The Early Years

     Before 1939, there was little demand or usage of uranium oxide.  German potters had discovered it as a vibrant glaze enhancer on their work.  "Fiesta Ware" was a line of beautiful plates and service that turned out to be highly radioactive.

     It was during World War II that scientists began to comprehend some of the power of uranium.  Investigations showed that it could be induced to release almost unimaginable amounts of energy in a bomb or missile.

     On October 11, 1939, Alexander Sachs, a long time friend of President Roosevelt, shared a letter he had received from the famous physicist, Albert Einstein.  Einstein made it very clear that he believed that a chain reaction could be set up by splitting the uranium atom, causing an instantaneous release of destructive power, the likes of which the world had never seen.

     Einstein had recently fled from the Nazis, and was certain that German scientists were making huge strides in developing such a terrible weapon.  After a private dinner with Einstein, FDR had a fitful nights sleep.  The next day he gave the go-ahead for America to start a new top-secret weapons program.

     England was also struggling to make the bomb, but progress was painfully slow.  Ironically, by the end of World War II, declassified documents showed that even the Germans were still a ways off from developing nuclear weapons.  Russia’s progress was also slow, but steady, and they built a successful bomb in 1949.

     The United States is protected on both coasts by vast oceans, so fighting on our own turf was unheard of.  We also had huge supplies of raw materials, and a strong scientific ethic.  With huge effort, full-on military, presidential, educational, and labor efforts, the U.S.A. was able to work with great speed and secrecy.

     Things in the war were slowing down.  Germany was defeated, Roosevelt had died, and Japan was on the verge of surrender.  One single night of American firebombing in Tokyo killed 100,000 people, gravely wounding another 50,000.  Another firebombing over Tokyo two months later killed 80,000 (mostly civilian) Japanese.

     Initial American propaganda stated that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved 10,000 American lives.  As time went on, this number inflated, and was revised upward, bit by bit, until 10 years later when Truman bragged about saving 500,000 lives by dropping the bombs.

     Many gung-ho war hawks are quite surprised to hear that General Eisenhower protested dropping the atomic bombs, stating that “There was no need to drop those things.  It makes me heartsick that we are the first country to use such terrible weapons.”  Truman’s own Chief of Staff, Admiral William Leahy, agreed, saying that “it was not necessary to use such barbarous weapons.”

     Nevertheless, the global stage was set with high level propaganda and psychological operations.  The myth that “we only did what we had to do” is a stubborn meme, yet it is very easy to find academic, political, and military dissent in this area. 

     In point of fact, the United States of America is the only  country in the world to use nuclear weapons, having done so twice.  The fact also stands that the bombs directly targeted mostly civilian populations.  This ruthlessness helps to understand our earlier question, “Why do they fear us so much?”

Nuclear Physics for Beginners

     There are only two commercially important uses of uranium;  nuclear war, and nuclear power.  Neither of these uses are necessary, or even desirable.

     Any radioactive substance (uranium, plutonium, and thorium) has orbiting, unstable electrons that regularly explode on a sub-atomic level.  This throws off little pieces of debris with great force.  This cycle of explosion and escape is also known as radioactive decay.  The loose bits are what make a radiological Geiger counter “tick”.

     Radiation is a dangerous plaything.  Some particles can penetrate skin and clothing, or even wood.  Some can be accidentally ingested or inhaled.  There are lively debates about how much damage radioactive material causes, but all responsible scientists will tell you that there is no such thing as a “safe” level of radiation in the body.  For example, one single particle of plutonium ingested into the lung can cause death.

     Once inside your body, radioactive decay continues, and spreads out at the cellular level.  Tiny radioactive particles explode and escape, in turn causing the damaged tissue to explode and radiate themselves, often going all the way into cancer or leukemia.

     Any exposure to radiation holds a strong health risk.  Prolonged exposure to even low-level radiation can cause leukemia, hypothyroidism, and many cancers.  Perhaps most tragically, low level radiation exposure in utero, or in an infant can cause severe mental retardation.

     These are just some of the consequences of low level exposure to radiation.  Soon we will discuss the effects of higher levels of radiation on healthy human adults.

