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The humanitarian impact and implications of nuclear test explosions in the Pacific region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2016

Tilman A. Ruff
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Abstract

The people of the Pacific region have suffered widespread and persisting radioactive contamination, displacement and transgenerational harm from nuclear test explosions. This paper reviews radiation health effects and the global impacts of nuclear testing, as context for the health and environmental consequences of nuclear test explosions in Australia, the Marshall Islands, the central Pacific and French Polynesia. The resulting humanitarian needs include recognition, accountability, monitoring, care, compensation and remediation. Treaty architecture to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons and provide for their elimination is considered the most promising way to durably end nuclear testing. Evidence of the humanitarian impacts of nuclear tests, and survivor testimony, can contribute towards fulfilling the humanitarian imperative to eradicate nuclear weapons.

Keywords

nuclear test explosionsnuclear testsPacific regionPacific island countriesradioactive fallout
Type
Regional perspectives
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 97 , Issue 899: The human cost of nuclear weapons , September 2015 , pp. 775 - 813
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2016 

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References

1 Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO Preparatory Commission), The United States' Nuclear Testing Programme, available at: www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/the-effects-of-nuclear-testing/the-united-states-nuclear-testing-programme/ (all internet references were accessed in November 2015).

2 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), SIPRI Yearbook 2014, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015, pp. 349–351.

3 The explosive device used for a peaceful nuclear explosion (PNE) is the same as for a weapons test, and the adverse effects on health and the environment are the same (see CTBTO Preparatory Commission, Peaceful Nuclear Explosions, available at: www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/history-of-nuclear-testing/peaceful-nuclear-explosions/). In addition, there is no objective way to verify that a nuclear explosion designated as “peaceful” does not have some military purpose. Because PNEs were widely regarded as a “back door” for nuclear weapons, they are prohibited under the CTBT. The best-known case of deceitful use of the designation of PNE is that of India's 1974 explosion. After conducting an explicit series of nuclear weapons test explosions in 1998, India admitted that its 1974 explosion had also been a nuclear weapon test. See Rebecca Johnson, Unfinished Business: The Negotiation of the CTBT and the End of Nuclear Testing, UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), Geneva, 2009, pp. 101, 322.

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13 Arjun Makhijani, “A Readiness to Harm: The Health Effects of Nuclear Weapons Complexes”, Arms Control Today, 1 July 2005, available at: www.armscontrol.org/act/2005_07-08/Makhijani.

14 Ibid.

15 US Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Justice Department Surpasses $2 Billion in Awards under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act”, Justice News, 2 March 2015, available at: www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-surpasses-2-billion-awards-under-radiation-exposure-compensation-act.

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17 Ibid., Vol. 2, para. 10.0.2, p. 395.

18 Ibid., paras 2.1.34, 12.1.15, and Conclusion 1.

19 Adrian Tame and F. P. J. Robotham, Maralinga: British A-bomb Australian Legacy, Fontana/Collins, Melbourne, 1982, p. 66.

20 Royal Commission Report, above note 16, p. 15, para. 2.1.25.

21 Ibid., Conclusion 47.

22 Ibid., Conclusions 2, 6, 9, 27–32, 47, 48 and others.

23 Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 398–401.

24 Richard Gun, Jacqueline Parsons, Philip Ryan, Philip Crouch and Janet Hiller, Australian Participants in British Nuclear Tests in Australia, Vol. 2: Mortality and Cancer Incidence, Department of Veterans Affairs, Canberra, 2006, p. xvii.

25 Royal Commission Report, above note 16, Conclusion 97, and Vol. 1, para. 6.4.92, p. 194 and accompanying account pp. 174–194. “Black Mist” refers to a dark cloud of radioactive fallout resulting from the “Totem 1” test on 15 October 1953 which enveloped and irradiated Aboriginal people living in the Wallatina community and neighbouring homesteads. The Royal Commission concluded that the phenomenon had been real, despite earlier denials by various British and Australian officials.

26 Ibid., para. 10.2.64, p. 414.

27 Ibid., pp. 319, 323, Conclusions 90, 91, 117, 124–125, 140, 186. For a useful, more concise account, see Peter N. Grabosky, “A Toxic Legacy: British Nuclear Weapons Testing in Australia”, in Peter N. Grabosky, Wayward Governance: Illegality and Its Control in the Public Sector, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, 1989.

