Unlimited Nuclear Disaster Updates

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Emergency repairs for Chernobyl shelter 'might top EUR100 million'

The giant New Safe Confinement shelter over the remains of Chernobyl's unit 4 was damaged by a drone in February with an initial EUR42.5 million (USD50 million) already pledged for repair work.

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The European Union will contribute EUR25 million, the United Kingdom will contribute EUR6.7 million and France EUR10.6 million. The pledges came during a meeting of the International Chernobyl Cooperation Account held at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The EBRD said the drone strike: "Has severely affected the New Safe Confinement's two primary functions: (i) containing radiological hazards and (ii) supporting long-term decommissioning. Key systems designed to ensure the NSC's 100-year lifespan have been rendered non-operational, with a significant risk of further deterioration in the absence of swift emergency repairs. While it is difficult to provide an accurate estimate of the cost of repairs to the NSC at the moment, the scale of the damage and the complex radiological environment suggest that the total cost of the emergency works could exceed EUR100 million."

Chernobyl NPP said the contributions "are a crucial step toward ensuring the continuation of the New Safe Confinement restoration work".

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/emergency-repairs-for-chernobyl-shelter-might-top-eur100-million

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Where Oppenheimer Feared to Tread, 'Atomic People' Bravely Goes
A new documentary tells the story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the perspective of the atomic bomb's victims, rather than its inventor.

hristopher Nolan's 2023 blockbuster Oppenheimer—which garnered thirteen Academy Award nominations and ultimately won seven, including Best Picture—clocked in at three hours long. But while the epic biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his struggle to invent the atomic bomb made use of its run time to depict the physicist's extramarital affair, Nolan's screenplay somehow couldn't spare a single moment for a graphic depiction of what nuclear weapons—the three-hour film's entire raison d'être—actually did to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Atomic People, a new film from British filmmakers Megumi Inman and Benedict Sanderson, tells the story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the perspective of those who Oppenheimer overlooked: the hibakusha, or survivors of the atom bomb.

Atomic People includes interviews of many hibakusha, mostly identified by their first names, as well as both black and white and color photos, film footage, and paintings by survivors. The film renders a grim, harrowing picture of the devastation wrought on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atomic bombs.

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Hideo Takemoto as a young baby. He was three years old when the bomb fell on Hiroshima. His brother saved his life by digging him out of the rubble.

What eyewitness Hiromu describes as a "flash bang" instantly killed more than 70,000 people out of Hiroshima's population of 350,000. (Three days later, an additional 40,000 people, out of Nagasaki's population of 240,000, would also be immediately killed). "I was thrown into a blast furnace," recalls Hiromu, who was fifteen years old when his home city was turned into a nuclear wasteland. But he remembers everything: "It left an impression like nothing else."


https://progressive.org/latest/where-oppenheimer-feared-to-tread-rampell-20250803/


Atomic People premieres Monday, August 4, 2025, 10:00-11:30 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app. The film is in Japanese with English subtitles and titles.

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More than 2,000 nuclear weapons have been detonated in the past 80 years. Their effects still linger around the world

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Growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the 1950s and 60s, Mary Dickson was among the millions of American schoolchildren taught to "duck and cover" in the event of a nuclear war.

"I just remember thinking, 'That's not going to save us from a bomb,'" she told CNN. At that time, Dickson didn't know that nuclear weapons were being detonated in the neighboring state of Nevada as the US tested its new stockpile. She lived downwind, in the direction much of the radioactive fallout from atmospheric tests traveled.

She says she has suffered from thyroid cancer; her older sister passed away from lupus in her 40s; her younger sister was recently told that her intestinal cancer has spread to other parts of her body; and her nieces have health issues too.

Dickson says she once counted 54 people from her five-block childhood neighborhood who had suffered from cancer, autoimmune diseases, birth defects or miscarriages.

https://archive.ph/j0nCS#selection-2352.0-2601.177

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Not just Nukes... the remnants of war leave a lethal legacy..

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Aerial view of Enewetak Atoll showing nuclear test craters.

80 years since the end of World War II, a dangerous legacy lingers in the Pacific

On September 2, 1945, the second world war ended when Japan officially surrendered. Today, on the 80th anniversary, the physical legacy of the conflict remains etched into land and sea.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Pacific. There, fierce battles left behind sunken warships, aircraft and unexploded bombs. These remnants are not only historical artefacts but toxic time capsules.

They leak fuel, heavy metals and other hazardous substances into fragile ecosystems, threatening biodiversity and, potentially, human health.

This problem is a reminder of the enduring environmental harms of conflict. Toxic remnants of war can damage ecosystems and communities long after the fighting stops.

https://theconversation.com/80-years-since-the-end-of-world-war-ii-a-dangerous-legacy-lingers-in-the-pacific-264127


Deadly threat of unexploded bombs in the Pacific persists 80 years on

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Last year alone more than 5,400 ordnance items were cleared in the Solomon Islands

THIS YEAR is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but in some countries, the trail of death and destruction continues. Bombs, nearly a century old, are still exploding, killing and maiming people and contaminating land.