Nuclear Waste for Beginners

     With all the disease, politics, war, and pollution wreaking havoc on our planet, it is sometimes difficult to keep them in perspective.  Of this, make no mistake:  nuclear war and nuclear waste are always near the top of any serious threat assessment.

     The waste generated from the manufacture of nuclear bombs is supposed to be going to a facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada.  The overwhelming majority of honest scientists will tell you that this is a less than perfect option.  Most will  also say is that since Yucca Mountain is also accepting civilian nuclear waste from power plants, the facility is almost full already.

     Radioactive bombing, mining, testing, waste, & contamination are major health threats.  Canadian epidemiologist Dr. Rosalie Bertell estimates that already 300 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED, MAIMED OR MUTILATED BY NUCLEAR MEANS SINCE THE ATOM WAS FIRST SPLIT IN 1939!

     In 1945, 550,000 curies of radioactive iodine were released, with steam, at Hanford, Washington’s massive nuclear reactor.  All told, about 140 million Americans are “Down winders”.  The amount of radiation, its intensity, and the length of exposure to it has been higher in the United States over time, then from the Chernobyl accident.

There was a 200% increase in Hanford levels of thyroid cancer.

     It’s important to remember that we experienced 20 years of open air nuclear bomb tests, throwing upwards enormous amounts of radioactive fallout, especially in Nevada and Utah.  Estimates of how much radiation this produced is equal to about 4,000 Hiroshima bombs.  Famous western author, Terry Tempest Williams, a native of southern Utah, refers to her mother, aunts, sisters and cousins as the “clan of one breasted women”, since so many have had to have mastectomies.

     Back in Hanford rigorous research shows a tripling of lung cancer and ten times the level of heart disease.

     Places near mines and mills have suffered similar fates.  Ripping uranium out of the ground and pulverizing it releases deadly levels of radon gas, yet another nuclear threat that causes lung cancer.

     The radon falls back to the earth with wind, rain, and snow.  The radioactive “daughters” it produces, (thorium, iodine), contaminate fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and milk.  With the right winds, the radon can travel a thousand miles a day.  There are Department of Energy maps that trace all the fallout areas for every nuclear test they have done, and the area covered is frightening. 

     Every nation that has nuclear weapons or power has contributed to a noticeable increase in the level of radiation in our atmosphere.  When the Ukraine’s Chernobyl reactor melted down, sheep in parts of Scotland, and Reindeer in Norway are no longer safe to eat.  The use of depleted uranium weapons have vastly added to the background radiation levels, too.

     The terrible explosions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are damaging enough, but they fail to tell the whole story.  Many years after the bombings, widespread birth defects and weakened immune systems have been showing up in every generation there.  There are estimated to have been 5,000 extra Japanese deaths per year in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The most accurate assessment shows that the bombings have caused over 350, 00- early deaths.

     A study of Navaho American Indians has found an unusually high number of birth defects, downs syndrome, cleft palate, and epilepsy.  In between 1967-1974, 500 infants were studied, confirming that the medical problems were coming from the nearby uranium mines.

     Unfortunately, in 1979, the Navaho’s Church Rock tailings pond and dam burst open and rushed out 3.8 million liters of radioactive waste into the Colorado River.  America’s salad bowl in the desert southwest has watered lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots with this very same water.

     Grand Junction, Colorado has also had a uranium mil in town, and also has reported a higher then expected level of leukemia, cleft palates, and birth defects.  People long suspected the uranium, and sure enough, it was shown that many builders had used radioactive mill tailings to make patios, foundations, plus using the mill tailings sands directly for sandboxes. 

     It’s important to understand that uranium mill tailings retain about 80% of their original radioactivity. 

Ignorance & Experimentation

     The only way to avoid accidental exposure to radioactive materials is to leave them in the ground.  Once uranium is pried out of the Earth and milled, it releases huge amounts of radon gas.  Not one such mine or millsite has been cleaned up in a permanent satisfactory way.

     Even knowing this, the government went ahead with many radioactive exposures to unwitting civilians.  Two of the hardest hit communities are Hanford, Washington, and St. George, Utah.  Many people in both regions were intentionally exposed to measured doses of radiation to study its effects on humans.

     Government and industry plans for nuclear energy clearly indicate that the vast majority of proposed new power plants will go in the eastern U.S...  However, all the contaminated waste will be shipped out west.  Ohio Senator John Glenn spoke up about this and said “what good does it do to power up with nuclear power, or protect ourselves with nuclear weapons, if we poison our own people in the process?”

