In the late 1950s an area of land in the Nevada desert was allocated for nuclear testing, located roughly 60 miles away from the city of Las Vegas. Nuclear tests were carried out at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) up until 1992.
The tests were carried out to ensure that US military power was maintained. It helped to assert the USA’s dominance as a super power (NNSS, 2017). The nuclear testing began above ground but amid growing concerns from the population President Kennedy signed a Partial Ban Treaty in 1963 limiting the testing to only occur underground (Rogers, 2014).
When the testing began the mushroom clouds produced from the explosions were a spectacle to all that saw them. In Las Vegas casinos and hotels located in now what would be referred to as ‘Old Vegas’ (Freemont Street) would host ‘dawn parties’ and would serve atomic themed beverages so that tourists could party and stay up to watch the nuclear test clouds appear in the distance (Atomic Heritage, n/d). People in surrounding neighbourhoods were encouraged to watch the bomb tests from their front porches whilst wearing a badge. These badges were then collected by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and tested for radiation (Buck, 2017).
Higher rates of bone and thyroid cancer as well as increased instances of childhood leukaemia began to be reported from populations in the states surrounding the NTS – Utah was the most impacted (Beck & Krey, 1983). Las Vegas also saw an increase in cancer related deaths. This was largely ignored by Congress, they used the inconclusive results of the AEC badge testing to back this claim (Rogers, 2014). Further research has been carried out and it is found that Strontium (Sr-90) – a radioactive chemical – is detectable in the teeth of adults who lived close to the test site (Mangano & Sherman).
In the originally documents published by the AEC in 1955 potential harm to human health was accounted for as well as nuisance created by the blasts. However in usual political style all of the inconveniences were justified by the need to keep ‘atomic strength at peak level’ helping the USA to ‘buy precious time’ in military operations (Atomic Energy Commission, 1955). It is reported that in declassified documents that the tests may have been carried out to fully understand the impact that radioactive fallout could have on the human population (Nuclear Chain, n/d). However, this has not been proven.
Pressure was continually applied to the government by activist groups – arguing that they (the populations surround NTS) were subject to harmful levels of radiation throughout the 1970s and 80s. Organisations such as ‘Downwinders’ were set up to provide support to those impacted by the nuclear tests (Solomon, 2001). Finally in 1990 President Bush agreed that the levels of radiation were damaging to those in the surrounding areas – he passed the Radiation Exposure Act which gave compensation to those affected (Curtis, 2018; Nuclear Chain, n/d).
Further testing and investigation has uncovered that groundwater is also contaminated – which could spell disaster for future populations and acts as a barrier to urban sprawl from cities like Las Vegas (Vartabedian, 2009; NNSS, 2017).
So how does this related to UPE?
Whilst the problems of radioactive contamination continue in to the present day – and are likely to well in to the future it is clear that political power remains the most important issue to Congress. Activist groups have had to continually and forcefully lobby their point of view – backed up by statistical truths of the rising death toll from cancers. Impacts of groundwater contamination are likely to be felt in years to come – however continued strength in political and military power work to cover the truth.
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Reference List:
Atomic Energy Commission (1955) Atomic test effects in the Nevada test site region, (WWW) AEC: USA (https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/atomic_tests_nevada/ , last accessed 10/03/20)
Atomic Heritage (n/d) Nevada test site, (WWW) Atomic Heritage Foundation: Washington (https://www.atomicheritage.org/location/nevada-test-site, last accessed 10/03/20)
Beck, H., & Krey, P. (1983). Radiation Exposures in Utah from Nevada Nuclear Tests. Science, 220: 4592, 18-24.
Buck S. (2017) Nuclear bombs were being tested less than an hour from Las Vegas – and Howard Hughes tried to stop it, (WWW) Medium: USA (https://timeline.com/howard-hughes-nuclear-weapons-las-vegas-53fb1cb30008, last accessed 10/03/20)
Mangano, J. and J. Sherman (2011) Elevated in vivo strontium-90 from nuclear weapons test fallout among cancer decedents: a case-control study of deciduous teeth, International journal of health services, 41: 1, 137-158
Nevada National Security Site (2017) Nevada Test Site, (WWW) NNSS: USA (https://www.nnss.gov/docs/docs_LibraryPublications/2017%20NNSSER%20Summary.pdf, last accessed 10/03/20
Nuclear Chain (n/d) Nevada Test Site USA, (WWW) Nuclear Risks: Germany (http://www.nuclear-risks.org/en/hibakusha-worldwide/nevada-test-site.html, last accessed 10/03/20)
Rogers, K. (2014) Report: Nuclear testing remnants remain radioactive (WWW) Review Journal: Las Vegas (https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/report-nuclear-testing-remnants-remain-radioactive/#,l, last accessed 10/03/20)
Solomon, N. (2001) 50 years later, the tragedy of nuclear tests in Nevada (WWW) Fair: New York (https://fair.org/media-beat-column/50-years-later-the-tragedy-of-nuclear-tests-in-nevada/ – , last accessed 10/03/20)
Vartabedian, R. (2009) Nevada’s hidden ocean of radiation, (WWW) LA Times, LA (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-nov-13-na-radiation-nevada13-story.html – last accessed 10/03/20)
Urban Political Ecology 