Effects Of Nuclear Experiments On Climate
It is estimated that the total energy released by nuclear explosions in 20th century amounts to 600 Megatons equivalent of energy. Divided over the 510 million square meters of the earth's surface and over the two decades of peak testing, that represents 8 million of watt per square meter of power. For comparison, the 1.8 watts per square meter of CO2 Radiative forcing as of 2011 generates 29 Billion, Trillion Joules of energy over the earth's surface in a single year, or more than 10,000 times as much energy in a year that the entire combined nuclear weapons program of the world has generated.
Many Nuclear tests kick up a lot of dust which reflects sunlight thereby cooling the earth. Nuclear winter is the severe and prolonged global climatic cooling effect hypothesized to occur after widespread fire storms following a Nuclear war. The hypothesis is based on the fact that such fires can inject soot into the Stratosphere where it can block direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the earth.
The end of World War II marked the beginning of Atomic age, when a number of states launched the Nuclear arms race. The first Nuclear test was carried out by USA in July 1945 followed by Soviet Union in 1949, U.K. in 1952, France in 1960 and China in 1964. Prior to 1950, limited consideration was given to the health impact of worldwide dispersion of Radioactivity from nuclear testing. Public protests in 1950s, and concerns amount the radionuclide strontium-90 and its effects on mother's
milk and baby's teeth were instrumental in conclusion of Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) which
was not signed by China and France. Nuclear tests were conducted in all environments, in the atmosphere, under ground and under water. Atmospheric nuclear weapons testing involve release
of considerable amount of radioactive materials directly into the environment and cause the largest collective dose from man-made sources of radiation.
Instead of sulphate particles, like getting from volcanic eruption, a nuclear event produces soot and that results in very different climate impacts. Whereas Sulphate particles from a volcano might warm the air of the upper atmosphere by a couple of degrees, Black carbon absorbs from the Sun and can lead to much more atmospheric warming. Sulphate and Soot also vary of in their impact on temperature of Earth's surface.
As per the studies taken up from the scenario of using 100 Hiroshima sized bombs, the fires from which would inject upward of 5 Teragrams (megatons) of black carbon particles into earth's upper
troposphere. On the ground, global temperatures would fall by a little over 1 Degree Celsius over
the first three years. Black carbon particles are smaller than sulphate particles and can be lofted
much higher by solar heating, where their influence n climate can last up to a decade. Rainfall
would decrease globally by an average of 10 percent.
In a nuclear explosion, human body can be irradiated by at last three processes. First and the major cause, cause burns is due to thermal radiation and not caused by Ionizing radiation. Thermal burns from infrared heat radiation. These would be the most common burn type experienced by personnel.
Flooding is another symptom of warming world that could lead to Nuclear disaster. Many Nuclear plants are built on coast lines where sea water is easily used as a coolant. Sea - level rise, shoreline
erosion, coastal storms, and heat waves - all potentially catastrophic phenomena associated with climate change - are expected to get more frequent as the Earth continues to warm threatening greater damage to Coastal Nuclear power plants.
No one denies that older nuclear plants, with an aged infrastructure often surpassing expected lifetimes, are extremely inefficient and run a higher risk of disaster.
This is critical information needs to be known in advance along with knowledge that the consequences of such a scenario would be global.
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Many Nuclear tests kick up a lot of dust which reflects sunlight thereby cooling the earth. Nuclear winter is the severe and prolonged global climatic cooling effect hypothesized to occur after widespread fire storms following a Nuclear war. The hypothesis is based on the fact that such fires can inject soot into the Stratosphere where it can block direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the earth.
The end of World War II marked the beginning of Atomic age, when a number of states launched the Nuclear arms race. The first Nuclear test was carried out by USA in July 1945 followed by Soviet Union in 1949, U.K. in 1952, France in 1960 and China in 1964. Prior to 1950, limited consideration was given to the health impact of worldwide dispersion of Radioactivity from nuclear testing. Public protests in 1950s, and concerns amount the radionuclide strontium-90 and its effects on mother's
milk and baby's teeth were instrumental in conclusion of Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) which
was not signed by China and France. Nuclear tests were conducted in all environments, in the atmosphere, under ground and under water. Atmospheric nuclear weapons testing involve release
of considerable amount of radioactive materials directly into the environment and cause the largest collective dose from man-made sources of radiation.
Instead of sulphate particles, like getting from volcanic eruption, a nuclear event produces soot and that results in very different climate impacts. Whereas Sulphate particles from a volcano might warm the air of the upper atmosphere by a couple of degrees, Black carbon absorbs from the Sun and can lead to much more atmospheric warming. Sulphate and Soot also vary of in their impact on temperature of Earth's surface.
As per the studies taken up from the scenario of using 100 Hiroshima sized bombs, the fires from which would inject upward of 5 Teragrams (megatons) of black carbon particles into earth's upper
troposphere. On the ground, global temperatures would fall by a little over 1 Degree Celsius over
the first three years. Black carbon particles are smaller than sulphate particles and can be lofted
much higher by solar heating, where their influence n climate can last up to a decade. Rainfall
would decrease globally by an average of 10 percent.
In a nuclear explosion, human body can be irradiated by at last three processes. First and the major cause, cause burns is due to thermal radiation and not caused by Ionizing radiation. Thermal burns from infrared heat radiation. These would be the most common burn type experienced by personnel.
Flooding is another symptom of warming world that could lead to Nuclear disaster. Many Nuclear plants are built on coast lines where sea water is easily used as a coolant. Sea - level rise, shoreline
erosion, coastal storms, and heat waves - all potentially catastrophic phenomena associated with climate change - are expected to get more frequent as the Earth continues to warm threatening greater damage to Coastal Nuclear power plants.
No one denies that older nuclear plants, with an aged infrastructure often surpassing expected lifetimes, are extremely inefficient and run a higher risk of disaster.
This is critical information needs to be known in advance along with knowledge that the consequences of such a scenario would be global.
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