     Grand Junction’s Climax mill spread radioactive mill tailings all over town.   Residents were deceived, and told that this was safe, even though the government knew otherwise.

     After several hard years of cleaning up the toxic waste tailings, Grand Junction’s lot was hauled off to a huge low level radiation dump, called the “Cheney Cell”, less than twenty miles away.  A recent newsletter published photos of rusty barrels, clearly marked “radioactive waste”, that had been left in rusty barrels, out in the open air, not in the 96 acre, 80’ deep cell.  The government still estimates that 1,000,000 tons of radioactive waste remains in the Grand Junction area, but the project has officially been closed.

 Even so, the cell will continue to accept nuclear waste until 2023.

     Last but not least, we must speak of some of the darker elements of radiation research that military scientists performed.  Non-consensual human experimentation has been done on an estimated 40,000 Americans, mostly blacks, and poor whites. 

     Test subjects were exposed to massive levels of x-rays to study effects, and some were even injected with plutonium.  Testicles, ovaries and infants were also exposed to high doses of radiation.

The Plutonium Problem

     Plutonium is a man made substance that many consider to be the most dangerous substance on the planet.  Plutonium bombs are much more lethal than uranium bombs.  This is disturbing enough, but it gets worse.

     Every single nuclear power plant ever built produces plutonium as a waste product.  Take a moment to soak this in: normal use of nuclear fuel rods results in the production of Plutonium, one of the most dangerous substances on the planet!   

     It’s important to remember the truth about nuclear waste from nuclear power plants when some pompous politician or sleazy big business executive tries to sell another nuclear power plant.

     The spent fuel rods remain radioactive for millennia.  We need to listen hard to our hearts and minds before we approve even one more.  When we look at the disasters of Hanford, Three Mile Island, Church Rock, and Chernobyl, all within twenty short years, we have been very lucky that something even more catastrophic hasn’t happened.

     As peak oil supplies dwindle, and the energy crunch sets in, we will be confronted by big-money interests who sell nuclear power as safe and cheap.  It is wise to ask ourselves if we really want to live with nuclear uncertainty.  What type of world will we pass on to our grandchildren’s’ grandchildren?

The Big Ones

     Atomic weapons are created by splitting an atom of U-235, or Plutonium.  The fragments immediately start to collide with others, and start a chain reaction, splitting even more atoms violently and rapidly.  The ultimate power comes from the total breakdown of the atomic bonds, exploding in chaos, releasing massive amounts of destructive energy.

     This process works well with uranium 235.  Uranium is a very heavy metal, and has the largest atom of any natural element, with 143 electrons.  Upon fission, it releases phenomenal amounts of heat, radiation and energy.

     At 8:16 a.m., August 6^th, 1945, the bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, a city with virtually no military targets.  At 8:17, at an elevation of about 1,980’, “the bomb” exploded.  66,000 people were killed in the blink of an eye, with another 69,000 mortally wounded.

     The bomb instantly and completely vaporized everything within a half mile diameter.  Near this area, you can see ghastly “shadow” images on the ground of some of those annihilated completely from the face of the earth. 

     Total destruction reached out a mile.  Severe blast damage reached out to two miles in diameter.  Everything that was within 2 ½ miles and was flammable instantly ignited and burned rapidly.  Dozens of steel melting fires raged through the remnants of downtown.

     The brilliant light from the detonation pierced the early morning sky so brightly, that neighboring communities though that the sun rose twice on that day.  Among the most sobering effects was the fact that a blind girl, 120 miles away, was able to see the flash.

     Leukemia was pandemic, ultimately killing about 350,000 people in the next decade.  Within days of the Hiroshima cataclysm Nagasaki, another city with few military targets was nuked.

     There is only one nation on the planet that has used nuclear weapons, and it did so twice; the U.S.A.  There has really only been one rogue nuclear state, and it is us.

4 Crazy Nuclear Years in Colorado

     On September 10, 1969, the U.S. government conducted one of its most boneheaded experiments.  The military drilled a hole 8,426’ deep into Doghead Mountain, near Rulison, Colorado.  They then inserted a 43 kiloton weapon, about 2.5 times the strength of the bomb used in Hiroshima.

