Nuclear weapons, the curse of the human race, are spreading everywhere. The problem is that the more nationsthat get them, the more of a chance that someone will explode one. There are also other risks. There is more of a chance that some radical group will get their hands on these weapons, as more of these things are available. Nuclear weapons have all sorts of side effects and these effects, became apparent when testing was being conducted by the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the European powers that got nukes. One of the effects that I am talking about, is the advent of earthquakes. Science has discovered that when tests are taking place, there are earthquakes. Here is the funny part of that, there seems to be no relation between the size of the quake and the size of the nuclear blast. Blasts were studied from 1961 to 1966 and the connection was found. This doesn't mean that the earthquakes are in or near where the explosions took place. They seem to pop up even at extreme distances.

One of the things that happened from all this nuclear testing, is that some of the radiation got into the fish. This is called trace radiocarbon C-14. There is enough of it in fish now, that scientists are using it to determine the ages of fish. Imagine what is in the animals that were around the test site. I have to wonder if any of them are so radioactive that they have become a danger to humans? I wonder about the birds? Could contaminated birds be spreading radiation? In all truthfulness, I haven't heard any reports of this. C-14 was the result of all the nuclear testing that was done. The amount of it in the atmosphere was raised quite a bit. The half life of this material is 5,730 years, so it will be around for quite awhile longer. It seems that in some ways, fish are like trees. many of them develop growth rings in their bones from the C-14. These rings can be used to find out the age of the fish.

One of the developing problems is that we are becoming more and more dependant on satellites. We use them for communication, we use them for finding our location and we use them to even watch television. There are probably many more uses of satellites that I haven't mentioned, but these are the ones that come to mind. Here is the problem, we keep getting more and more dependant on them in our everyday lives. Why is that such a bad thing? It is bad because most of these satellites can be knocked out by a small yield nuclear air burst, one that any nation possessing nuclear weapons and a delivery system would be able to accomplish. You don't have to actually hit any of the satellites with the weapon. Nuclear weapons put out a type of radiation that knocks out electronics. This is called electromagnetic radiation and there are now non nuclear bombs that can be cheaply built that will put out the same type of pulse. It is this radiation that will do the damage. As we get more dependant on these satellites, we find that we can not live without them and if they are knocked out, there will be chaos. This is just the thing that terrorists would love to do. Besides this electromagnetic radiation, a nuclear burst emits X-Ray damage to any satellites that are within the line of sight. Unstable nuclear fission fragments decay and they emit electrons that get themselves trapped in the earth's magnetic field and this increases radiation greatly. The lower Van Allan Belt remains excited for six months to two years.

When nuclear explosions take place, noble gas is released. These gases are radioactive and many times the release of them is on the weak side. Sometimes during an underground explosion, this gas would be released for several days after the explosion. Gas has been reported leaking from areas outside of the test site. Over twenty nuclear explosions have taken place where no Noble gas was released. Different types of nuclear explosions exhibit different types of characteristics. There are air bursts, underground tests and surface blasts. Then there are large explosions, medium explosions and small tactical weapons explosions. When a surface blast takes place, large quantities of dirt and material are pulled up into the radioactive cloud. Unfortunately, what goes up must come down and it does in the form of radioactive material. All this fallout makes the weapon even more deadly. You get a fireball and a split second later you get the blast wave. There is nothing good about any of this, believe me. Underground blasts are different. If you prepare them correctly, the result is the rising and falling of a section of the area's cover, without a resulting hole that is visible. Then there are high altitude air bursts. If the weapon is detonated high enough, a fireball is not noticeable, only a large debris cloud.

With all the problems with nuclear weapons, it is disturbing to note the President George Bush is pushing for a new generation of them. He wants to be able to build and use nukes, that will borough down into bunkers and blow them up, no matter how deep. This may sound fine on paper, but it is giving the green light to nuclear bomb use. New nuclear weapons means more nuclear testing. The desert in our midwest is already contaminated beyond what we have been led to believe. This will also violate our arms agreements and that means that the Russians will start testing again, along with many of the major powers.What most people don't know, is the magnitude of the testing that we have done there. From 1951 to 1992 there have been 928 nuclear explosions in the same area. Anyone that tells you that this hasn't effected our environment, really doesn't know what they are talking about. Before testing was stopped, a tower was built out of concrete. It was built to house the bomb that would have made the 929th explosion, but that was called off and the tower is still standing. For the same period, the Soviets conducted about 500 nuclear tests. In 2002 a paper was released that was backed by President Bush, it advised the use of nuclear weapons on a first strike basis, on the battlefield and stated that we should return to nuclear testing. Along with this policy paper was a request for seventy million dollars for studying and developing new types of nuclear weapons. Apparently we almost used nuclear weapons in the Iraq invasion. Donald Rumsfeld mention this possibility. Thank God we didn't, but how could we even have considered this?

It is almost impossible to get an accounting of the effect that nuclear testing has had on us. It is said that this is due to security and the fact that the government doesn't relish the thought of being sued. Proof of this last statement was demonstrated, when a group of people that had some of their members dying from toxic waste poisoning were suing the government to find find out what chemicals were being used at Area 51, where they had worked. The case was thrown out of court. Here were people that were not suing for money, just to find out what types of chemicals were poisoning them, so that they could get treatment that might save their lives, but our government didn't care. Knowing about this, I am sure that we have to realize that there just is no chance that we will ever be told how much radiation has been released from nuclear testing and I am also sure that if we want to renew testing, we will and the public be dammed. We are more than willing to sacrifice any of our citizens to keep our precious secrets, many of which are already know by those that we consider our enemies.