Nuclear weapons production leaves a nasty legacy both for people and the environment. Around the world, nuclear weapons facilities have contaminated land and water with radioactive waste lasting at least 100,000 years. Efforts to clean up the sites have cost billions of dollars over decades - and are still largely unfinished. The five case studies below provide just a preliminary look into the devastating global environmental consequences of building the bomb. 

Nine doctors from around the world explain why they work to rid the world of nuclear weapons - in the midst of a global pandemic.

Governments need more resources to help their citizens impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nuclear-armed states' decision to divert public resources from health care to weapons of mass destruction is unconscionable. We break down the vital resources the billions of dollars being spent each year by France, the United Kingdom and the United States to maintain, upgrade and develop their nuclear arsenals could pay for.

Given the clear relationship between nuclear weapons and gender, nuclear disarmament must be raised in conversations about gender, women’s rights and equality. This briefing paper breaks down that relationship and the importance of states addressing the specific impact of nuclear weapons on women and girls, work to ensure full representation of women in weapons negotiations and sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Ahead of the NPT Review Conference in May 2020, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have brought together experts and government representatives in Geneva to discuss the humanitarian consequences and the growing risks of nuclear weapons for a one-day expert meeting

A review of current assistance programs for victims of nuclear weapons highlights that no single best practice exists and that much more work needs to be done to extend the benefits of these programs to all who have suffered.

A few months ago, in a two-part blog series, we explored the secret suffering of communities at Hanford – known as the most toxic place in the United States- and the status of cleanup of 56 million gallons of nuclear waste at the Hanford Site. The site has been called “an underground Chernobyl waiting to happen.” In part 3, we look at a workshop that explores the ways in which the communities exposed to radiation perceive it and the recent reduction in funding for cleaning up Hanford.

The title of a new study by Toon et al, published this week in Science Advances, speaks volumes: “Rapidly Expanding nuclear arsenals in Pakistan and India portend regional and global catastrophe.”

September 18, 2019