AFF/NUCLEAR: NUCLEAR WEAPONS POISON THE ENVIRONMENT WITH RADIOACTIVITY

DAMAGE FROM NUCLEAR WEAPON RADIOACTIVITY CONTINUES THROUGH TIME FOR MANY YEARS

MOVEMENT IN INDIA FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, 2001, Why are Nuclear Weapons Uniquely Objectionable?

Damage due to radioactivity is indiscriminate in space and time

What sort of damage does such radioactivity cause? Radioactivity is an energy pulse and therefore damages what it passes through. This includes the DNA, - the blueprint, - of the cells of the body. Apart from the immediate effects caused by such cell death, damage to the cells that act as the 'progenitors' of cell types such as skin, or the gut lining or blood cells can lead to cancers of these tissues. Apart from such easily identified disease states, there is documentary evidence that many more subtle malfunctions of the body leading to ill-health are induced by nuclear weapon radiation exposure. Finally, radiation damage to the cells involved in reproduction, - the sperm and egg, - can cause stillbirths and congenital abnormalities, leading to the gene pool of the species being altered in violent and chaotic fashion.

FALLOUT FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS CREATES HUGE ADDITIONAL POLLUTION AND GENETIC HARMS

MOVEMENT IN INDIA FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, 2001, Biologists in India for Nuclear Disarmament

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In the wake of the nuclear weapon tests in South Asia in May 1998, it has become imperative to remind ourselves and each other of the unique evil that nuclear weapons represent. They are not simply another way of waging war, but weapons non-selective by their very nature, since every nuclear explosion releases radioactive fallout. This radioactive dust is spread by wind and rain, contaminates water and air, is taken up by plants and enters the food chain right at the bottom, and persists for thousands of years. It will leave effects transcending generations; - not only innocent people but their unborn children will be deeply damaged, as will be the world around them, by even a ‘small’ nuclear weapon. There will be horrific degradation of the environment, with devastating effects on human communities.

NUCLEAR WEAPON RADIOACTIVITY EFFECTIVELY POISONS THE ENVIRONMENT

MOVEMENT IN INDIA FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, 2001, Why are Nuclear Weapons Uniquely Objectionable?

Radioactivity from a nuclear blast comes in two broad forms. The first is an immediate radioactivity pulse, which can kill people where they stand if the dose is high enough. However, this pulse dissipates rapidly, and this fact of dissipation is used by strategic hawks to claim that radioactivity release by a nuclear blast is no special evil, but is simply another way of getting a bomb to do what it is designed to do. However, the second form of radioactivity release is persistent radioactivity, partly from unused fuel as argued in the previous paragraph, partly from intermediate radioactive decay products of the fuel generated during the explosion, and in some part from 'induced' radioactivity generated in surrounding non-radioactive material by the immediate radioactive blast. All of these together constitute so-called radioactive 'dust' or 'fallout'. After the blast itself has dissipated, this radioactive dust hangs in the atmosphere, is spread by wind and rain, contaminates water and air, is taken up by plants and enters the food chain right at the bottom. The radioactive life span of many components of this dust is very long; - plutonium 239 has a 'half-life' of twenty four thousand years, meaning that it takes that long for the radioactivity output of the plutonium to come down by one-half. Radioactive dust thus impregnates soil, air and water for long years to come. The nuclear accident at Chernobyl and nuclear test sites are 'living' evidence of this.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS RELEASE POISONOUS RADIOACTIVITY NO MATTER HOW SMALL THEY ARE

MOVEMENT IN INDIA FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, 2001, Why are Nuclear Weapons Uniquely Objectionable?

However, the second and overwhelming reason for rejecting the notion that nuclear weapons are simply another way of waging war is that every nuclear explosion, big or small, releases both conventional and radioactive energy, contrary to assertions in a section of the 'strategic' brotherhood of 'clean' weapons . There are a number of ways that a nuclear weapon releases radioactivity. One, only a small part of the highly radioactive fuel material is actually converted into explosive energy during a nuclear blast. Both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts, for example, used up less than 20 percent of the nuclear fuel available. While the efficiency of use has increased, it has not done so, nor can it ever do so, to the extent that ALL radioactivity will be converted to blast energy. In other words, the bulk of the radioactivity of a nuclear weapon is likely to be dispersed over the blast area as intensely radioactive particles. It is said that 'small', battlefield nuclear weapon are 'strategically' feasible for a 'limited' nuclear war. However, smaller nuclear weapons are even less efficient than large ones and will therefore scatter large amounts of unused radioactive fuel.