Latest news with #nucleartesting
Fox News
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Hawley touts provision in Big, Beautiful Bill that has even hard-left Democrats celebrating
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., stood shoulder-to-shoulder with staunch Democrats to celebrate the inclusion of key compensation for survivors of nuclear testing inside President Donald Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill on Tuesday. Hawley has fought for the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) since the program was canceled in 2023. It has now been re-upped and greatly expanded thanks to persistent bipartisan advocacy. Among the cross-aisle attendees was former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who was among the most aggressive critics of Republicans while in Congress. Hawley embraced Bush at the event, however. "Cori, thank you. We would not be here without you and your work," he said, recounting their multiple prior efforts to pass the legislation. Also at the event was Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., who voted against the OBBB, but said he supports the RECA legislation. Navajo Nation president Buu Nygren also attended the event and recounted the impact of nuclear testing on his community. The bill applies to sites across the country where Americans, civilian, military and members of the Navajo Nation, were exposed to radiation due to nuclear weapons testing and the storing of nuclear waste. The event took place at one such site: St. Cin Park in St. Louis. The surrounding area has been determined to be a cancer hotzone thanks to the storing of nuclear waste nearby. The legislation applies to similar sites across Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alaska, but advocates of the bill and Hawley himself say there remains more work to be done. "This is a great first step, but there is definitely more to do," NAACP St. Louis president John Bowman told Fox at the event. "This is a good day, but there are better days to come." Bowman and others highlighted some zip codes that aren't eligible for the compensation, and they say work needs to be done to expand the documentation Americans can use to prove they qualify for compensation. Dawn Chapman, founder of Just Moms STL, an advocacy group devoted to the radiation exposure issue, told Fox that the process – while difficult – reinforced her belief in the legislative process. She recounted seeing staffers from opposite sides of the aisle celebrating and sharing high-fives after the bill was passed. The bill passed through the Senate three times in recent years before finally making it to the president's desk. "The system still works. It does," she said. "The media just often doesn't share it."
SBS Australia
08-07-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Secrets, Spies and Sabotage: 40 years on, SBS podcast investigates historic bombing of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior
Marking the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Greenpeace's international flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, award-winning investigative journalist Richard Baker has re-examined Australia's part in one of the most far-reaching international scandals of the 1980s, in SBS Audio's latest podcast Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island. Uncovering a sealed 374-page Australian government file, Baker travels to the scene of a real-life international spy thriller. After bombing the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour and killing photographer Fernando Pereira, four French agents escaped to Norfolk Island where they were eventually detained. However, after 24 hours in custody they were allowed to leave, ultimately evading justice. The Rainbow Warrior had arrived in Auckland after evacuating 300 people from Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, where they had been subject to fallout from US nuclear-testing, and was next destined for Mururoa Atoll to protest French nuclear testing there. Baker investigates the role that Australia played in the global headline-making affair, interviewing locals who witnessed the events on Norfolk Island, talking to Pacific Islanders who were exposed to radiation from the US and French nuclear-testing programs, and investigating from the Pacific to Paris to uncover the real story. Host of Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island , Richard Baker said; 'The more I looked into it, the more I was drawn to the events that unfolded on Norfolk Island forty years ago. I placed my bets on a 374-page sealed document from the National Archives of Australia and travelled to the region to speak to the locals – and from that, the podcast series Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island was born. ' 'It turned out I wasn't the only one who thought something didn't add up. In this series, I uncover Australia's covert role in an international scandal, the geopolitical situation that was driving the government of the day, and the part Australia still plays today in the ongoing battle for influence over the region.' The six-part podcast series features interviews with Maurice Witham, detective inspector who was second in command of the Rainbow Warrior investigation; Chris Martin, New Zealand detective who went to Norfolk Island to interrogate the French agents; Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, French Polynesian anti-nuclear activist and politician; and Lopeti Sentuli, Tongan anti-nuclear campaigner and lawyer on the ongoing fight for a nuclear-free Pacific. Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island is the latest offering from SBS, recently named the Australian Podcaster of the Year for the third year in a row . Itlaunches today on SBS Audio, ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing. Listen to all of SBS Audio's podcasts on the SBS Audio App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, LiSTNR or wherever you stream podcasts. Episodes launching weekly. For a pdf copy of this media release, click here.
SBS Australia
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island
• English • Documentary In 1985, a peaceful Greenpeace vessel named Rainbow Warrior was docked in Auckland Harbour, preparing to protest French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Under the cover of night, two French secret service agents planted bombs beneath the hull, sinking the ship and killing photographer Fernando Pereira. What followed was one of the most audacious and shocking acts of state-sponsored terrorism on allied soil. Fallout is a gripping investigative podcast that uncovers the untold story behind the bombing: the shadowy world of espionage, the global outrage that followed, and the tangled web of lies, cover-ups, and Cold War politics. Through archival recordings, first-hand accounts, and exclusive interviews with activists, journalists, and insiders, this series retraces the steps of the agents, the decisions of the French government, and the legacy of resistance that the Rainbow Warrior left behind. Was it a rogue mission? A calculated risk? Or a symptom of a deeper geopolitical tension? Journey with us into the heart of a covert operation that changed international law, exposed deep fractures in diplomacy, and ignited a new wave of environmental activism.
