An Unremembered Nuclear Legacy

Two weeks ago the President of the United States suggested that the U.S. should return to nuclear testing. He supported this suggestion with comments about other countries that are currently conducting nuclear testing. The president stated: “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” he said in a social media post. “That process will begin immediately.” While there is a lack of clarity about what this means, including what will be tested and where tests will happen, this suggestion raises alarms across the global community. The Energy Secretary followed up with comment that tests would not include nuclear explosion.

Ensuing news stories and conversations pondered the type of testing, weapons and warheads, systems and settings with little conversation regarding the history of nuclear testing in the United States and the lasting effects on people and planet as a result.

From the time America conducted its “Trinity” nuclear bomb detonation in 1945 to 1992, the U.S. detonated 1,030 atomic bombs in tests — the most of any country. Those figures do not include the two nuclear weapons America used against Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Test sites in the United States and in the Pacific continue to be impacted by years of testing at a time when little was known about nuclear fallout with deaths, cancers, and uninhabitable land documented along with nuclear waste.

The generational effects of nuclear testing in Nevada are still being documented. Families within range of testing sites were exposed to nuclear fallout because of hundreds of nuclear weapons tests between 1951 and 1992. Cancers, emotional trauma, and displacement of families are a part of this legacy in the United States. Discussions of nuclear testing on any level should include the harm caused to families and attend to the need for redress to descendants and survivors of U.S. nuclear testing. The same is needed in the Pacific.

The United States executed 67 nuclear detonations in the Pacific from 1946 to 1958. These detonations were conducted in the Marshall Islands and at other sites in the Pacific which the United States government called The Pacific Proving Grounds. The Pacific Proving Grounds were acquired by the United States through the United Nations as a trusteeship in 1947.

On July 18, 1947, the United States secured an agreement with the United Nations to govern the islands of Micronesia as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a strategic trusteeship territory. This is the only such trusteeship ever granted by the United Nations to the United States. The Trust Territory comprised about 2,000 islands spread over 3,000,000 square miles (7,800,000 km²) of the North Pacific Ocean. Five days later, the United States Atomic Energy Commission established the Pacific Proving Grounds.

The directive of the Strategic Trust stated that the United States should “promote the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants, and to this end shall… protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources…” This was never done. Instead, the indigenous people of the Marshall Islands were subjected to being used as a part of the U.S. nuclear testing program with little thought for the effects on the people and their lands.

The bombs were exploded above ground and underwater on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, including one device 1,100 times larger than the Hiroshima atom bomb. Chernobyl-like levels of radiation forced hundreds from their homes. Bikini Atoll remains deserted. At the U.S. government’s urging, residents have begun returning slowly to Enewetak. The damages to the people and the environment are more than has been documented with communities displaced, land uninhabitable, and crops and water contaminated. Nuclear testing cannot be conducted without harm and should not be restarted.

Many of the islands which were part of the Pacific Proving Grounds are still contaminated from the nuclear fallout, and many of those who were living on the islands at the time of testing have suffered from an increased incidence of various health problems. Through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, at least $759 million has been paid to Marshall Islanders as compensation for their exposure to U.S. nuclear testing.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has now been ratified by a global majority of countries. A return to nuclear testing raises questions about the presence of these weapons of mass destruction on the planet and what this means for their use as conflict and wars escalate. Before more testing ensues, attention must be paid to communities harmed by years of testing.

Eight countries are responsible for nuclear testing globally, with most of the testing not done on site in those countries. These 8 countries have detonated over 2000 nuclear tests.

Each year, the United Nations commemorates International Day against Nuclear Tests on 29 August. The World Council of Churches continues to be a strong advocate for nuclear disarmament and accompanies the people of the Marshall Islands and the Pacific as they continue to seek restitution for the harm done to the people and environment from years of nuclear testing. The voices of the faith community must continue to advocate for nuclear disarmament and U.S. ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, saying no to nuclear testing and no to more nuclear weapons.