When will humankind ever stop testing nuclear weapons in the Atmosphere? Haven’t we learned anything from what we did exploding 2,624 atomic and nuclear bombs in the atmosphere for almost 40 years. Figure 1 shows all of the nuclear detonations in the atmosphere. Click here for an interactive map.

The first atomic bomb was exploded in the skies over New Mexico on July 16, 1945 by the US. On August 6 and 9, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing between 129,000 – 226,000 Japanese citizens. The US continued atmospheric testing of atomic and nuclear bombs until 1963, at which time the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed among the US, USSR, and UK. France and China followed suit in 1974, and 1981, respectively. But, notice that nuclear bombs were detonated in Nevada’s atmosphere. Winds carried radioactive debris thousands of miles east as far as the Atlantic.

Entire islands in the Pacific were rendered uninhabitable. The British dropped 12 nuclear bombs in Australia from 1952-1957, as my friend, Roger Cross documented in his award winning book, Fallout. As happened in the US, radioactive fallout was blowing across Australia and contaminating many towns and communities. Roger Cross warns us, could it happen again? He thinks so.

Just when we thought atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons was ended, the world learned of the Russian testing of a new experimental Nuclear Powered Rocket engine to launch a cruise missile. It exploded in the atmosphere, killing 5 Russian scientists. But as bad as that, the incident is clouded in secrecy, denials and misinformation which often surrounds military and industrial accidents and disasters.

American Nuclear Rocket Experimental (NERVA)

The Americans have been working on a nuclear propelled engine for decades under the name Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA). Experimental engines were tested using nuclear material which provided thermal energy that expands gases through a rocket nozzle to create thrust. All testing in the US has been ground testing. No tests were done in the atmosphere. You can read here and here about the US program.

One very application of the concept of using nuclear energy for space flight was Project Orion. Project Orion, an advanced form of creating a rocket that would fly forever, by developing nuclear powered engines. But Project Orion would use a series of explosions to push the rocket in space. The series of explosions would be nuclear explosions. The physicists Freeman Dyson (Princeton Center for Advanced Studies) and Ted Taylor worked out a design for a huge 8 ton vehicle that would travel around the Solar System, visiting this planet and that one (Saturn and Jupiter, particularly). Problem was the explosions would have to be nuclear bomb explosions. They tried it out on the coast of California with chemical bombs, with some success. One important note, Dyson and Taylor never planned for explosions in the atmosphere, these would happen in outer space after the space vehicle was launched into space.

The NERVA research, which was a joint program of NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission came to in end in 1973, after the Apollo Program came to an end, and funding for NASA projects started to dwindle.

Russian Nuclear Thermal Powered “Skyfall”

The Russians have been working on a nuclear thermal powered rocket for decades, as the American have. On August 8, 2019, they tested a nuclear powered rocket, and it blew up and the explosion killed 5 Russian scientists. It was reported that evacuations took place of villages near the blast, the closest city to the blast, Severdovinsk reported higher than normal radiation levels.

The Russians are developing a nuclear engine to be used to launch and power a cruise missile. American scientists think that the Russians are using an engine that is in the class of Project Pluto. The U.S. Air Force developed a nuclear ramjet in 1957. Ramjets only work if they are going very fast—twice the speed of sound. So NASA came up with the idea of putting a nuclear powered ramjet as the second stage of a rocket system. They code named the effort, Project Pluto. The experimental engine was tested, with success, but it was not developed because of it potential terrorist use. It was cancelled in 1964.

It’s possible that the Project Pluto design is being used by the Russians to power a cruise missile. If so, it could travel very fast, and at very lengthy periods of time. This section is based on this report.

Present and Future Threat of Nuclear Testing

The Russian explosion brought to the surface the current state of the nuclear threat. The Russians are intent of out facing the US, and now that the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty was ripped up by both sides, there is real concern that the build up of nuclear weapons and associated technology has been ramped up. And now North Korea has detonated underground tests of nuclear weapons, and has also developed a workable ICBM rocket system.

Eight countries have detonated nuclear weapons above and below the ground. The Arms Control Association has indicated that most of the test sites are in lands of indigenous peoples and far away from the capitals of the nuclear countries. Underground tests are just as dangerous as above ground tests. Radioactive material can be vented into the atmosphere, but the material can also enter the soil and water system.

The world needs leadership to try and control the continued build up of nuclear weapons, and technologies. The United States is in dire need of leadership, as well as the UK and Russia.