RNZ News
06-06-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Marshall Islands nuclear legacy: report highlights lack of health research
Half of the Marshall Islands' 50,000-strong population live in the capital city of Majuro. Photo: Public domain A new report on the United States nuclear weapons testing legacy in the Marshall Islands highlights the lack of studies into important health concerns voiced by Marshallese for decades that make it impossible to have a clear understanding of the impacts of the 67 nuclear weapons tests. 'The Legacy of US Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands,' a report by Dr. Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, was released late last month. The report was funded by Greenpeace Germany and is an outgrowth of the organization's flagship vessel, Rainbow Warrior III, visiting the Marshall Islands from March to April to recognize the 40th anniversary of the resettlement of the nuclear test-affected population of Rongelap Atoll. Dr Mahkijani said among the "many troubling aspects" of the legacy is that the United States had concluded, in 1948, after three tests, that the Marshall Islands was not 'a suitable site for atomic experiments' because it did not meet the required meteorological criteria. "Yet testing went on," he said. "Also notable has been the lack of systematic scientific attention to the accounts by many Marshallese of severe malformations and other adverse pregnancy outcomes like stillbirths. This was despite the documented fallout throughout the country and the fact that the potential for fallout to cause major birth defects has been known since the 1950s." Makhijani highlights the point that, despite early documentation in the immediate aftermath of the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test and numerous anecdotal reports from Marshallese women about miscarriages and still births, US government medical officials in charge of managing the nuclear test-related medical program in the Marshall Islands never systematically studied birth anomalies. The US deputy secretary of state in the Biden-Harris administration, Kurt Cambell, said that Washington, over decades, had committed billions of dollars to the damages and the rebuilding of the Marshall Islands. "I think we understand that that history carries a heavy burden, and we are doing what we can to support the people in the [Compact of Free Association] states, including the Marshall Islands," he told reporters at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders' meeting in Nuku'alofa last year. "This is not a legacy that we seek to avoid. We have attempted to address it constructively with massive resources and a sustained commitment." Among points outlined in the new report: Gamma radiation levels at Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, officially considered a "very low exposure" atoll, were tens of times, and up to 300 times, more than background in the immediate aftermaths of the thermonuclear tests in the Castle series at Bikini Atoll in 1954. Thyroid doses in the so-called "low exposure atolls" averaged 270 milligray (mGy), 60 percent more than the 50,000 people of Pripyat near Chernobyl who were evacuated (170 mGy) after the 1986 accident there, and roughly double the average thyroid exposures in the most exposed counties in the United States due to testing at the Nevada Test Site. Women from the nuclear test-affected Rongelap Atoll greeted the Rainbow Warrior and its crew with songs and dances as part of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of Rongelap Atoll in 1985 by the Rainbow Warrior. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Giff Johnson Despite this, "only a small fraction of the population has been officially recognized as exposed enough for screening and medical attention; even that came with its own downsides, including people being treated as experimental subjects," the report said. "In interviews and one 1980s country-wide survey, women have reported many adverse pregnancy outcomes," said the report. "They include stillbirths, a baby with part of the skull missing and 'the brain and the spinal cord fully exposed,' and a two-headed baby. Many of the babies with major birth defects died shortly after birth. "Some who lived suffered very difficult lives, as did their families. Despite extensive personal testimony, no systematic country-wide scientific study of a possible relationship of adverse pregnancy outcomes to nuclear testing has been done. It is to be noted that awareness among US scientists of the potential for major birth defects due to radioactive fallout goes back to the 1950s. Hiroshima-Nagasaki survivor data has also provided evidence for this problem. "The occurrence of stillbirths and major birth defects due to nuclear testing fallout in the Marshall Islands is scientifically plausible but no definitive statement is possible at the present time," the report concluded. "The nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands created a vast amount of fission products, including radioactive isotopes that cross the placenta, such as iodine-131 and tritium. Radiation exposure in the first trimester can cause early failed pregnancies, severe neurological damage, and other major birth defects. This makes it plausible that radiation exposure may have caused the kinds of adverse pregnancy outcomes that were experienced and reported. However, no definitive statement is possible in the absence of a detailed scientific assessment." Scientists who traveled with the Rainbow Warrior III on its two-month visit to the Marshall Islands earlier this year collected samples from Enewetak, Bikini, Rongelap and other atolls for scientific study and evaluation.
Daily Mail
05-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Multiple earthquakes hit Nevada military base known for testing nuclear weapons
Multiple earthquakes hit just miles outside of a military base in Nevada, which played a significant role in America's nuclear bomb testing. The US Geological Survey (USGS) detected three tremors on Thursday with a 3.3 hitting at 9:52am ET about 14 miles northeast from Nellis Air Force Base, which was followed by two smaller tremors just minutes later. Nellis Air Force Base tested US nuclear weapons from the 1950s until 1992 due to the end of the Cold War and as a way for America to lead by example and encourage other nations to stop such testing as well. There was also strong public opposition due to environmental damage and health risks from previous tests, especially from fallout in areas like Nevada and the Pacific, which led to the decision. The USGS received reports of shaking as far west as Las Vegas, but no injuries or damages have been reported. An assessment from Michigan Tech University showed that people typically do not feel quakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or less. Those from 2.5 to 5.4 are often felt but only cause minor damage. This is a developing story... More updates to come
