These Old Nuclear Tests Are Still Leaking Radioactivity in Australia

The nuclear tests were testing safety measures, but resulted in something explicitly unsafe.

Transcript

00:00This is a picture of a mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb test that occurred in Australia

00:08nearly 60 years ago. But according to new research, tests that occurred in the outback

00:13way back when could be contaminating the blast area and beyond even today. Nine bombs were

00:18detonated in Australia's outback between 1952 and 1963, but there were other subcritical

00:24tests that were aimed at looking at safety measures for bombs as well. Just one of these

00:28tests, called the Vixen B trials, resulted in nearly 50 pounds of plutonium and nearly

00:3390 pounds of uranium being spread across the area. Experts first realized the contamination

00:38back in 1984, but even today tiny hot particles or residual almost sand-sized bits of uranium

00:44and plutonium are still scattered across the landscape, which actually isn't that surprising.

00:49That brand of plutonium has a half-life of 24,100 years, meaning for 24,100 years there

00:55will be bits of plutonium totaling a weight of nearly two Nagasaki detonations allowed

01:00to release radioactivity into Australia's lands, which researchers from Monash University

01:04discovered the radiation released from those particles may not only have affected the immediate

01:08area, but have also found their way into dust and even rainwater, allowing the radioactive

01:13particles to travel great distances and continue to spread their DNA-destructive properties.