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A look at where some leading nuclear powers stand on offering compensation to victims of nuclear tests. UNITED STATES: The U.S. is the only nation that currently compensates nuclear test victims. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was enacted in 1990, more than $1.38 billion in compensation has been approved. It goes to people who took part in the tests, notably at the Nevada Test Site, and to anyone exposed to the radiation. FRANCE: The French government offered Tuesday to compensate victims for the first time. A draft bill to be submitted to parliament soon would allow payments to people who suffered health problems related to the tests. The payouts would be available to victims' descendants and would include Algerians, whose country was part of France when the French started nuclear testing in the Sahara in 1960. Victims say the eligibility requirements are too narrow. BRITAIN: No formal British government compensation program exists. Nearly 1,000 veterans of Christmas Island nuclear tests in the 1950s are seeking to sue the Ministry of Defense for negligence. They say they suffered health problems and were warned of potential dangers only after the experiments. RUSSIA: Decades afterward, Russia offered compensation to veterans who were part of the 1954 Totsk test, in which a Hiroshima-yield bomb was set off and then soldiers were sent in to test how fighting would proceed in a post-blast environment. Anti-nuclear groups say there has been no blanket government compensation for other tests. There was no compensation to civilians sickened by the Totsk test. CHINA: China's nuclear program is highly secretive, as are its atomic tests in remote deserts in a Central Asian border province. Anti-nuclear activists say there is no known government program for compensating victims.

Gerald Sperling's new film, Silent Bombs: All for the Motherland, recounts the effects of decades of nuclear testing on Kazakh villagers near the Soviet nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk. The film is at once very particular to Kazakhstan, the exotic ambience of which is evoked with a sad lyricism, and, in a disturbing way, generic to the nuclear age. It evokes something that is simultaneously strange and familiar. The Soviets tested around 500 nuclear weapons in northeastern Kazakhstan between 1949 and 1989. Until 1963 the tests were all aboveground. Some of these tests left behind massive craters that have become atomic lakes. Even when testing moved underground, tests often vented, according to the filmmakers.

Gerald Sperling's new film, Silent Bombs: All for the Motherland, recounts the effects of decades of nuclear testing on Kazakh villagers near the Soviet nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk. The film is at once very particular to Kazakhstan, the exotic ambience of which is evoked with a sad lyricism, and, in a disturbing way, generic to the nuclear age. It evokes something that is simultaneously strange and familiar. The Soviets tested around 500 nuclear weapons in northeastern Kazakhstan between 1949 and 1989. Until 1963 the tests were all aboveground. Some of these tests left behind massive craters that have become atomic lakes. Even when testing moved underground, tests often vented, according to the filmmakers.

North Korea's nuclear tests and their results have been of great interest to us, but the way the lead-up to these two tests has been kept a secret in such a small country has been mostly overlooked. And there has been absolutely no information regarding human rights abuses or radioactive contamination in the area. North Korea's recent nuclear test, which followed the first one in 2006, is a disaster in itself. A nuclear test in a place like the Korean Peninsula, which does not have the deserts or wastelands and is densely populated, can cause serious damage like radioactive leaks. For its first test, which was on a relatively small scale, North Korea cordoned off the area and stopped trains from coming near for three months before the test. For the recent one, however, there were no such actions, and residents of the area went about their daily lives during the test period.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has reintroduced his bill to protect Americans' health and safety in the event that nuclear weapons testing resumes at the Nevada Test Site. Matheson first introduced the bill, Safety for Americans from Nuclear Weapons Testing Act, in 2004 after funds were appropriated to study development of two new types of nuclear weapons and to shorten the time needed for test site readiness. From 1951 to 1992 more than 1,000 nuclear weapons were tested at the Nevada Test Site, 150 miles west of St. George. About 800 of the tests were underground, but still released a significant amount of radiation into the atmosphere. The radioactive fallout led to a large number of Americans who suffered and succumbed to radiation-related cancers and illnesses.

