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

by a special commission of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War(IPPNW) and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER); edited by Arjun Makhijani, Howard Hu, and Katherine Yih

Publisher: MIT Press

Year Published: 2000, includes afterword, briefly updating 1995 hardcover edition

Pages: 669 pp.

Binding: Paperback

ISBN: 0262632047

This handbook for scholars, students, policy makers, journalists, and peace and environmental activists, provides concise histories of the development of nuclear weapons programs of every declared and de facto nuclear weapons power. Its thorough documentation and analysis bring to light the governmental secrecy and outright deception that have camouflaged the damage done to the very people and lands the weapons were meant to safeguard. Nuclear Wastelands gathers the work of numerous contributors with expertise in nuclear medicine, epidemiology, environmental medicine, occupational health, chemical engineering, and journalism. The book reviews the entire process of nuclear weapons production, from uranium mining and milling through plutonium processing and weapons assembly. It identifies the major pollutants resulting from these processes, presents a country-by-country review of the major nuclear weapons production sites, and reviews all available information on their emissions and health and safety records.

"No future research into nuclear weapons will be credible unless it refers to this study." – Jonathan Steele, The Guardian (UK), August 9, 1995

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables

Foreward (Bernard Lown)

Preface (Howard Hu, Arjun Makhijani, and Katherine Yih)

Acknowledgements

l. A Readiness to Harm (Arjun Makhijani)

2. Methodology (Arjun Makhijani and Howard Hu)

3. The Production of Nuclear Weapons and Environmental Hazards (Arjun Makhijani and Scott Saleska)

4. Health Hazards of Nuclear Weapons Production (David Sumner, Howard Hu, and Alistair Woodward)

5. Uranium Mining and Milling for Military Purposes (Katherine Yih, Albert Donnay, Annalee Yassi, A. James Ruttenber, and Scott Saleska)

6. The United States (Arjun Makhijani, A. James Ruttenber, Ellen Kennedy, and Richard Clapp)

7. Russia and the Territories of the Former Soviet Union (Albert Donnay, Martin Cherniack, Arjun Makhijani, and Amy Hopkins)

8. The United Kingdom (David Sumner, Rebecca Johnson, and William Peden)

9. France (Albert Donnay and Martin Kuster)

10. China (Alexandra Brooks and Howard Hu)

11. Near-Nuclear and De Facto Nuclear Weapons Countries (Albert Donnay and Arjun Makhijani)

12. The Global Picture: Summary and Recommendations (Howard Hu and Arjun Makhijani)

Glossary

References

Contributors

About IPPNW and IEER

Index

Update to the Paperback Edition