In the run up to our upcoming evening lecture: Building a Nuclear Weapons Free World, members of the Nuclear Weapons Group reflect on key issues for the movement for nuclear disarmament. Here, Marie Noelle offers a concise introduction to the history of nuclear testing.
“We must never forget the legacy of over 2,000 nuclear weapons tests carried out over the last 80 years” – António Guterres.
The recent history of nuclear testing, and its disproportionate impacts
In 2025 we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear test, carried out on July 16th 1945. Each year since, on August 29th, we commemorate the International Day against Nuclear Tests – to ensure the devastating impacts of these tests are never forgotten.
The United Nations declared an International Day against Nuclear Tests in 2009 to remember the impacts of the tests on the population of countries where the test took place, and the personnel who participated in these tests. The date of August 29th was chosen to commemorate the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test site in Kazakhstan on August 29, 1991.
Worldwide, between 1945 and 2015, 2,055 nuclear explosions are known to have been undertaken globally. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been the only State to conduct nuclear test explosions since 1998, after the conclusion of the comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996.
In total, the UK conducted 45 nuclear tests between May 1957 and November 1991: 12 in Australia, 9 in the Pacific, and 24 at the Nevada Test Site, with its last one in 1991.
First nations and colonised people have borne a disproportionate burden of the health and environmental costs of nuclear weapons testing. More than 315 atmospheric, underground and underwater nuclear tests were conducted in the Pacific Islands region by Britain, France and the United States between 1946 and 1996. Older individuals, especially those born during the period of atmospheric nuclear tests (1945–1962), have suffered cumulative exposure effects.
Military personnel who participated in nuclear weapons tests, forced to fly through the mushroom clouds from atomic explosions without protection, and marched into ground zero immediately after bomb detonation, were also affected, as well as people involved in the nuclear weapons development and production.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
Drawing attention to nuclear tests is a critical step towards a nuclear weapon free world. Public advocacy at the time of the International Day against Nuclear Tests is exerting pressure on the world powers to move forward on the ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the main mechanism for eradicating nuclear weapons testing. Up to now the CTBT has yet to enter into force. 187 countries have signed the treaty (of which 178 have ratified it), but to come into force it must be ratified by States with significant nuclear capabilities (China, India, North Korea, Israel, Pakistan, USA). Also, Egypt and Iran have not ratified it.
There are also threats to the banning of nuclear tests. In November 2023, Russia officially withdrew its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. There are also signs that increased construction activities happened in recent years at nuclear testing sites in the United States, Russia, and China. More powerful and destructive nuclear weapons exist today.
What are the health impacts of nuclear testing?
Nuclear weapons tests pose irreversible immediate and long term multigenerational life-threatening risks, and devastating effects on human life. The health effects of ionising radiation are immediate and chronic. People suffer hair loss and skin burns soon after the radiation exposure.The acute radiation syndrome following high doses is known to cause organ failure and brain oedema.
Radiation increases the risk of cancer (23% higher in Australian test veterans compared to 3% in the general population), and anaemia by 5% to 15%, as a result of damage to the bone marrow, cardiovascular diseases and cataracts. There are also concerns about the transmission of genetic mutations to one’s children which can have profound and long-term direct and indirect physical and mental health consequences.
Summary of radiation-induced health effects
| Dose (mSv) | Effects of individuals | Consequences for an exposed population |
| Very low: up to 10 | No acute effects; extremely small additional cancer risk | No observable increase in the incidence of cancer, even in a large exposed group |
| Low: 10 to 100 | No acute effects; subsequent extra cancer risk less than 1% | Observable increase in cancer incidence if over 100,000 |
| Moderate: 100 to 1000 mSv (acute whole body dose) | Nausea, vomiting, bone marrow depression (mild); subsequent extra cancer risk approx 10% | Observable increase in cancer incidence if exposed group is over a few hundred |
| High dose: above 1000 mSv (acute whole body dose) | Severe nausea, bone marrow syndrome; high risk of death from > 4000 mSv without treatment; significant additional cancer risk | Observable increase in cancer incidence |
In countries where tests took place, there are also social and economic impacts including disempowerment, victimization, abuse of basic human rights, displacement and disruption of traditional communities and their ways of life.
Alongside these direct impacts, radiation has also caused environmental problems such as outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning which has important nutritional and health consequences, as well as social and economic implications.
What has been done to address the health consequences?
Very little has taken place to address the health consequences of nuclear tests. In Australia, all test participants (military, public servant and civilian) are provided with free care for cancers. The limited access to data and sampling opportunities, and previous independent investigations restricts the assessment of human impacts of nuclear tests. The investigation of radioactive contamination and monitoring of fallout from nuclear tests has been seriously deficient in ethical conduct, respect for human rights, transparency and accountability.
Many issues remain unresolved many decades later including indigenous dispossession, remaining contamination, inadequate clean-up of test sites, and necessary compensation for First Nations, ex-military personnel and civilians for their hazardous exposure, illness and loss.
What can we do as a movement for health justice and nuclear disarmament?
- Campaign for adhesion to the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
- Campaign for compensation of those exposed to radiation from nuclear testing.
- Emphasise the long term, generational impacts of radiation exposure
- Advocate for ongoing health and social support programs for affected populations to address both the physical and psychological legacies of nuclear testing.
- Prohibit nuclear weapons and create the conditions for their elimination.
To get more involved in our movement for health justice and nuclear disarmament, join Medact’s Nuclear Weapons Group by signing up to our mailing list and joining a future meeting to find out how to get more involved with the Don’t Bank on the Bomb UK campaign.
If you’re in London, register to join us on Saturday 1st November for a special evening lecture, conversation and drinks reception with Dr Carlos Umaña – former co-president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).