The French Polynesian Nuclear Test Veterans Association says it'll fight for a better package for the victims of the French nuclear test fallout. The French Senate has passed a bill to compensate nuclear test veterans for the consequences of its weapons tests between 1960 and 1996 in French Polynesia and Algeria. France had earlier said its test were safe and clean. Moruroa e Tatou's head, Roland Oldham, says the Loi Morin is unjust.

The French Polynesian Nuclear Test Veterans Association says it'll fight for a better package for the victims of the French nuclear test fallout. The French Senate has passed a bill to compensate nuclear test veterans for the consequences of its weapons tests between 1960 and 1996 in French Polynesia and Algeria. France had earlier said its test were safe and clean. Moruroa e Tatou's head, Roland Oldham, says the Loi Morin is unjust.

Article Highlights * The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk in eastern Kazakhstan from 1949 until 1989 without regard for their effect on the local people or environment. * The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for years by Soviet authorities and has only come out since the test site closed in 1991. * Semipalatinsk is a reminder of the high price paid by the people of Kazakhstan for Soviet nuclear weapons. During the rainy, windy early morning of August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear explosion--code-named "First Lightning"--at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in eastern Kazakhstan. Witnesses remember feeling the ground tremble and seeing the sky turn red--and how that red sky was quickly dominated by a peculiar mushroom-shaped cloud. The Soviet military and scientific personnel conducting the test knew that the rain and wind would make the local population more susceptible to radioactive fallout. But at the time, authorities disregarded the consequences for the sake of military and political goals.

Article Highlights * The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk in eastern Kazakhstan from 1949 until 1989 without regard for their effect on the local people or environment. * The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for years by Soviet authorities and has only come out since the test site closed in 1991. * Semipalatinsk is a reminder of the high price paid by the people of Kazakhstan for Soviet nuclear weapons. During the rainy, windy early morning of August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear explosion--code-named "First Lightning"--at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in eastern Kazakhstan. Witnesses remember feeling the ground tremble and seeing the sky turn red--and how that red sky was quickly dominated by a peculiar mushroom-shaped cloud. The Soviet military and scientific personnel conducting the test knew that the rain and wind would make the local population more susceptible to radioactive fallout. But at the time, authorities disregarded the consequences for the sake of military and political goals.

Radioactive tritium in well two miles from detonations had been predicted Scientists have found the first radioactive tritium from nuclear weapons tests in a monitoring outside the Nevada Test Site's boundary. The levels, reported Tuesday by the National Nuclear Security Administration, were within safe drinking water guidelines. The relatively short-lived isotope had migrated two miles through groundwater layers in 35 years to reach the boundary. Sample results were verified by an independent laboratory and reported to state environmental officials, NNSA officials said in a news release. Scientists believe it will take and estimated 240 years for the tritium-laced water to travel another 14 miles to the nearest public water source. By that time it will have decayed to non-detectable limits, said Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the NNSA's Nevada Site Office. "The big thing to us is it shows the models are accurate and gives us higher confidence in our ability to understand what is going on with deep groundwater," he said Wednesday. Scientists said in July they probably would find tritium after completion of Well EC-11 near the northwest edge of the test site. Underground tests Benham and Tybo were detonated in Pahute Mesa, two miles from that location in 1968 and 1975, respectively.

Radioactive tritium in well two miles from detonations had been predicted Scientists have found the first radioactive tritium from nuclear weapons tests in a monitoring outside the Nevada Test Site's boundary. The levels, reported Tuesday by the National Nuclear Security Administration, were within safe drinking water guidelines. The relatively short-lived isotope had migrated two miles through groundwater layers in 35 years to reach the boundary. Sample results were verified by an independent laboratory and reported to state environmental officials, NNSA officials said in a news release. Scientists believe it will take and estimated 240 years for the tritium-laced water to travel another 14 miles to the nearest public water source. By that time it will have decayed to non-detectable limits, said Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the NNSA's Nevada Site Office. "The big thing to us is it shows the models are accurate and gives us higher confidence in our ability to understand what is going on with deep groundwater," he said Wednesday. Scientists said in July they probably would find tritium after completion of Well EC-11 near the northwest edge of the test site. Underground tests Benham and Tybo were detonated in Pahute Mesa, two miles from that location in 1968 and 1975, respectively.

