The Town of the XXI Century
Series of reports on ecological situation in Central Asia

THE PLANET'S NUCLEAR EPOCH

MORE THAN 15 MILLION PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD HAVE SUFFERED FROM NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS. ACADEMIC ANDREI SAKHAROV STATED THAT 1 MEGATON NUCLEAR EXPLOSION LEADS TO THE DEATH OF 10000 PEOPLE.

In July of 1996 the international tribunal in Hague stated that nuclear armaments are outlawed. 51 years prior to this event nuclear bombs exploded over Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those were the first nuclear explosions, which were carried out not on the military testing ranges, but were executed over regular cities, where regular people lived and didn't have a slightest idea of the terrible fate prepared for them by military people and politicians. For some reason common people always have to pay for somebody's stupidity or cruelty.

Two Japanese cities where literally turned into a huge laboratory, which showed the world the terrible consequences of nuclear bombings. People living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki still suffer from the consequences of those events. Those who were affected by radiation (there were 300 thousand of them and they are called "hibacusya") still suffer more often from various gland cancers and other cancer-related diseases.

Years were passing by. In the country, which was called the USSR, and which now does not exist, politicians and military people were preparing for a war. Preparations were carried out under the slogan "For peace all over the world!". Under this slogan important state military orders were completed at plants and factories, under this slogan new types of rockets and nuclear bombs were tested at the military testing ranges. The most interesting part of the story is that all these military activities were carried by the curtain of secrecy and common citizens, who could have turned into targets for enemy bombers, did not know about the preparations.

After the fall of the Soviet Union and destruction of the curtain of secrecy covering everything, about which it was dangerous to think or speak, citizens of the former USSR learnt a lot of new and interesting things about the country, in which they lived and which for them symbolized the foundation for peace and stability. If we concentrate only on the nuclear topic, then it is appropriate to recollect the Chernobyl catastrophe. It was another sign warning about the fact that people are dealing with the power, which they can not control.

In 1963 in Moscow representatives of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain signed "The agreement banning tests of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, space and underwater". Currently more than 120 countries have joined the agreement. After 1963 more than 1500 nuclear explosions were carried out at all of the world's nuclear testing ranges, which is almost 3 times more than the number of explosion carried before the agreement was signed. More over within last 30 years many countries were secretly developing their own nuclear programs and even were trying to break "the agreement on non-distribution of nuclear weapons" and were trying to sell nuclear bombs.

American nuclear explosions were executed in Nevada and Alamagordo deserts, Colorado and New Mexico states, on Marshall islands and on three atolls in Pacific ocean, on the island Amchitka near Alaska and in other places. In total more than 1100 explosions were executed, including 200 explosion carried out in the atmosphere. Soviet nuclear explosions were executed near Semipalatinsk, on Novaya Zemlya, in Western Kazakhstan, Yakutia, in Volga river region and in many other places all over the former Soviet Union. In total there were 715 explosions, 212 of which were carried out in the atmosphere.

498 nuclear explosions were carried out on the territory of Kazakhstan, including 25 on-the-ground (out of 27 on-the ground explosions ever carried out by the USSR), 82 atmospheric, 6 high altitude and 343 underground explosions, which were executed in Kazakhstan.

The French did their explosions on atolls Moruroa and Fangatafua in the Pacific and on Reggon testing range in Algeria. They carried out 190 explosions, including 40 explosions done in the atmosphere.

The Englis tested their nuclear weapons on the island of Montebello, in Emu-Field and Marolinga (Australia), on the island of Christmas, in the Pacific. They carried out more than 40 explosions (some of them together with the Americans), including 22 atmospheric explosions.