Table Of ContentTHEY
EVER EW
01906
BY GLENN CHENEY
AN IMPACT BOOK
FRANKLIN WAITS
A DIVISION OF GROLIER PUBLISHING
NEW YORK LONDON HONG KONG SYDNEY
DANBUR~CONNECTICUT
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cheney, Glenn Alan.
They never knew : the victims of nuclear testing I by Glenn
Cheney.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: Examines the American government's role in develop
ing nuclear weapons and conducting atomic testing, focusing on the
effects of radiation on humans and the victims' attempts to sue the
government for compensation.
ISBN 0-531-11273-X
1. Nuclear warfare-Health aspects. 2. Nuclear weapons
Testing-Health aspects. [Nuclear warfare-Health aspects. 2.
Nuclear weapons-Testing-Health aspects. 3. Radiation victims.]
I. Title.
RA648.3C475 1996
363.17'992'0973-dc20 96-14262 CIP AC
© 1996 by Glenn Cheney.
All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada.
Printed in the United States of America.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 R 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
INTRODUCTION
7
ONE
THE BOMB AND THE EFFECTS
OF RADIATION
12
TWO
THE BOMB AND THE COLD WAR,
1945-1950
22
THREE
TESTING IN NEVADA
35
FOUR
ATOMIC TESTING AND THE
PEOPLE NEARBY
51
FIVE
THE MYSTERY OF THE SHEEP
62
SIX
THE DISASTROUS EFFECTS ON HEALTH
71
SEVEN
THE PEOPLE VS. THE AEC IN COURT
88
EIGHT
TREATIES TOWARD A TEST BAN
105
GLOSSARY 11 o
SUGGESTED READ I NG 114
SOURCE NOTES 116
INDEX 125
One hundred and forty-nine atomic bombs have
exploded over America.1 No one knows how many peo
ple these bombs have killed. The initial heat and shock
of the explosions probably killed no one. Open-air
atomic explosions, however, have more-lasting and
distant effects. They create and release tremendous
amounts of highly dangerous radioactive materials.
Radiation causes leukemia and other forms of cancer,
cardiovascular problems, cataracts, immunological
weaknesses, genetic defects, prenatal problems, mental
retardation, and many other health problems. Such
problems, however, occur only years or decades after
the explosions. Al I doctors and scientists can do is esti
mate the number of the problems and the number of
probable deaths. Estimates of deaths worldwide from
American, Soviet, British, French, and Chinese atmos
pheric nuclear tests range from something near zero to
several million.2
In the name of democracy and self-defense, the
United States tested bomb after bomb at a test site in
Nevada. Each shot sent tons of radioactive particles
" 7 •
boiling into the sky and drifting across the United States.
Uranium, plutonium, cesium, strontium, iodine, and
other radioactive forms of elements gradually came to
earth as fallout. A lot of the fallout settled in Nevada and
Utah, ki 11 ing cattle and sickening residents. It caused
burns on ranchers' skin, leukemia in children, cancer in
adults, and deformities in the unborn. It contaminated
milk in North Dakota.3 It ruined photographic film in
New York. It settled into the soi I of every state except
Alaska and Hawaii.4
Another sixty-six test bombs-many of them far
more powerful than those in Nevada, were detonated
over the Marshall Islands, a U.S. Trusteeship territory in
the South Pacific. An estimated 5,000 local people had
to abandon their homes and live for four decades on
distant islands. Some 42,000 U.S. military personnel try
ing to clean up the atomic mess worked under condi
tions so radioactive that they would be illegal in any
American industry today. 5
In all, almost half a million Americans have had an
atomic bomb, or several, explode near enough to do
them harm. How many have these bombs killed? After
years of lies and denial, the United States government
reluctantly admitted to a toll of perhaps a dozen civil
ians. Although thousands of American citizens have
sued the government, claiming damages that range from
illness to death, few have received compensation. These
lawsuits have been generally unsuccessful because
among other reasons, it is difficult-perhaps impossi
ble-to establish a definite link between illnesses like
cancer and explosions that happened hundreds of miles
away and ten or twenty or forty years in the past.
Scientists, among them several Nobel laureates,
have warned that the radiation from atomic bomb tests
may eventually cause as many as 10 million deaths
worldwide. Other scientists claim the fallout was so dis-
. 8 •
persed and diluted by air and water that it could not be
harmful.
The U.S. Congress investigated the claims. It found
neg I igence in the testing program and horrifying conse
quences. U.S. courts, however, have very rarely award
ed compensation to those who claim to have been
injured by radiation from the tests.
Among the victims are an unknown number of the
250,000 military personnel who witnessed atomic
explosions or their aftermath during training for nuclear
warfare. Used as human guinea pigs, they were ordered
into positions as close as 1.2 miles (1.9 km) from atomic
explosions so that the military would learn the effects of
radiation on their physical and mental health. Some
were used as human robots to gather information near
ground zero or in radioactive clouds. Some soldiers
were protected by nothing more than a trench dug 6
feet (1 .8 m) deep and perhaps sunglasses or a cotton
face mask. All this while scientists and officers hid in
specially protected bomb shelters many miles away.
Bombs were not the only source of exposure to radi
ation. A government research program had hospital
patients injected with plutonium, one of the deadliest
substances in the world.6 Some 16,000 people were
subjected to experiments involving radiation, many of
them unaware of the nature of the experiment or the
real degree of danger.
No one will ever know the whole truth. Information
was hidden by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
and other government agencies. Much of the available
information has been distorted by hysteria, rumor, and
wild fears.
The tests may have been dangerous, but they took
place during dangerous times. A war in Korea was in the
process of killing tens of thousands of U.S. troops. The
Soviet Union, an avowed enemy of the United States,
• 9 "