About a thousand feet below the desert at the Nevada Test site are some two kilometers of tunnels, labs, plutonium and scientists. Often among them is the president of National Security Technologies, Stephen Younger. "I feel perfectly safe there," says Younger, a Las Vegan since taking over the subcontractor NST in 2006. "The Test Site is pristine." Although there have been no nuclear tests since the 1992 Nuclear Testing and Comprehensive Test Ban, a lot still goes on at the Test Site, and a lot goes on in the mind of Younger, who is on a mission to educate people about nuclear weapons and nuclear politics.

North Korea on Monday tested a nuclear bomb many times more powerful than its first in 2006, angering enemies and allies alike and prompting UN Security Council members to call an emergency session. The hardline communist state, which stunned the world with its first atomic bomb test in October 2006, made good on its threat to stage another test after the Security Council censured it for an April rocket launch. The North "successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. "The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology," it said.

This time around, U.S. Senate skeptics who killed the nuclear test-ban treaty a decade ago must take into account a new, $1-billion verification network underpinning the pact, the treaty chief said Wednesday. In 1999, "the system was a blueprint," Tibor Toth said of the high-tech web of stations on alert for nuclear bomb tests. Now "I could call it a `verification Manhattan Project," he said, referring to the all-out U.S. program that built the first bombs in the 1940s. Toth, who heads the U.N.-affiliated Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, spoke with The Associated Press on the eve of a conference of some 150 nations convened every other year to urge those that have not ratified the treaty, including the United States, to do so. The two-day session will be held in parallel Thursday with a summit of the 15 U.N. Security Council members on the subject of nuclear nonproliferation, presided over by U.S. President Barack Obama.

"No nukes » Matheson says there is no need for new nuke tests; primary foe, GOP nominee agree. U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson said it would be "a giant step backward" to resume nuclear weapons testing and he will oppose any efforts to move down that road. Matheson was responding to recent comments from two Republican Senate candidates -- Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee -- who told The Salt Lake Tribune last week that they supported modernization and underground testing of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. The Democratic congressman will get no argument from his primary opponent, Claudia Wright, nor from Republican nominee Morgan Philpot. Both oppose resumption of nuclear weapons testing. "

France's parliament has passed a law to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, a response to decades of complaints by people sickened by radiation. The law cleared France's Senate on Tuesday, its final legislative hurdle following approval in the National Assembly in June. France "can at last close a chapter of its history", Defence Minister Herve Morin said in a statement. He called the law "just, rigorous and balanced." The text, hammered out with help from victims' associations, recognises the right for victims of France's more than 200 nuclear tests to receive compensation. Some 150,000 people, including civilian and military personnel, were on site for the 210 tests France carried out, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.

France's parliament has passed a law to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, a response to decades of complaints by people sickened by radiation. The law cleared France's Senate on Tuesday, its final legislative hurdle following approval in the National Assembly in June. France "can at last close a chapter of its history", Defence Minister Herve Morin said in a statement. He called the law "just, rigorous and balanced." The text, hammered out with help from victims' associations, recognises the right for victims of France's more than 200 nuclear tests to receive compensation. Some 150,000 people, including civilian and military personnel, were on site for the 210 tests France carried out, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously condemned North Korea's latest nuclear test, saying it was a "clear violation" of a resolution passed in 2006 after Pyongyang's first atomic test. The nonbinding statement was agreed to after a Security Council meeting that lasted less than an hour. "The members of the Security Council voiced their strong opposition to and condemnation of the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 25 May 2009, which constitutes a clear violation of resolution 1718," it said.