     The detonation was immense, registering 5.5 on the Richter scale.  The project cost 11 million dollars, and was supposed to free up underground natural gas, which it did.  Of course, the gas had all become radioactive.

     Incredibly, 36 years later, there is a Texas based oil company that is fighting for the right to drill for the gas.  Even without rigorous study, we can probably assume that burning highly radioactive gas is probably not a good idea.

     Four short years later, the military was at it again, this time on the north side of the Bookcliff Mountains of Colorado.  On May 17, 1973, in an operation that still remains highly classified, three 30 kiloton explosives were simultaneously exploded.

     Most of us think of New Mexico or Nevada when we think of nuclear detonations in the U.S.  Many western slope residents are astonished to find that four very large nuclear explosions occurred near our homes.

Our Current Nuclear Posture

            As with many nefarious government policies, we are fed many distorted figures about nuclear weapons, if it even gets mentioned at all.  Here are some disturbing facts:

     The U.S. is “regrooming” the Nevada test site to restart testing.

     We are retro fitting 240 strategic nuclear war heads on Trident submarines, 1,350 strategic missile and bomber warheads, 800 tactical nuclear weapons on various aircraft, 320 tactical sea launched nuclear cruise missiles, and 160 spare tactical multi use warheads standing by.

     Many would say that these numbers are low estimates.  Suffice to say, the United States alone has enough nuclear weaponry to completely destroy the planet several times over.

     In light of this, and our very long history of foreign military intervention, our abrogation of major treaties makes the rest of the world very frightened of us.

     In the “Non-Proliferation Treaty”, it is our responsibility to persuade non-nuclear states to not develop nuclear weapons of their own.  We are not honoring our commitment.  In fact, the U.S.A.  is the only signer to hold out for the right to use nuclear weapons on a “first strike basis”.

     Furthermore, the bush administration completed a review which orders the pentagon to develop nuclear war plans against Russia, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, Libya, and Syria.  This is a dangerous game.

     For the first time since the end of the cold war, one country, the U.S., is planning on developing whole new classes on nuclear weapons, the so-called bunker busters, and the mini-nukes.   

    When international polls are taken to determine which country in the world is most likely to start a nuclear war, the most common answer is America.

Hope for the Future

     As we reenter a new cold war, it is time to see if we have learned lessons well, or if we are doomed to repeat history.  Will we obsess over bigger, more powerful nuclear weapons.  We will focus so intently on war, that we forget all other paths to peace?

     An enormous peaceful leap for us would be for us to simply state that we are resuming our “no first strike” pledge.  We can also resume our pledge of no use of nuclear weapons on non-nuclear states.  Our present position on both of these issues is fear inducing.

  The nuclear problem erodes and corrodes democratic and republican presidents equally.  If our next president was either Jeb Bush, or Hillary Clinton, concerned and sane peace activists will still have our work cut out for us.

     In December 1996, 62 retired Generals and Admirals published a public declaration urging all countries to immediately undertake steps which would lead to the complete abolition of all nuclear weapons.

     In April 1997, Nobel Prize winner, and the most senior surviving member of the Manhattan project, Dr Hans Boethe wrote a personal letter to President Clinton, asking him to not approve 2.2 billion dollars in funding for nuclear weapons.  There are great and influential men and women who we can join forces with for peace.

  We must look for them, and listen to them; we must also learn to live like them.  A world without nuclear weapons may sound far-fetched, but then again, human civilization is full of radical transformations.

     Abolition workers in the early 1800’s who worked to eliminate slavery were ridiculed, chastised, beaten and lynched.  Most never lived long enough to see the fruits of their labor.

     But they were right!  They fought hard to do the right thing and by sweat, faith and miracles, things eventually did change for the better.

     The struggle for a nuclear free planet is already on.   You can join in, and help push for a peaceful, rational, and sane future.

     There are many people like us all around the world.  Many of us are scared and confused, and probably more than a little brainwashed to feel incompetent.  But still we struggle on.  Our numbers increase every day.

     Most of a bully’s power comes from a false sense of superiority.  Every time we choose to push back other people notice it, and start to gain courage.  It increases the odds that they, too, will begin to stand up and fight.

     You got to try…