Four years ago, a group of young people gathered for a barbecue in a residential backyard. They were cooking food over an open fire in the ground. Suddenly, the earth exploded with no warning. Maeverlyn Pitanoe, a youth mentor, and two young men were standing near to where the ageing bomb had been buried in the garden. Their hope of selling cooked food to raise funds for their youth group was shattered. But, much worse, the youths who lost their legs in the tragedy died within a week, and Pitanoe was left with severed fingers and extensive burns and injuries to her body.

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/deadly-threat-of-unexploded-bombs-in-the-pacific-persists-80-years-on-,20133

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Trump directs Pentagon to test nuclear weapons for first time since 1992

The president said he wanted testing to occur "on an equal basis" with Russia and China. The Kremlin condemned the move, and there was no indication of when tests might take place.

President Donald Trump on Thursday morning said he directed the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons "on an equal basis" with Russia and China, an apparent attempt to flex the United States' military might ahead of a high-stakes trade meeting here with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Trump's announcement on Truth Social signaled a reversal of decades of United States nuclear policy that could have far-reaching consequences for relations with U.S. adversaries, though his post included very few details about what the tests would entail. The last nuclear weapon test in the United States was held in 1992, before President George H.W. Bush implemented a moratorium on such exercises at the conclusion of the Cold War.

https://wapo.st/47JNyNX




Subject: Oppose Any Resumption of Nuclear Testing—Protect Our Future

Dear [Representative/Senator Name],

I am writing to express my unequivocal opposition to any effort to resume nuclear weapons testing in the United States. Such a move would be reckless, unnecessary, and deeply damaging to our national interest.

We have made extraordinary advances in nuclear stewardship without explosive testing. Through subcritical experiments, inertial confinement fusion, and advanced AI-driven simulations, our arsenal remains secure and reliable. There is no scientific or strategic justification for returning to full-scale detonations.

Resuming tests would:

[] Jeopardize public health and the environment, risking radioactive contamination of air, water, and soil.

[] Undermine global nonproliferation efforts, encouraging other nations to restart their own testing programs.

[] Trigger widespread public backlash, eroding trust in government and fueling domestic and international protest.

[] Destabilize our economy, through increased defense spending, potential sanctions, and reputational harm to communities near test sites.

The United States signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996. While it remains unratified, we have upheld its principles for over three decades. To abandon that commitment now would be a betrayal of global leadership and scientific integrity.

I urge you to take a firm stand: publicly oppose any resumption of nuclear testing, support legislation that reinforces our testing moratorium, and advocate for full ratification of the CTBT.

This is not a partisan issue—it is a matter of environmental stewardship, national security, and moral responsibility. I expect your leadership on this issue, and I will be watching closely.

Sincerely,

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Explainer-Nuclear testing: Why did it stop, why test and who has nuclear weapons?


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FILE PHOTO: A mushroom cloud rises with ships below during Operation Crossroads nuclear weapons test on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands in this 1946 handout provided by the U.S. Library of Congress. The United States said on April 25, 2014, it was examining lawsuits filed by the Marshall Islands against it and eight other nuclear-armed countries that accuse them of failing in their obligation to negotiate nuclear disarmament. REUTERS/U.S. Library of Congress/Handout via Reuters/File Photo — Handout .

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military on Thursday to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons after a gap of 33 years, minutes before beginning a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

How many nuclear weapons tests have there been, why were they stopped - and why would anyone start them again?

THE NUCLEAR AGE

The United States opened the nuclear era in July 1945 with the test of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945, and then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to force Japan to surrender in World War Two.

The Soviet Union shocked the West by detonating its first nuclear bomb just four years later, in August 1949.

In the five decades between 1945 and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), over 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out, 1,032 of them by the United States and 715 of them by the Soviet Union, according to the United Nations.

Britain carried out 45 tests, France 210 and China 45.

Since the CTBT, 10 nuclear tests have taken place. India conducted two in 1998, Pakistan also two in 1998, and North Korea conducted tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016 (twice) and 2017, according to the United Nations.

The United States last tested in 1992, China and France in 1996 and the Soviet Union in 1990. Russia, which inherited most of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, has never done so.

Russia held nuclear drills last week and has tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile and a nuclear-powered torpedo but has not tested a nuclear warhead.

WHY WAS NUCLEAR TESTING ENDED?

Concern mounted about the impact of the tests - above ground, underground and underwater - on human health and the environment.

The impact of the West's testing in the Pacific and of Soviet testing in Kazakhstan and the Arctic was significant on both the environment and the people. Activists say millions of people in both the Pacific and Kazakhstan had their lands contaminated by nuclear testing - and have faced health issues for decades.

By limiting the Cold War bonanza of nuclear testing, advocates said, tensions between Moscow and Washington could be reduced.

The CTBT bans  nuclear explosions  by everyone, everywhere. It was signed by Russia in 1996 and ratified in 2000. The United States signed the treaty in 1996 but has not ratified it.

In 2023, President Vladimir Putin formally revoked Russia's ratification of the CTBT, bringing his country in line with the United States.

https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2025/10/explainer-nuclear-testing-why-did-it-stop-why-test-and-who-has-nuclear-weapons