"July 16, 1945 marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age. On that day, the United States conducted the first explosive test of an atomic device. The test was code-named Trinity and took place at the Alamogordo Test Range in New Mexico's Jornada del Muerto Desert. The bomb itself was code-named "The Gadget." The Trinity test used a plutonium implosion device, the same type of weapon that would be used on the city of Nagasaki just three and a half weeks later. It had the explosive force of 20 kilotons of TNT. The names associated with the test deserve reflection. "The Gadget," something so simple and innocuous, was exploded in a desert whose name in Spanish means "Journey of Death." Plutonium, the explosive force in the bomb, was named for Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. The isotope of plutonium that was used in the bomb, plutonium-239, is one of the most deadly radioactive materials on the planet. It existed only in minute quantities on Earth before the US began creating it for use in its bombs by the fissioning of uranium-238. "

The Salt Lake City-based journalist was working on a manuscript for a nonfiction book about the nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site and the downwinders who attribute various health problems to those tests. During the research she told an actress about her own personal battle against thyroid cancer. It is one of the diseases eligible for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 for people who lived in certain geographic areas during the Cold War-era above ground testing. Dickson's sister, Ann, also passed away from complications of lupus. Some downwinders and doctors believe there may be a connection between the testing and autoimmune diseases like lupus but there is no proof.

A claim by a leading Indian scientist that one of India's nuclear weapons tested in 1998 "fizzled" has unsettled the military here and opened fresh debate about the need for more trials. The tests under the then-Hindu nationalist government sparked outrage the world over and drew sanctions, but were declared a success and are credited with propelling India to the status of full-fledged nuclear-armed state. India has still not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but any further tests have been ruled out by the Congress party-led government, which has also acclaimed the tests a complete success. Nevertheless, some in the nuclear and military establishment have used the scientist's claims to make a case for further trials, which would inevitably spark fresh tensions between India and its regional rivals China and Pakistan.

One of the tragic legacies of the nuclear age is the open-air testing that occurred in the 1950s with U.S. servicemen as the guinea pigs. Many contracted cancer from their exposure to radiation and have been trying to extract compensation from the federal government ever since. A recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims brings that testing closer to home because the claimant says he worked at Beale Air Force Base in the mid-1950s. But Lyle Larsen wasn't present during the nuclear testing. He claims he received a cancer-causing dose of radiation after the blast. Larsen filed his claim in 1998, alleging he contracted acute myelocytic leukemia - a rare bone marrow cancer - from radiation at the nuclear test site.

On March 18, Japanese professor Takada Jun revealed at a nuclear forum that the Chinese regime carried out 46 surface nuclear tests from 1964 to 1996, causing 750,000 civilian deaths in surrounding areas. At the "Chinese Nuclear Test Disasters on the Silk Road and the Japanese Role" symposium, sponsored by the Japanese Uyghur Association, Dr. Takada Jun, a professor at the Sapporo Medical University and a representative of the Japanese Radiation Protection Information Center, revealed the disastrous problems of China's nuclear tests. Dr. Takada said that the Chinese regime has never allowed any form of independent or outside environmental evaluation, analysis, or study of adverse affects on human health possibly cause by the tests.

"Ministers went to court yesterday to try to stop former British servicemen from receiving compensation for illnesses that they allege they suffered during Britain's atomic testing programme in the 1950s. In June last year the High Court ruled that 10 test cases out of more than 1,000 claims could proceed to trial. The servicemen blame their ill-health, including cancer, skin defects and fertility problems, on involvement in the nuclear tests on the Australian mainland, Monte Bello islands and Christmas Island between 1952 and 1958. Many are terminally ill and seven - including five of the test case claimants - have died since the litigation began. While acknowledging the "debt of gratitude" owed to the men, the Ministry of Defence denies negligence and fought the cases on the preliminary point that they were all launched outside the legal time limit."

"Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee, the Republican candidates for Bob Bennett's U.S. Senate seat, say they support the resumption of underground nuclear testing in Nevada, either to verify the reliability of the existing arsenal or to develop new weapons. But Utah's deadly history as a downwind victim of fallout from previous nuclear tests argues for a much more cautious approach to any resumption of testing. First, it is not necessary to resume test explosions to verify the safety, security and reliability of existing nuclear weapons. That was the conclusion of a panel of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. It has since been confirmed by the JASON group of independent scientific advisers that consults with the U.S. government on defense issues. "