Antinuclear

Specifically in relation to the test blast named Totem 1 of October 1953, Australian and British authorities state no harm could possibly come to anyone. This has been stated to me in a letter by the CEO of ARPANSA. The assertion is based upon British calculations of dose estimates from the cloud.

Disagreement still exists over the very existence of the Black Mist ground level atomic cloud which caused so much harm and suffering particularly to Aboriginal people at distances of 100 miles and more.

Authorities from Britain and Australia maintain that doses capable of producing any detrimental effect, either at the time or later, did not exist anywhere off site in relation to Totem 1.

Such an event as a Black Mist from a nuclear bomb detonated miles away is questioned as exceptional and highly unusual.

However, even within just the Australian archives, mention is made of one other, which was reported to the Chief Scientist at Maralinga at the time.

In the US record, photographic evidence of ground level and near ground level nuclear fallout clouds within the range of 100 miles from blast point have existed since 1953. The photographer was a local farmer in the Warm Springs and Dry Springs area of Nevada, about 100 miles from the Nevada Test Site Mercury. The photographer, the late Joe Fallini, was also an official radiation monitor appointed by the AEC. The levels of radiation were such that Joe used a camera mounted inside a lead lined box, fitted with an aperture for the camera lens.

Both Carol Gallagher and Richard Lee Miller included the Fallini photos of nuclear clouds near or at ground at 100 miles range from blast point in their books.

Miller’s book “Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing” is on Google Books. There is no short link to the photo of the Grey Mist (Nevada Test site has a sandy soil, Totem 1 was exploded on an Australian desert clay pan.) The long link to the photo, if it works for you, is http://books.google.com.au/books?id=adI-6jRDipgC&pg=PA316-IA3&lpg=PA316-IA3&dq=nuclear+cloud+warm+springs+nevada+joe+fallini&source=bl&ots=lHNoxVWB9u&sig=-synblP7E5ntBveX8p6d8IlB9lY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=quD6UPrLCsj1mAWxnYAg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=nuclear%20cloud%20warm%20springs%20nevada%20joe%20fallini&f=false

In 1953 the AEC documented that sheep and cattle at that range suffered Beta radiation burn to their hides. The matter was secret at the time and an important one for the AEC to control. While the AEC admitted internally that beta burns were being found on livestock, no document mentioning the same condition in humans has been released to the public. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

On the one hand US authorities at the time knew that at 100 miles or more doses of radiation capable of producing Local Radiation Injury (Beta Burn) to livestock. On the other, British and American authorities maintain such doses at such ranges are impossible. Clearly this position impossible to maintain when evidence exists in the US archives which shows similar bombs at similar distances produced immediate effects in livestock. The US position admits to harming animals, but it denies any harm to humans. Even though Warm Spring children suffered skin rashes, sickness and other symptoms…… http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/britain-must-show-proof-of-dose-at-distance-in-relation-to-totem-1s-black-mist/