* Available at: www.bmeia.gv.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Zentrale/Aussenpolitik/Abruestung/HINW14/HINW14_Austrian_Pledge.pdf.

28 Royal Commission Report, above note 16, Vol. 1, pp. 39–85, especially Table 4.5.1, p. 78.

29 The Royal Commission Report provides extensive documentation of eyewitness accounts from test participants. A number of books also provide detailed eyewitness accounts. Two excellent examples are Frank Walker, Maralinga, Hachette Australia, Sydney, 2014; Roger Cross and Avon Hudson, Beyond Belief. The British Bomb Tests: Australia's Veterans Speak Out, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, 2005.

30 Royal Commission Report, above note 16, “Conclusions and Recommendations”, Conclusion 52, p. 12.

31 Ibid., Recommendation 52 and pp. 125–126.

32 R. Gun, J. Parsons, P. Ryan, P. Crouch and J. Hiller, above note 24, pp. v–vi, and further detail in report body. The study is summarized in Gun, Richard, Parsons, Jaqueline, Crouch, Philip, Ryan, Philip, and Hiller, Janet, “Mortality and Cancer Incidence of Australian Participants in the British Nuclear Tests in Australia”, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 62, No. 12, 2008Google Scholar.

33 Royal Commission Report, above note 16, pp. 539–540.

34 Ibid., pp. 539–540, 549–552.

35 Ibid., Recommendations 3 and 6 respectively.

36 Alan Parkinson, “Maralinga: The Clean-Up of a Nuclear Test Site”, Medicine & Global Survival, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2002; and Alan Parkinson, “The Maralinga Rehabilitation Project: Final Report”, Medicine, Conflict and Survival, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2004.

37 A. Parkinson, “Maralinga: The Clean-Up of a Nuclear Test Site”, above note 36, p. 80.

38 Alan Parkinson, Maralinga: Australia's Nuclear Waste Cover-up, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007, pp. 184, 203.

39 Philip Dorling, “Ten Years after the All-Clear, Maralinga is Still Toxic”, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 November 2011.

40 Tilman A. Ruff, Australian Participants in British Nuclear Tests in Australia, Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, 27 October 2006, available at: www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/Completed%20inquiries/2004-07/nuclear_tests_bills_06/submissions/sublist.

41 Department of Veterans' Affairs, Australian Government, British Nuclear Tests, November 2014, available at: www.dva.gov.au/benefits-and-payments/british-nuclear-tests.

42 F. Walker, above note 29, p. 246.

43 Ibid., p. 274.

44 Australian Health Ethics Committee, National Health and Medical Research Council, Ethical and Practical Issues Concerning Ashed Bones From the Commonwealth of Australia's Strontium 90 Program, 1957–1978, Advice of the Australian Health Ethics Committee to the Commonwealth Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator the Honourable Kay Patterson, Canberra, March 2002, pp. 4–6.

45 F. Walker , above note 29, pp. 218–230.

46 Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, Final Report, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, October 1995, p. 779.

47 Losena Tubanavua-Salabula, Josua M. Namoce and Nic Maclellan (eds), Kirisimasi: Fijian Troops at Britain's Christmas Island Nuclear Tests, Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, Suva, 1999, p. 15.

48 Ibid., p. 16.

49 Anthony Robbins, Arjun Makhijani and Katherine Yih, Radioactive Heaven and Earth: The Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Testing In, On and Above the Earth, Report of the IPPNW International Commission to Investigate the Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Production and Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, The Apex Press, New York, and Zed Books, London, 1991, pp. 126–128; Denys Blakeway and Sue Lloyd-Roberts, Fields of Thunder: Testing Britain's Bomb, Unwin Paperbacks, London, 1985, pp. 153–175.

50 L. Tubanavua-Salabula, J. M. Namoce and N. Maclellan (eds), above note 47, pp. 17–18, 60–61. Eyewitness accounts by British troops are documented in Denys Blakeway and Sue Lloyd-Roberts, Fields of Thunder: Testing Britain's Bomb, Unwin Paperbacks, London, 1985, pp. 156–157, 170–172.

