric, water and space testing in 1963. Thirty years later, continued public pressure secured the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty of 1996, which bans underground testing as well. Whilst signed and ratified by most states, the Treaty still has to be ratified by key nuclear states – including the US, Russia and China.

CND is campaigning for their ratification and the full implementation of the Treaty as a matter of urgency. Reports suggest the Trump administration is considering re-starting atmospheric testing. This would be catastrophic, and would likely trigger other countries to follow suit, releasing radioactive fall-out into the atmosphere once again and accelerating a new arms race.