The connection between the United States embarking on a vigorous nuclear power reactor program and the proliferation of nuclear weapons is somewhat indirect, and it is also complicated.

Arguments can be made that other countries, such as France, because of their lack of fossil fuels, must be firmly committed to nuclear power, and what the United States does unilaterally will not have major influence on worldwide unclear proliferation. It is also argued, that with new simpler techniques for uranium enrichment based on atomic excitation by lasers, or through the use of new ultra-centifuges, nuclear weapons will become more widely available whether or not we have more nuclear power reactors. In presenting this argument, we recall that nuclear weapons may be based either on enriched uranium derived from ordinary uranium ore, or on plutonium from reprocessed fuel rods, with equivalent results.

These are the places that they have tested the atomic bomb.

Lop Nor Test Site Fallout Pattern

Daily observations of the cloud of radioactive dust particles after a Chinese test at Lop Nor on May 9, 1966. The cloud moved about 1,400 miles per day.

BRAVO Test Fallout Pattern

No one was living on the Bikini atoll at the time of the BRAVO blast. However, a total of 236 people were living on the atolls of Rongelap and Utirik, 100 and 300 miles east of Bikini, respectively. The residents of Rongelap were exposed to as much as 200 rems of radiation. They were evacuated 24 hours after the detonation. The residents of Utirik, which were exposed to lower levels of radiation, were not evacuated until at least two days later. After their evacuation, many experienced typical symptoms of radiation poisoning; burning of the mouth and eyes, nausea, diarrhea, loss of hair, and skin burns.

Ten years after the blast the first thyroid tumors began to appear. Of those under twelve on Rongelap at the time of BRAVO, 90% have developed thyroid tumors. In 1964, the U. S. Government admitted responsibility for exposing the islanders to radiation and appropriated funds to compensate them.

Nagasaki Damage

Though Fat Man was nearly twice as powerful as Little Boy, its damage was less extensive, due partly to the geography of the Nagasaki area and partly to the fact that the bomb was dropped about 2 miles off target.

Hiroshima Damage

At the time of the bombing, Hiroshima was a prosperous city of nearly 320,000. The bomb exploded almost directly over the center of the city. Two square miles of the city were completely leveled by the bomb, and the intense heat generated by the explosion started fires as far as two miles from ground zero.

Trinity Test Fallout Pattern

The fireball created by the explosion touched the ground and vaporized large amounts of soil. These relatively heavy particles, highly radioactive, fell out of the cloud quickly, causing a fair amount of local fallout. Delayed or long-distance fallout was relatively small, though it was high enough to cause defects to appear on film as far away as New York.