51 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, p. 128.

52 Pearce, Neil, Prior, Ian, Methven, David, Culling, Christine, Marshall, Stephen, Auld, Jackie, de Boer, Gail and Bethwaite, Peter, “Follow-Up of New Zealand Participants in British Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Pacific”, British Medical Journal, Vol. 300, May 1990CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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54 L. Tubanavua-Salabula, J. M. Namoce and N. Maclellan (eds), above note 47, pp. 68–69.

55 Voreqe Bainimarama, “Hon PM Bainimarama Speech at the First Pay-out to Veterans of Operation Grapple, Christmas Island”, Fijian Government, 30 January 2015, available at: www.fiji.gov.fj/Media-Center/Speeches/HON-PM-BAINIMARAMA-SPEECH-AT-THE-FIRST-PAY-OUT-TO-.aspx .

56 Bengt Danielsson, “Poisoned Pacific: The Legacy of French Nuclear Testing”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. 46, No. 2, 1990.

57 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, p. 143.

58 Only China conducted atmospheric tests later, until 1980. SIPRI, above note 2, pp. 349–351.

59 Nic Maclellan and Jean Chesneaux, After Moruroa: France in the South Pacific, Ocean Press, Melbourne, 1998, p. 102.

60 Marlise Simons, “Report Says Mitterand Approved Sinking of Greenpeace Ship”, International New York Times, 10 July 2005, available at: www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/world/europe/report-says-mitterrand-approved-sinking-of-greenpeace-ship.html.

61 N. Maclellan and J. Chesneaux, above note 59, p. 215.

62 A detailed review of the French Pacific nuclear tests including eyewitness accounts can be found in Commission d'Enquete sur les Consequences de Essais Nucleaire (CESCEN), Les polynesiens et les essais nucleaires, Deliberation No. 2005-072, Assemblee de la Polynesie Francaise. A useful report compiling eyewitness accounts in English is Pieter de Vries and Han Seur, Moruroa and Us: Polynesians' Experiences during Thirty Years of Nuclear Testing in the French Pacific, Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur la Paix et les Conflits, Lyon, 1997.

63 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, p. 143; Angelique Chrisafis, “French Nuclear Tests ‘Showered Vast Area of Polynesia with Radioactivity’”, The Guardian, 4 July 2013, available at: www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/03/french-nuclear-tests-polynesia-declassified.

64 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, p. 145.

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67 Ibid., p. 19.

68 CESCEN, above note 62, p. 55.

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70 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, pp. 143–149.

71 DSND, above note 69, pp. 8–12.

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76 CESCEN, above note 62, p. 135.

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81 Ibid., pp. 202–203; Bagnis, Raymond, “Naissance et development d'une flambee de ciguatera dans un atoll des Tuamotu”, Revue des Corps de Sante, Vol. 10, No. 6, 1969Google ScholarPubMed.

82 Ruff, Tilman, “Bomb Tests Attack the Food Chain”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. 46, No. 2, 1990CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

83 UN Charter, 14 August 1941 (entered into force 24 October 1945), Art. 76(b).

84 Ibid., Art. 76(c).

85 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Implications for Human Rights of the Environmentally Sound Management and Disposal of Hazardous Substances and Wastes, Calin Georgescu, Addendum, Mission to the Marshall islands (27–30 March 2012) and the United States of America (24–27 April 2012), UN Doc. A/HRC/21/48/Add.1, 3 September 2012, p. 4, para. 10.

86 UN Trusteeship Res. 1082, 15 July 1954.

87 UN Trusteeship Res. 1493, 29 March 1956.

88 Human Rights Council, above note 85, p. 5.

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89 Guyer, Ruth Levy, “Radioactivity and Rights: Clashes at Bikini Atoll”, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 91, No. 9, 2001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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91 Human Rights Council, above note 85, p. 6.

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94 F. Warner and R. J. C. Kirchmann (eds), above note 7, pp. 19–22.

95 Barbara Rose Johnston and Holly M. Barker, Consequential Damages of Nuclear War: The Rongelap Report, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA, 2008, pp. 95–100.

