nuclear-news

Nevada test site videos on nuclear bomb testing

Building the atom bomb – Nevada test site videos, Guardian By Laurence Topham , Alok Jha and Will Franklin 22 September 2015 From 1951, over four decades, the US government carried out almost a thousand nuclear tests at this test site, earning it the nickname of the “most bombed place on Earth”. Here, they took the crude nuclear weapons that had been dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and honed their destructive power.

A hundred of these tests, known as atmospheric shots, took place above ground, creating the characteristic mushroom clouds that have become synonymous with nuclear detonations.

The government still carries out classified work on the site, and access is limited to a small number of carefully vetted visitors each year, who are not allowed to take photographs. The Guardian was given extremely rare access to film at the site……..

In nearby towns such as St George in Utah, which were downwind of the Nevada Test Site, people found the nuclear programme more troubling.

After decades of campaigns by the so-called Downwinders, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990 to make payments to some of those who claimed to have been affected by fallout from nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site.

So far, $2bn (£1.3bn) has been paid out to more than 32,000 claimants. The compensation is only available to a limited number of those who claim to have been affected and for a limited set of conditions…..http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/sep/21/building-the-atom-bomb-the-full-story-of-the-nevada-test-site

September 23, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Resources -audiovicual