J. Robert Oppenheimer meets with General Leslie Groves at Los Alamos

The physicist Edward Teller, champion of the Hydrogen Bomb

Hiroshima mushroom cloud from the air

The atomic fire ball rises over Hiroshima houses miles from ground zero

The ruins of Hiroshima, August 1945

                                                    

A suburb of Nagasaki, destroyed by the blast and fires caused by the second American atomic bomb,

August 9, 1945

Charred remains of a young boy, Nagasaki, August 10, 1945

A Hiroshima survivors drawing of the “Black Rain” (nuclear fallout) that fell following the atomic bomb blast

Nagasaki survivors of the initial atomic blast

Hiroshima girl suffering from radiation sickness

Young girl in Nagasaki who has lost her hair from radiation sickness, September 1945

U.S. Nuclear TestingU.S. Nuclear Testing

1945-1988 conducted 1030 1945-1988 conducted 1030 knownknown nuclear nuclear teststests

Total yield approximately 174 megatons or Total yield approximately 174 megatons or 174,000,000 tons of TNT174,000,000 tons of TNT

Combined Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts Combined Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts were about 30,000 tonswere about 30,000 tons

Thus have detonated about 6000 times Thus have detonated about 6000 times more nuclear tonnage on U.S. or U.S. more nuclear tonnage on U.S. or U.S. holdings than that used on Japanholdings than that used on Japan

Inhabitants of the Bikini Atoll being evacuated by the U.S. Navy, 1946

The Bikini Atoll test of a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb, the largest tested in American history

Massive crater left in Bikini Atoll by the hydrogen bomb test

The Nevada Test Site

American soldiers

deliberately exposed to

nuclear blasts

Cars positioned to test the effects of an atomic blast,

June 1953, Nevada Test Site

Frame timber house built to study the effects of atomic blasts on civilian populations, Nevada Test Site, June

1953

Map of radioactive Iodine-131 deposition from the 1953 Upshot-Knothole tests

1990 Radiation Exposure 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation ActCompensation Act

Provided congressional compensation for Provided congressional compensation for people who became ill because of exposure people who became ill because of exposure from bomb testsfrom bomb tests

2000 expanded to include people in much of 2000 expanded to include people in much of the West who:the West who: Lived in the region from 1951-1958Lived in the region from 1951-1958 Documented proof of having leukemia, thyroid Documented proof of having leukemia, thyroid

dysfunction, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, etc.dysfunction, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, etc. Expected to pay out $900 million in claims to Expected to pay out $900 million in claims to

thousands of victimsthousands of victims