96 Steven L. Simon, André Bouville and Charles E. Land, “Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests and Cancer Risks”, American Scientist, Vol. 94, January–February 2006.

97 B. R. Johnston and H. M. Barker, above note 95, Part 3, pp. 109–161.

98 Ibid., pp. 103–107, 109–117; Human Rights Council, above note 85, pp. 12–13.

99 S. L. Simon, A. Bouville and C. E. Land, above note 96, p. 52.

100 CDER, above note 73, p. 6.

101 Petition from the Marshallese People Concerning the Pacific Islands, “Complaint Regarding Explosions of Lethal Weapons within Our Home Islands to United Nations Trusteeship Council, 20 April 1954”, UN Trusteeship Council Doc. T/PET.10/28, 6 May 1954.

102 Ibid.

103 Human Rights Council, above note 85, pp. 4–5.

104 B. R. Johnston and H. M. Barker, above note 95, p.160.

105 Ibid., pp. 116–125.

* Cited in N. Maclellan, below note 106, p. 1.

106 Nic Maclellan, “The Long Shadow of Bravo”, Inside Story, 24 February 2014, available at: http://insidestory.org.au/the-long-shadow-of-bravo; Human Rights Council, above note 85, pp. 10–15.

107 Human Rights Council, above note 85, p. 7.

108 Ibid., p. 12.

109 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, pp. 83, 85.

110 Presentation by Special Rapporteur Calin Georgescu with Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, UN Human Rights Council Side Event, Geneva, 14 September 2012.

* Human Rights Council, above note 85, p. 6.

111 Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site official website, available at: www.smdc.army.mil/RTS.html.

112 Dan Zak, “On the Island of Ebeye, a Nuclear Past and a Ballistic Present”, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, 18 December 2015, available at: http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/island-ebeye-nuclear-past-and-ballistic-present.

113 Tony de Brum, speech delivered to the Marshall Islands Parliament, 23 February 2015, available at: www.wagingpeace.org/speech-delivered-to-the-marshall-islands-parliament/.

114 ICJ, Obligations concerning Negotiations relating to Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear Disarmament (Marshall Islands v. the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea), applications submitted 24 April 2014; United States Court of Appeals, Republic of the Marshall Islands v. United States, Case No. 14-01885 (NDCA), dismissed, USCA No. 15-15636, 9th Circuit (appeal filed 31 July 2015). More information on the cases and related documents available at: www.nuclearzero.org.

115 For updated information on developments and court documents, see Nuclear Zero, “Nuclear Zero Lawsuits”, available at: www.nuclearzero.org.

116 See Royal Commission Report, above note 16, p. 78, for a summary of the evolution of radiation protection standards during the period of atmospheric nuclear test explosions; and Wrixon, Anthony D., “New ICRP Recommendations”, Journal of Radiological Protection, Vol. 28, 2008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, regarding the most recent recommendations of the ICRP.

117 These concerns are documented in detail in a number of submissions by Aboriginal organizations to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission, particularly Native Title Representative 10-9-2015, Yankunytjatjara Native Title Aboriginal Corporation 10-8-2015, and Maralinga Tjarutja, Yalata Community Inc 14-08-2015. All are available at: http://nuclearrc.sa.gov.au/submissions/?search=Submissions.

118 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, pp. 10–15.

119 R. Gun, J. Parsons, P. Ryan, P. Crouch, and J. Hiller, above note 24, p. vi.

120 Documents and presentations from the Oslo Conference are available at: www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/foreign-affairs/humanitarian-efforts/humimpact_2013/id708603/.

121 Documents and presentations from the Vienna Conference are available at: www.bmeia.gv.at/en/european-foreign-policy/disarmament/weapons-of-mass-destruction/nuclear-weapons-and-nuclear-terrorism/vienna-conference-on-the-humanitarian-impact-of-nuclear-weapons/.

122 And see, for example, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Ionising Radiation”, available at: www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/ionizing_radiation.html; A. D. Wrixon, above note 116, pp. 161–168.

