Robert Alvarez, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: The Marshall Islands and the NPT
Tony DeBrum, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) provided a dose of reality to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference recently by asking: “How many in this room have personally witnessed nuclear weapon detonations?”
On March 1, 1954, a 9-year-old DeBrum was fishing with his grandfather near the Likiep atoll, one of the islands in the Marshalls group. As his grandfather cast his net, there was a sudden intense flash that lit up the pre-dawn sky, followed by a terrifying shock wave. “Everything turned red—the ocean, the fish, the sky, and my grandfather’s net. And we were 200 miles away from ground zero. A memory that can never be erased.”
WNU Editor: The legacy of U.S. nuclear tests is going to last a long time .... especially in places like The Marshall islands. Sadly .... Soviet nuclear tests and their aftermath are even worse .... The Tragic Story of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (io9).
The U.S paid ten bucks for the marshal islands . You learn something new everyday.
ReplyDeleteYup ... 10 bucks. My eyebrow went up on that one.
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