Nuclear Wastelands ― A Global Guide to Nuclear Weapons Production and Its Health and Environmental Effects

A handbook for scholars, students, policy makers, journalists, and peace andenvironmental activists, Nuclear Wastelands provides concise histories of the development of nuclearweapons programs of every declared and de facto nuclear weapons power, as well as detailed surveysof the health and environmental effects of this development both in these countries and innon-nuclear nations involved in nuclear weapons testing and uranium mining.Among the more obviousbut largely deferred costs of the Cold War are those related to the management of radioactive waste.The world is burdened with thousands of unwanted nuclear devices and mounting surpluses ofweapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium. In addition, the process of weapons production andtesting has left many lands, aquifers, rivers, lakes, and seas contaminated by a multitude ofweapons-related poisons. This book follows the production process step by step and country bycountry from uranium mining to the final assembly and storage of weapons, analyzing the potentialhazards of each step and compiling the most complete information available on the actual health andenvironmental effects, in each country involved.Nuclear Wastelands includes a wealth of informationthat has only recently come to light, particularly on the nuclear weapons program of the formerSoviet Union. It also features critical analyses of official public communications concerning thehealth and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons production, bringing to light governmentalsecrecy and outright deception that have led to the subversion of democratic principles, and havecamouflaged the damage done to the very people and lands the weapons were meant tosafeguard.