123 The average global background level of radiation we are all exposed to from inhalation of radon gas produced by the decay of uranium in the Earth's crust, cosmic sources, soil and rocks, and ingestion, is about 3 mSv per year. Acute exposures over 100 mSv produce effects on chromosomes measurable in laboratory testing. Acute symptoms are increasingly likely at acute doses above a few hundred mSv; without intensive medical care, doses around 4 Sv (4000 mSv) will be fatal for many of those exposed. All levels of radiation exposure are associated with increased risks of long-term genetic damage and increases in cancer, proportional to the dose. There is no dose of radiation below which there is no incremental health risk. A chest X-ray typically involves a dose of 0.02 mSv; a CT scan typically involves doses of 3–12 mSv or more. For non-medical exposures, the maximum permitted dose limit recommended by the ICRP and most national radiation protection agencies for any additional non-medical exposures for members of the public is 1 mSv per year; for nuclear industry workers the recommend maximum occupational dose limit is an average of 20 mSv per year.

124 US National Academy of Sciences, Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation, Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR VII, Phase 2, Washington, DC, 2006.

125 Ibid., Executive Summary.

126 For example, see Richardson, David, Wing, Steve and Cole, Stephen R., “Missing Doses in the Lifespan Study of Japanese Atomic Bomb Survivors”, American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 177, No. 6, 2013CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mathews, John, Forsythe, Anna, Brady, Zoe, Butler, Martin, Goergen, Stacy, Byrnes, Graham, Giles, Graham, Wallace, Anthony, Anderson, Philip, Guiver, Tenniel, McGale, Paul, Cain, Timothy, Dowty, James, Bickerstaffe, Adrian and Darby, Sarah, “Cancer Risk in 680,000 People Exposed to Computed Tomography Scans in Childhood or Adolescence: Data Linkage Study of 11 Million Australians”, British Medical Journal, Vol. 346, May 2013CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

127 Kaatsch, Peter, Spix, Claudia, Schulze-Rath, Renate, Schmiedel, Sven and Blettner, Maria, “Leukaemia in Young Children Living in the Vicinity of German Nuclear Power Plants”, International Journal of Cancer, Vol. 1220, 2008Google Scholar.

128 J. Mathews et al., above note 126.

129 Leuraud, Klervi, Richardson, David, Cardis, Elisabeth, Daniels, Robert, Gillies, Michael, O'Hagan, Jacqueline, Hamra, Ghassan, Haylock, Richard, Laurier, Dominique, Moissonnier, Monika, Schubauer-Berrigan, Mary, Thierry-Chef, Isabelle and Kesminiene, Ausrele, “Ionising Radiation and Risk of Death from Leukemia and Lymphoma in Radiation-Monitored Workers (INWORKS): An International Cohort Study”, Lancet Haematology, Vol. 1, 2015Google Scholar.

130 Richardson, David, Cardis, Elisabeth, Daniels, Robert, Gillies, Michael, O'Hagan, Jacqueline, Hamra, Ghassan, Haylock, Richard, Laurier, Dominique, Leuraud, Klervi, Moissonnier, Monika, Schubauer-Berrigan, Mary, Thierry-Chef, Isabelle and Kesminiene, Ausrele, “Risk from Occupational Exposure to Ionizing Radiation: Retrospective Cohort Study of Workers in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States (INWORKS)”, British Medical Journal, Vol. 351, 2015Google ScholarPubMed.

131 A. D. Wrixon, above note 116, pp. 161–168.

132 Arjun Makhijani, Brice Smith and Michael C. Thorne, Science for the Vulnerable: Setting Radiation and Multiple Exposure Environmental Health Standards to Protect Those Most at Risk, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Takoma Park, MD, 19 October 2006, pp. 35–40.

133 National Academy of Sciences, above note 124, pp. 470–499.

134 A. Makhijani, B. Smith and M. C. Thorne, above note 132, p. 40.

135 WHO, Healthy Environments for Children: Initiating an Alliance for Action, WHO/SDE/PHE/02.06, Geneva, 2002, p. 3, available at: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/WHO_SDE_PHE_02.06.pdf.

* US Atomic Energy Commission. Transcript of the 54th Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Biology and Medicine, 13–14 January 1956, pp. 232–233.

136 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation: UNSCEAR 2008 Report to the General Assembly with Scientific Annexes, Vol. 1, UN, New York, 2010, pp. 352–353.

137 Simon, Steven and Bouville, Andre, “Radiation Doses to Local Populations Near Nuclear Weapons Test Sites Worldwide”, Health Physics, Vol. 85, No. 5, 2002Google Scholar.

138 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, pp. 34–40.

139 Ibid., pp. 22–47.

140 Ibid., pp. 163–164.

* Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, Final Report, Atomic Veterans: Human Experimentation in Connection with Atomic Bomb Tests, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, October 1995, p. 486.

141 UNSCEAR, Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation: UNSCEAR 1993 Report to the General Assembly with Scientific Annexes, Annex B, UN, New York, 1993, p. 20, available at: www.unscear.org/docs/reports/1993/1993a_pages%201-30.pdf.

142 F. Warner and R. J. C. Kirchmann, above note 7, pp. 220–221.

143 Ibid.

144 A. Robbins, A. Makhijani and K. Yih, above note 49, pp. 15–17, 60–63.

145 Ibid., pp. 20–21.

146 Tadros, Carol, Hughes, Catherine, Crawford, Jagoda, Hollins, Suzanne and Chisari, Robert, “Tritium in Australian Precipitation: A 50 Year Record”, Journal of Hydrology, Vol. 513, 2014, p. 268CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

147 Mills, Michael J., Toon, Owen B., Lee-Taylor, Julia and Robock, Alan, “Multidecadal Global Cooling and Unprecedented Ozone Loss Following a Regional Nuclear Conflict”, Earth's Future, Vol. 2, 2014CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ira Helfand, Nuclear Famine: Two Billion People at Risk?, IPPNW and Physicians for Social Responsibility, November 2013,

148 Fred Pearce, “Could a Changing Climate Set Off Volcanoes and Earthquakes?”, Yale Environment 360, 7 May 2012, available at: http://e360.yale.edu/feature/could_a_changing_climate_set_off_volcanoes_and_quakes/2525/.

149 Royal Commission Report, above note 16, “Conclusions and Recommendations”, Recommendation 1, p. 31.

150 US Department of Justice, above note 15, p. 2.

151 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, UN GA Res. 48/70, 10 September 1996 (not in force).

152 CTBTO Preparatory Commission, Status of Signature and Ratification, available at: www.ctbto.org/the-treaty/status-of-signature-and-ratification/.

153 R. Johnson, above note 3, pp. 179–180, 193–519, 222, 231.

154 Joseph Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal and Miriam Rajkumar, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats, 2nd ed., Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC, 2005, p. 247.

155 Philip Shenon, “France, Despite Wide Protests, Explodes a Nuclear Device”, International New York Times, 6 September 1995.

156 Leonard Weiss, “Flash from the Past: Why an Apparent Israeli Nuclear Test in 1979 Matters Today”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 9 September 2015.

157 See the article by Hans M. Kristensen and Matthew McKinzie, in this issue of the Review.

158 UNGA Res. A/RES/70/33, 11 December 2015, available at: www.unog.ch/oewg-ndn.

159 WHO, Effects of Nuclear War on Health and Health Services, 2nd ed., Geneva, 1987, p. 5.

160 Speech given by Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons, 8 December 2014, available at: www.bmeia.gv.at/index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&g=0&t=1455190832&hash=f1f7811a97b8c01733e346530ac7fcc44b61db32&file=fileadmin/user_upload/Zentrale/Aussenpolitik/Abruestung/HINW14/HINW14_Peter_Maurer_speech.pdf.

161 See Gregor Malich, Robin Coupland, Steve Donnelly and Johnny Nehme, “Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear (CBRN) Events: The Humanitarian Response Framework of the International Committee of the Red Cross”, in this issue of the Review.

162 Convention on Cluster Munitions, 2688 UNTS 39, 3 December 2008 (entered into force 1 August 2010).

163 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, 18 September 1997 (entered into force 1 March 1999), available at: www.icrc.org/ihl/INTRO/580.

164 Article 36, “Victim Assistance” in a Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons, January 2015, available at: www.article36.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/victims-nuclear-weapons.pdf.

165 Draft Elements of a Charter of World Nuclear Victims' Rights, World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima, 21–23 November 2015, available at: www.fwrs.info/topics/2015/341.