nuclear-news

‘Peaceful’ Nuclear Tests – legacy of disease and birth defects

Effects Of ‘Peaceful’ Nuclear Tests Felt Decades Later

Radio Free Europe By Antoine Blua 21 Sept 09

During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union each explored the possibility of using nuclear explosions for “peaceful” purposes.

Their programs yielded little real benefit, but left behind radioactive footprints and trails of contamination from the nearly 150 tests from the projects — “Plowshare” in the United States and, more cryptically, “Program No. 7” in the Soviet Union.

Decades later, in one corner of the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, residents near one of those former test sites say authorities are ignoring their complaints about serious health effects.

The Soviet experiment near the village of Sarzhal, meant to study the feasibility of creating water reservoirs, created a 430-meter wide crater that formed a lake.

Villagers say the area is still radioactive. They say the water from what they call the “atomic lake” contaminates the ground water they need to survive.

Residents believe radioactivity in the lake’s water has caused heart problems, high blood pressure, and birth defects.

Effects Of ‘Peaceful’ Nuclear Tests Felt Decade – Flash Player Installation

September 22, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, environment, Russia, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive