Ways to overcome the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. Environmental consequences of nuclear war

Nuclear energy is fraught with danger due to accidental circumstances of radioactive contamination natural environment, which can occur not only as a result of the use of atomic weapons, but also due to accidents at nuclear power plants.

What the modern environmental crisis is reverse side NTR confirms the fact that exactly those achievements scientific and technological progress, which served as the starting point for the announcement of the onset of scientific and technological revolution, led to the most powerful environmental disasters on our planet. In 1945, the atomic bomb was created, indicating new and unprecedented human capabilities. In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant was built in Obninsk, and many hopes were placed on the “peaceful atom”. And in 1986, the largest man-made disaster in the history of the Earth occurred on Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a consequence of an attempt to “tame” the atom and make it work for oneself.

This accident released more radioactive material than the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The “peaceful atom” turned out to be more terrible than the military one. Humanity is faced with such man-made disasters, which may well qualify for the status of super-regional, if not global.

The peculiarity of radioactive damage is that it can kill painlessly. Pain is known to be an evolutionary development defense mechanism, but the “cunning” of the atom is that in in this case this warning mechanism is not activated. For example, the water discharged from the Hanford nuclear power plant (USA) was initially considered completely safe. However, it later turned out that in neighboring reservoirs the radioactivity of plankton increased 2000 times, the radioactivity of ducks that fed on plankton increased 40,000 times, and the fish became 150,000 times more radioactive than the waters discharged by the station. Swallows that caught insects whose larvae developed in the water detected radioactivity 500,000 times higher than that of the waters of the station itself. The radioactivity in the yolk of waterfowl eggs has increased a millionfold.

The Chernobyl accident affected more than 7 million people and will affect many more, including the unborn, since radiation contamination affects not only the health of those living today, but also those who are about to be born. The funds for eliminating the consequences of the disaster may exceed the economic profit from the operation of all nuclear power plants in the territory of the former USSR.

It was in radiation, in various manifestations of radiation sickness, that scientists and the public saw the main danger of the new weapon, but humanity was able to truly appreciate it much later. For many years in atomic bomb people saw, although very dangerous, but only a weapon capable of ensuring victory in the war. Therefore, leading states, intensively improving nuclear weapons, were preparing both for their use and for protection against them. Only in recent decades has the world community begun to realize that a nuclear war would be the suicide of all humanity. Radiation is not the only, and perhaps not the most important, consequence of large-scale nuclear war.

The magnitude of the temperature drop does not depend much on the power of the nuclear weapon used, but this power greatly affects the duration of the “nuclear night.” Results obtained by scientists different countries, differed in details, but the qualitative effect of “nuclear night” and “nuclear winter” was very clearly identified in all calculations. Thus, the following can be considered established:

1. As a result of a large-scale nuclear war, a “nuclear night” will establish over the entire planet, and the amount of solar heat entering the earth’s surface will be reduced by several tens of times. As a result, a “nuclear winter” will come, that is, there will be a general decrease in temperature, especially strong over the continents.

2. The process of purifying the atmosphere will continue for many months and even years. But the atmosphere will not return to its original state - its thermohydrodynamic characteristics will become completely different.

The decrease in the temperature of the Earth's surface a month after the formation of soot clouds will be significant on average: 15-20 C, and at points remote from the oceans - up to 35 C. This temperature will last for several months, during which earth's surface will freeze several meters, depriving everyone fresh water, especially since the rains will stop. A “nuclear winter” will also come in the Southern Hemisphere, as soot clouds will envelop the entire planet and all circulation cycles in the atmosphere will change, although in Australia South America the cooling will be less significant (by 10-12 C).

Until the early 1970s. the problem of environmental consequences of underground nuclear explosions was reduced only to protective measures against their seismic and radiation effects at the time of implementation (i.e., the safety of blasting operations was ensured). A detailed study of the dynamics of processes occurring in the explosion zone was carried out exclusively from the point of view of technical aspects. The small size of nuclear charges (compared to chemical ones) and the easily achievable high power of nuclear explosions attracted military and civilian specialists. A false idea arose about the high economic efficiency of underground nuclear explosions (a concept that replaced the less narrow one - the technological efficiency of explosions as a truly powerful method of destroying rock masses). And only in the 1970s. it became clear that the negative environmental impact underground nuclear explosions in environment and people's health negates the economic benefits they generate. In 1972, the United States terminated the Plowshare program for the use of underground explosions for peaceful purposes, adopted in 1963. In the USSR, since 1974, they abandoned the use of external underground nuclear explosions. Underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes in the Astrakhan and Perm regions and in Yakutia.

At some sites where underground nuclear explosions were carried out, radioactive contamination was detected at a considerable distance from the epicenters, both in the depths and on the surface. Dangerous geological phenomena begin in the vicinity - movements of rock masses in the near zone, as well as significant changes in the regime of groundwater and gases and the appearance of induced (provoked by explosions) seismicity in certain areas. Operated explosion cavities turn out to be very unreliable elements of technological schemes production processes. This violates the reliability of the robots of industrial complexes of strategic importance, reduces the resource potential of the subsoil and other natural complexes. Prolonged stay in explosion zones damages the human immune and hematopoietic systems.

Home environmental problem Russia from Murmansk to Vladivostok is experiencing massive radiation contamination and contamination of drinking water.

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Environmental consequences of nuclear weapons testing

Introduction

IN modern society, as in ancient times, humanity was threatened by many harmful factors, such as disasters, wars, natural influences, all of this is united by one concept - an emergency situation (ES).

An emergency is a condition in which, as a result of the occurrence of a source of emergency at the facility, certain territory or water area, normal living conditions and activities of people are disrupted, a threat arises to their life and health, damage is caused to the property of the population, national economy and the natural environment.

Source of emergency - dangerous a natural phenomenon, accident or dangerous man-made incident, widespread infectious disease of humans, farm animals and plants, as well as the use modern means defeat, as a result of which an emergency situation occurs or may occur.

Nuclear weapons are weapons mass destruction explosive action, based on the use of nuclear energy inside. Nuclear weapon- the most powerful means of mass destruction. Its damaging factors are shock wave, light radiation, penetrating radiation, radioactive contamination of the area and electromagnetic pulse.

The most powerful damaging factor of a nuclear explosion is the shock wave. Its formation consumes 50% of the total explosion energy. It is a zone of highly compressed air, spreading at supersonic speed in all directions from the center of the explosion.

The main parameters that determine the action of a shock wave are the excess pressure at its front, the high-speed air pressure and the duration of the excess pressure. Their value mainly depends on the power, type of nuclear explosion and distance from the center.

Excess pressure is the difference between atmospheric pressure and the maximum pressure at the shock wave front. It is measured in pascals. The duration of overpressure is measured in seconds.

Air velocity is a dynamic load created by air flow. Measured in the same units as excess pressure, its effect is noticeable at excess pressures above 50 kPa.

Impact of shock waves on people and farm animals: Shock waves in unprotected people and animals cause traumatic injuries and concussions.

Impact of a shock wave on buildings and structures:

Complete destruction is characterized by the collapse of all walls and ceilings. Rubble forms from the debris. Restoring buildings is impossible.

Severe destruction is characterized by the collapse of part of the walls and ceilings. In multi-storey buildings, the lower floors are preserved. The use and restoration of such buildings is either impossible or impractical.

Moderate destruction is characterized by the destruction of mainly built-in elements (internal partitions, doors, windows, roofs, stove and ventilation pipes), the appearance of cracks in the walls, the collapse of attic floors and individual sections of the upper floors. Basements and lower floors are suitable for temporary use after the debris above the entrances has been cleared. There are no rubbles around buildings. Restoration of buildings (major repairs) is possible.

Weak destruction is characterized by breakage of window and door fillings, light partitions, and the appearance of cracks in the walls of the upper floors. Recovery is possible.

Impact of a shock wave on technological equipment and production activities of the facility. The degree of damage from the impact of the shock wave will depend on the condition of the buildings and structures in which this equipment is located and where this activity is envisaged. To no lesser extent, the activity of the facility will depend on the state of energy and water supply, shelters with labor force, the pace of liquidation of the consequences of destruction and the influence of other factors of a nuclear explosion. At livestock facilities, in addition, this will depend on the condition of the animals, the possibilities of their feeding and maintenance, and the quality of livestock products.

Impact of a shock wave on plants. Complete destruction of forests, orchards, and vineyards is observed when exposed to excess pressure over 50 kPa. At the same time, trees are uprooted and broken, forming continuous rubble.

At an excess pressure of 50 to 30 kPa, about 50% of trees are pulled out or broken, and at a pressure of 30-10 kPa - up to 30% of trees. Young trees, shrubs, and tea plantations are more resistant to shock waves than old and ripe ones.

Under the influence of high-speed pressure, cereal crops are partially uprooted, partially covered by a dust storm, and mostly subject to lodging. In root and tuber crops, the above-ground part of the plant is damaged.

Impact of a shock wave on reservoirs and water sources. On large natural reservoirs, strong waves arise, on artificial ones, dams, dams and other hydraulic structures are destroyed. The seismic wave generated during a ground explosion causes the destruction of artesian wells, water towers, irrigation systems, and the collapse of well frames.

Light radiation. It is a stream of visible, infrared and ultraviolet rays emanating from a luminous area consisting of explosion products and air heated to millions of degrees. 30-35% of the total explosion energy is spent on its formation. The damaging ability of light radiation is determined by the size of the light pulse. A light pulse is the amount of light energy falling during the existence of the luminous region of a nuclear explosion per unit surface perpendicular to the direction of radiation propagation. It is measured in J/m2 (cal/cm2). The impact of light radiation on buildings, structures, plants. Light radiation, depending on the properties of materials, causes them to melt, char and ignite. As a result, individual, massive, continuous fires or fire storms may occur.

A massive fire is a collection of individual fires that engulfed more than 25% of buildings in a given locality.

A complete fire is a massive fire that engulfs more than 90% of buildings.

A fire storm is a special type of continuous fire that engulfed the entire city territory with a strong hurricane wind blowing towards the center of the explosion as a result of powerful ascending air currents. Fighting a firestorm is impossible. A firestorm was observed in Hiroshima after the explosion of the atomic bomb (August 6, 1945) and raged for 6 hours, destroying 600 thousand houses.

Small bodies of water (lakes, ponds, streams) under the influence high temperature light radiation can evaporate.

Penetrating radiation. It is a stream of gamma rays and neutrons emitted for 10-15 s from the luminous area of ​​the explosion as a result nuclear reaction and the radioactive decay of its products. 4-5% of the total explosion energy is spent on penetrating radiation. Penetrating radiation is characterized by a radiation dose, i.e., the amount of energy of radioactive radiation absorbed per unit volume of the irradiated environment. The unit of dose measurement is the roentgen (R).

The essence of the damaging effect of penetrating radiation is that gamma rays and neutrons ionize the molecules of living cells. Ionization disrupts the normal functioning of cells and large doses leads to their death. The complex of pathological changes observed in humans and animals under the influence of ionizing radiation is called radiation sickness.

The radius of damage by penetrating radiation is insignificant (up to 4-5 km) and varies little depending on the power of the explosion. Therefore, during explosions of medium and higher power ammunition, the shock wave and light radiation cover the radius of action of penetrating radiation, as a result of which unprotected people and animals will not suffer severe radiation injuries, since they will die from exposure to the shock wave or light radiation. With explosions of low and ultra-low power, on the contrary, the danger of injury from penetrating radiation increases significantly, since in this case the radius of action of the shock wave and light radiation is significantly reduced and does not cover the action of penetrating radiation.

The neutron flux causes induced radioactivity in the external environment when chemical elements, which make up all environmental objects, turn from stable to radioactive. However, due to natural decay, most of them turn back into stable ones within 24 hours.

Under the influence of penetrating radiation (gamma rays), the glasses of optical instruments darken, and photographic materials in light-proof packaging become overexposed. Electronic equipment is damaged, the resistance of resistors and the capacitance of capacitors change. The devices will give “failures” and false positives.

Radioactive contamination of the area. It accounts for 10-15% of the total explosion energy. Radioactive contamination of terrain, water, water sources, and airspace occurs as a result of the fallout of radioactive substances (RS) from the cloud of a nuclear explosion.

During underground and ground explosions, the soil from the explosion crater, drawn into the fireball, melts and mixes with radioactive substances, and then gradually settles to the ground, both in the area of ​​the explosion and beyond in the direction of the wind, forming local loss. Depending on the power of the explosion, from 60 to 80% of radioactive substances fall out locally. 20-40% of radioactive substances rise into the troposphere and spread around it globe and gradually (within 1-2 months) settles to the ground, forming global fallout.

During air explosions, radioactive substances do not mix with the ground, rise into the stratosphere and slowly (over several years) fall to the ground in the form of a fine aerosol.

Sources of contamination of the area are fission products of a nuclear explosion (radionuclides), emitting beta particles and gamma rays; radioactive substances of the unreacted part of the nuclear charge (urapa-235, plutonium-239), emitting alpha, beta particles and gamma rays; radioactive substances formed in the soil under the influence of neutrons (induced radioactivity). In particular, atoms of silicon, sodium, and magnesium in the soil become radioactive and emit beta particles and gamma rays.

Radioactive contamination, like penetrating radiation, does not cause damage to buildings, structures, equipment, but affects living organisms, which, by absorbing the energy of radioactive radiation, receive a radiation dose (D), measured, as mentioned above, in roentgens (R).

Contamination of an area with radioactive substances is characterized by dose rate, measured in roentgens per hour (R/h). The dose rate measured at a height of 1 m from the surface of the earth (large contaminated object) is called the radiation level.

The radiation level shows the radiation dose that a living organism can receive per unit time in a contaminated area. In wartime conditions, an area is considered contaminated when the radiation level is 0.5 R/h or higher.

The degree of contamination by radioactive substances on the surface of individual objects in the field is measured in units of gamma radiation levels in milliroentgens per hour (mR/h) or microroentgens per hour (μR/h).

The impact of radioactive contamination on production activities. Radioactive contamination of the area, unlike the shock wave and light radiation of a nuclear explosion, does not cause any destruction or damage to objects of the agro-industrial complex (AIC), as well as instant death of animals or plants. However, it is the radioactive contamination of the area that will be the factor determining the main share of the damage caused by nuclear weapons agriculture and facilities located in rural areas, since the area of ​​dangerous radioactive contamination will be 10 times or more greater than the area where the effect of the shock wave or light radiation of a ground-based nuclear explosion will occur.

After radiation levels decline, the main danger for people and animals will be the consumption of food, feed and water contaminated with radioactive substances. This danger will last for years and decades. It will require the population to comply with certain protective measures, and agricultural specialists to take additional measures to reduce pollution of agricultural products during production, transportation and storage.

Under the influence of radioactive contamination, huge areas of agricultural land will be taken out of normal crop rotation, long years The farming system will change, livestock farming will find itself in difficult conditions, and the work of other facilities of the agro-industrial complex and its partners will need to be restructured due to the erosion of the raw material base.

The experience of liquidating the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant showed that radioactive contamination due to the accident nuclear reactor or its deliberate destruction during war by conventional means of attack without the use of nuclear weapons can cause enormous damage to the state.

Environmental aspects of nuclear weapons testing

Some idea of ​​the damage that can be caused to the natural environment as a result of the use of the most powerful weapons mass destruction - nuclear, its tests indicate.

When nuclear warheads explode, highly radioactive substances are formed. Immediately after the explosion, radioactive products rush upward in the form of hot gases. As they rise, they cool and condense. Their particles settle on drops of moisture or dust. Then the process of gradual fall of radioactive fallout on the surface of the earth in the form of rain or snow begins.

Having fallen onto the ground or onto the water surface, radioactive products enter the food chain: being digested, initially by plants and algae, they pass into the body of animals. From there, through the meat, milk, and fish consumed by a person, they enter his body.

After 1945, radioactive contamination of our planet began to gradually increase. Before the first nuclear explosions, there was practically no extremely dangerous radioactive strontium-90 on the earth's surface. Now it has become an integral element of the environment.

The fate of the inhabitants of the Pacific Bikini Atoll (part of the Marshall Islands, a US Trust Territory) serves as a warning for the future; these people were victims of the long-term consequences of nuclear weapons testing.

37 years after the American authorities removed the entire local population of Bikini to use the island as a nuclear weapons testing site, the Bikinians remain a people virtually without a homeland. Returning home forever is a dream that hardly any Bikin residents will realize during their lifetime. It was made impossible by 23 nuclear bombs detonated on the atoll between 1946 and 1958, including the first H-bomb, dropped from an airplane (1956.)

True, 10 years after the last test, the US government allowed the Bikin residents to return, because the islands were recognized as safe for living. When the first group landed on the shore, instead of rows of coconut palms and breadfruit trees, they saw lush thickets of bushes. Nuclear explosions completely destroyed three small coral islands around the atoll. Twisted steel towers stuck out everywhere, and reinforced concrete bunkers gleamed white. Giant waves at one time washed all the animals into the ocean, sparing only one tenacious species of rat.

In subsequent years, the Americans carried out a broad restoration program for Bikini: coconut trees were planted, mountains of broken reinforced concrete were cleared, and roads were laid. However, nuclear tests, it turns out, did not pass without a trace. More accurate measurements taken in 1978 showed abnormally high levels of strontium, cesium and plutonium in the body of the Bikin people, who consumed local fruits and fish from the lagoon. Again, for the second time in their lifetime, the Bikin people were forced to evacuate. Experts believe that it will take about 70 more years before the level of radioactivity on Bikini decreases to safe levels.

nuclear weapons environment

Conclusion

In the life of modern humanity, an increasing place is occupied by concerns related to overcoming various crisis phenomena that arise in the course of the development of earthly civilization. The reason for this, on the one hand, is that constant scientific and technological progress not only contributes to increased productivity and improved working conditions, increased material well-being and intellectual potential of society, but also leads to an increased risk of accidents and catastrophes and, above all, large technical systems . This is due to an increase in the number and complexity, an increase in the unit capacity of units at industrial and energy facilities, and their territorial concentration. In Russia, these trends inherent in the development of the world community today are aggravated by the fact that in the current conditions long time economic crisis There is a significant aging of fixed assets and a decline in production technological discipline.

On the other hand, in Russia, as well as throughout the world, in last years There is an increase in the number of natural and environmental disasters and the scale of damage caused by them. This is due, first of all, to the progressive urbanization of territories, an increase in the density of the Earth's population, and, as a consequence, anthropogenic impact and the observed global change climate on the planet. In this regard, the problem of protecting the population and territories from emergencies of a natural, man-made and, as a rule, environmental nature caused by them, has become very relevant. It has emerged in recent years in the country’s state regulation system as an urgent and objective need, defined as a function of the state, as evidenced by the material below.

An analysis of the development trends of the main natural, man-made and environmental hazards and threats and their forecast for the future shows that on the territory of Russia in the coming years it will remain high degree the risk of large-scale emergencies of various types. The projected increase in the number of emerging emergencies of various types will lead to an increase in damage from them, which is already generally estimated at trillions of rubles per year. This will significantly slow down economic growth in the country and Russia’s transition to a sustainable development strategy.

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In 1945, the atomic bomb was created, indicating new and unprecedented human capabilities. In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant was built in Obninsk, and many hopes were placed on the “peaceful atom”. And in 1986, the largest man-made disaster in the history of the Earth occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a result of an attempt to “tame” the atom and make it work for oneself. This accident released more radioactive material than the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The “peaceful atom” turned out to be more terrible than the military one.

Physicists spoke about the fundamental possibility of creating weapons using the energy of a nuclear explosion even before the start of the Second World War. Many characteristics of such an explosion had already been calculated by that time. After the bombing Japanese cities In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear war became a terrible reality. What struck the public consciousness most of all was not the number of victims, estimated in hundreds of thousands, but the complete destruction in a few moments of two big cities, but the consequences that penetrating radiation brought. Not a single person who survived a nuclear bombing could be sure of his future: even after many years, the consequences of radiation could affect him or his descendants.

At the end of 1989, the USSR published a message from a commission that dealt with the “obvious today” consequences of the atomic bomb tests carried out in Chukotka (50s - 60s). Since the Chukchi live off deer, which feed on lichens that accumulate radioactivity, their poor health is explained by the radioactive contamination of that time: almost 100% have tuberculosis, 90% have chronic pulmonary diseases, the incidence of cancer is significantly increased (for example, mortality from esophageal cancer is the highest in the world , the incidence of liver cancer is 10 times higher than the national average). Average duration life is only 45 years (since the mortality rate among newborns is 7-10%).

It was in radiation, in various manifestations of radiation sickness, that scientists and the public saw the main danger of the new weapon, but humanity was able to truly appreciate it much later. For many years, people saw the atomic bomb, although very dangerous, as just a weapon capable of ensuring victory in the war. Therefore, leading states, intensively improving nuclear weapons, were preparing both for their use and for protection against them. Only in recent decades has the world community begun to realize that a nuclear war would be the suicide of all humanity.

Radiation is not the only, and perhaps not the most important, consequence of a large-scale nuclear war. Fires in the event of a nuclear war will engulf everything that can burn. It is estimated that an average bomb charge of 1 Mt of TNT burns 250 km2 of forest. This means that in order to burn 1 million km2 of forest, only about 13% of the total nuclear potential of the planet that existed at that time (1970) would be required. At the same time, more than a hundred million tons of biomass (and atomic carbon) will be released into the atmosphere in the form of soot. However, the largest amount of soot will be released into the atmosphere during fires in cities. Such calculations were first carried out by English biochemists back in the 60s. They calculated that with a sufficiently high thermal impulse (more than 20 cal/cm2), the ignition of everything that can burn will occur in any building. They proved, in particular, that an average charge of 0.5 Mt of TNT can completely burn out more than 200 km2 (which is 100-200 times more area, directly covered by the ball of a nuclear explosion).

In the early 80s. American scientists began to analyze various scenarios for a possible nuclear war. In the basic scenario, taken as a basis by a group of scientists led by K. Sagan, it was assumed that in a nuclear war there would be an exchange of nuclear strikes with a charge power of about 5000 Mt TNT, i.e. less than 30% of the total nuclear potential of the USSR and the USA, which is hundreds thousand times more powerful than the explosive device used in the bombing of Hiroshima. In addition to the destruction of about 1000 major cities northern hemisphere from the resulting huge fire, such an amount of soot will rise into the atmosphere that the atmosphere will not allow light and heat to pass through. Along with forest burning, a large volume of optically active aerosols, capable of extremely absorbing sunlight, is released during city fires (when factories filled with plastic materials, fuel reserves, etc. burn). In this case, the effect of large-scale traction also occurs, i.e. in cities, almost everything that can burn completely burns out, and combustion products are released into the upper part of the atmosphere and the lower part of the stratosphere. While large particles settle rather quickly under the influence of gravity, the washing out of small aerosol particles (including soot) from the atmosphere is a complex and little-studied process. Small particles (especially atomic carbon) that end up in the stratosphere can remain there for quite a long time. They also block sunlight. Receipt efficiency sunlight to the earth's surface depends not only on the amount of aerosols in the stratosphere, but also on the time of their washout. If the washout process occurs over several months, then within a month the earth's surface will receive less than 3% of the usual amount of solar radiation, as a result, a “nuclear night” will be established on the Earth and, as a result, “nuclear winter.” However, a complete picture of the entire process could be obtained only on the basis of an analysis of a large-scale mathematical model of the joint dynamics of the atmosphere and the World Ocean. The first models were built at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences back in the 70s, and calculations using them for the main scenarios of nuclear war were carried out in June 1983 under the leadership of Academician N. N. Moiseev V. V. Alexandrov and G. L. Stenchikov and etc. Later, similar results were obtained in national center US climate research. Similar calculations were carried out many times in subsequent years by scientific institutions in other countries. The magnitude of the temperature drop does not depend much on the power of the nuclear weapon used, but this power greatly affects the duration of the “nuclear night.” The results obtained by scientists from different countries differed in detail, but the qualitative effect of “nuclear night” and “nuclear winter” was very clearly identified in all calculations. Thus, the following can be considered established:

1. As a result of a large-scale nuclear war, a “nuclear night” will establish over the entire planet, and the amount of solar heat entering the earth’s surface will be reduced by several tens of times. As a result, a “nuclear winter” will come, that is, there will be a general decrease in temperature, especially strong over the continents.

2. The process of purifying the atmosphere will continue for many months and even years. But the atmosphere will not return to its original state - its thermohydrodynamic characteristics will become completely different.

The decrease in the temperature of the Earth's surface a month after the formation of soot clouds will be significant on average: 15-200C, and at points remote from the oceans - up to 350C. This temperature will last for several months, during which the earth's surface will freeze several meters, depriving everyone of fresh water, especially since the rains will stop. A “nuclear winter” will also come in the Southern Hemisphere, as soot clouds will envelop the entire planet and all circulation cycles in the atmosphere will change, although in Australia and South America the cooling will be less significant (by 10-120C).

The ocean will cool by 1.5-20C, which will cause a huge temperature difference near the coast and constant severe storms. The atmosphere will begin to heat up not from below, as it is now, but from above. The circulation will stop, since lighter and warmer layers will appear at the top, the source of convective instability of the atmosphere will disappear, and the fall of soot to the surface will occur much slower than under the Sagan scenario, which did not take into account the movement of the atmosphere, connections between the atmosphere and the ocean, precipitation, and temperature changes in different parts of the Earth.

Until the early 1970s. the problem of the environmental consequences of underground nuclear explosions was reduced only to protective measures against their seismic and radiation effects at the time of implementation (i.e., the safety of blasting operations was ensured). A detailed study of the dynamics of processes occurring in the explosion zone was carried out exclusively from the point of view of technical aspects. The small size of nuclear charges (compared to chemical ones) and the easily achievable high power of nuclear explosions attracted military and civilian specialists. A false idea arose about the high economic efficiency of underground nuclear explosions (a concept that replaced the less narrow one - the technological efficiency of explosions as a truly powerful method of destroying rock masses). And only in the 1970s. It began to become clear that the negative environmental impact of underground nuclear explosions on the environment and human health negates the economic benefits received from them. In 1972, the United States terminated the Plowshare program for the use of underground explosions for peaceful purposes, adopted in 1963. In the USSR, since 1974, they abandoned the use of external underground nuclear explosions. Underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes in the Astrakhan and Perm regions and in Yakutia.

Of these, four explosions in Yakutia were carried out for the purpose of deep seismic sounding earth's crust, six explosions were carried out to intensify oil production and gas flow, one was to create an underground oil storage tank.

The Kraton-3 explosion (August 24, 1978) was accompanied by an emergency radioactive release. As a result of the analysis carried out by the Radium Institute. V.G. Khlopin (St. Petersburg), a large amount of plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 was detected in the soil. The emergency release of radionuclides to the surface amounted to about 2% of the total fission products with an explosion power of about 20 kt TNT. Directly above the epicenter, an exposure dose rate of 80 µR/h was recorded. The concentration of cesium-137 was 10 times higher than the level of natural radioactive background.

Features of the combined impact of nuclear explosive technologies were manifested in emergency situations that occurred at the Astrakhan gas condensate, as well as Osinsk and Gezh oil fields.

At some sites where underground nuclear explosions were carried out, radioactive contamination was detected at a considerable distance from the epicenters, both in the depths and on the surface. Dangerous geological phenomena begin in the vicinity - movements of rock masses in the near zone, as well as significant changes in the regime of groundwater and gases and the appearance of induced (provoked by explosions) seismicity in certain areas. Operated explosion cavities turn out to be very unreliable elements of technological schemes of production processes. This violates the reliability of industrial complexes of strategic importance and reduces the resource potential of subsoil and other natural complexes. Prolonged stay in explosion zones damages the human immune and hematopoietic systems.

For near-surface underground nuclear explosions with soil release, the radiation hazard remains to this day. In the north Perm region(in connection with the implementation of a project planned in the 1970s to transfer the flow of northern rivers to the south) on the watershed of the Pechora and Kama rivers, it was planned to create a section of the canal using 250 such explosions. The first (triple) Taiga explosion was carried out on March 23, 1971. The charges were placed in loose, water-logged soils at depths of 127.2, 127.3 and 127.6 m at a distance of 163-167 m from each other. During the explosion, a gas and dust cloud with a height of 1800 m and a diameter of 1700 m arose. After it sank, a trench excavation 700 m long, 340 m wide and about 15 m deep was exposed in the terrain. Around the excavation a shaft of soil about 6 m high and wide about 50 m with a zone of scattered blocks up to 170 m wide. Gradually, this excavation filled with groundwater and turned into a lake. Over the course of many years, radioactivity in the area of ​​the Taiga facility reached 1100 μR/h (more than 100 times higher than the level of natural radioactive background).

The main environmental problem in Russia from Murmansk to Vladivostok is massive radiation pollution and contamination of drinking water.

There is a suggestion to use thermonuclear explosions"as low power as possible... in a large underground chamber" to produce plutonium, which would then be burned in nuclear reactors.

The subsequent development of peaceful applications of nuclear charges (the so-called “clean” charges) created the conditions for the use of a more environmentally friendly and economical energy production scheme, which consists of the following. The energy charge, consisting of a small amount of fissile material (FM) - plutonium-239 or uranium-233 - which serves as a fuse, and deuterium, which provides the bulk of the energy, explodes in a solid cavity called an explosive combustion boiler (ECC). At the moment of explosion, the boiler body is protected by a thick layer of liquid sodium (protective wall) from high temperature, pulse pressure and penetrating radiation. Sodium also serves as a coolant. Received thermal energy Then it is transferred to steam turbines to generate electricity according to the usual scheme. During the explosion, 43.2 MeV of energy is released into 6 deuterium atoms with the formation of two neutrons. These neutrons are used to produce plutonium-239 or uranium-233 (from uranium-238 or thorium-232) in quantities exceeding the DM consumption during operation of the power charge fuse. The produced fissile material is used for fuses of subsequent energy charges and as fuel for secondary nuclear power reactors. The developers hope that explosive deuterium energy will be able to provide cheap electricity and heat, and will also help eliminate the fuel deadlock of traditional nuclear power plants.

The bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki would now be lost in the vast nuclear arsenals of the superpowers as insignificant trifles. Now even weapons for individual use are much more destructive in their effects. The trinitrotoluene equivalent of the Hiroshima bomb was 13 kilotons; The explosive power of the largest nuclear missiles that appeared in the early 1990s, for example the Soviet SS-18 strategic missile (surface-to-surface), reaches 20 Mt (million tons) TNT, i.e. 1540 times more.

To understand what the nature of a nuclear war might turn out to be in modern conditions, it is necessary to involve experimental and calculated data. At the same time, one should imagine possible opponents and the controversial issues that could cause them to clash. You need to know what weapons they have and how they can use them. Considering the damaging effects of numerous nuclear explosions and knowing the capabilities and vulnerabilities of society and the Earth itself, it is possible to assess the scale of the harmful consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.

The first nuclear war.

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was suddenly covered in a dazzling bluish-whitish light. The first atomic bomb was delivered to the target by a B-29 bomber from the US Air Force base on the island of Tinian (Mariana Islands) and exploded at an altitude of 580 m. At the epicenter of the explosion, the temperature reached millions of degrees, and the pressure was approx. 10 9 Pa. Three days later, another B-29 bomber passed its primary target, Kokura (now Kitakyushu), as it was covered in thick clouds, and headed for the alternate target, Nagasaki. The bomb exploded at 11 a.m. local time at an altitude of 500 m with approximately the same effectiveness as the first one. The tactic of bombing with a single aircraft (accompanied only by a weather observation aircraft) while simultaneously carrying out routine massive raids was designed to avoid attracting the attention of Japanese air defense. When the B-29 appeared over Hiroshima, most of its residents did not rush for cover, despite several half-hearted announcements on local radio. Before this, the air raid warning had been announced, and many people were on the streets and in light buildings. As a result, there were three times more dead than expected. By the end of 1945, 140,000 people had already died from this explosion, and the same number were injured. The area of ​​destruction was 11.4 square meters. km, where 90% of houses were damaged, a third of which were completely destroyed. In Nagasaki there was less destruction (36% of houses were damaged) and loss of life (half as much as in Hiroshima). The reason for this was the elongated territory of the city and the fact that its remote areas were covered by hills.

In the first half of 1945, Japan was subjected to intense air bombing. The number of its victims reached a million (including 100 thousand killed during the raid on Tokyo on March 9, 1945). The difference between the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and conventional bombing was that one plane caused such destruction that would have required a raid by 200 planes with conventional bombs; these destructions were instantaneous; the ratio of dead to wounded was much higher; The atomic explosion was accompanied by powerful radiation, which in many cases led to cancer, leukemia and devastating pathologies in pregnant women. The number of direct casualties reached 90% of the death toll, but the long-term aftereffects of radiation were even more destructive.

Consequences of nuclear war.

Although the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not intended as experiments, studying their consequences has revealed much about the characteristics of nuclear war. By 1963, when the Treaty Banning Atmospheric Tests of Nuclear Weapons was signed, the US and USSR had carried out 500 explosions. Over the next two decades, more than 1,000 underground explosions were carried out.

Physical effects of a nuclear explosion.

The energy of a nuclear explosion spreads in the form of a shock wave, penetrating radiation, thermal and electromagnetic radiation. After the explosion, radioactive fallout falls on the ground. Different types of weapons have different explosion energies and types of radioactive fallout. In addition, the destructive power depends on the height of the explosion, weather conditions, wind speed and the nature of the target (Table 1). Despite their differences, all nuclear explosions have some inherent characteristics. general properties. The shock wave causes the greatest mechanical damage. It manifests itself in sudden changes in air pressure, which destroys objects (in particular, buildings), and in powerful wind currents that carry away and knock down people and objects. The shock wave requires approx. 50% explosion energy, approx. 35% - for thermal radiation in the form emanating from the flash, which precedes the shock wave by several seconds; it blinds when viewed from a distance of many kilometers, causes severe burns at a distance of up to 11 km, and ignites flammable materials over a wide area. During the explosion, intense ionizing radiation. It is usually measured in rem - the biological equivalent of x-rays. A dose of 100 rem causes an acute form of radiation sickness, and a dose of 1000 rem is fatal. In the dose range between these values, the probability of death of an exposed person depends on his age and state of health. Doses even significantly below 100 rem can lead to long-term illnesses and a predisposition to cancer.

Table 1. DESTRUCTION PRODUCED BY A 1 MT NUCLEAR EXPLOSION
Distance from the epicenter of the explosion, km	Destruction	Wind speed, km/h	Excess pressure, kPa
1,6–3,2	Severe destruction or destruction of all ground structures.	483	200
3,2–4,8	Severe destruction of reinforced concrete buildings. Moderate destruction of road and railway structures.
4,8–6,4	– `` –	272	35
6,4–8	Severe damage to brick buildings. 3rd degree burns.
8–9,6	Severe damage to buildings with wooden frames. 2nd degree burns.	176	28
9,6–11,2	Fire of paper and fabrics. Felled 30% of trees. 1st degree burns.
11,2–12,8	–``–	112	14
17,6–19,2	Fire of dry leaves.	64	8,4

In the event of the explosion of a powerful nuclear charge, the number of deaths from the shock wave and thermal radiation will be incomparable more number killed by penetrating radiation. When a small nuclear bomb (such as the one that destroyed Hiroshima) explodes, a large proportion deaths caused by penetrating radiation. A weapon with increased radiation, or a neutron bomb, can kill almost all living things solely through radiation.

During an explosion, more radioactive fallout falls on the earth's surface, because At the same time, masses of dust are thrown into the air. The damaging effect depends on whether it is raining and where the wind is blowing. When a 1 Mt bomb explodes, radioactive fallout can cover an area of ​​up to 2600 square meters. km. Different radioactive particles decay at different rates; Particles thrown into the stratosphere during atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s are still returning to the earth's surface. Some lightly affected areas can become relatively safe in a matter of weeks, while others take years.

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) occurs as a result of secondary reactions - when gamma radiation from a nuclear explosion is absorbed by air or soil. It is similar in nature to radio waves, but the tension electric field it is much higher; EMR manifests itself as a single burst lasting a fraction of a second. The most powerful EMPs occur during explosions at high altitude(above 30 km) and extend over tens of thousands of kilometers. They do not directly threaten human life, but are capable of paralyzing power supply and communication systems.

Consequences of nuclear explosions for people.

While the various physical effects that occur during nuclear explosions can be calculated quite accurately, the consequences of their effects are more difficult to predict. Research has led to the conclusion that the non-foreseeable consequences of a nuclear war are just as significant as those that can be calculated in advance.

The possibilities of protection against the effects of a nuclear explosion are very limited. It is impossible to save those who find themselves at the epicenter of the explosion. It is impossible to hide all people underground; this is only feasible to preserve the government and the leadership of the armed forces. In addition to the methods of escape from heat, light and shock wave mentioned in civil defense manuals, there are practical methods of effective protection only from radioactive fallout. It is possible to evacuate large numbers of people from high-risk areas, but this will create severe complications in transport and supply systems. When critical development events, the evacuation will most likely become disorganized and cause panic.

As already mentioned, the distribution of radioactive fallout will be influenced by weather conditions. Failure of dams can lead to floods. Damage to nuclear power plants will cause additional increase radiation level. In cities, high-rise buildings will collapse and create piles of rubble with people buried underneath. In rural areas, radiation will affect crops, leading to mass starvation. In the event of a nuclear strike in winter, the people who survived the explosion will be left without shelter and will die from the cold.

Society's ability to somehow cope with the consequences of the explosion will very much depend on the extent to which people will be affected. government systems management, health care, communications, law enforcement and fire services. Fires and epidemics, looting and food riots will begin. An additional factor of despair will be the expectation of further military action.

Increased doses of radiation lead to an increase in cancer, miscarriages, and pathologies in newborns. It has been experimentally established in animals that radiation affects DNA molecules. As a result of such damage, genetic mutations and chromosomal aberrations occur; True, most of these mutations are not passed on to descendants, since they lead to lethal outcomes.

The first long-term detrimental effect will be the destruction of the ozone layer. Ozone layer The stratosphere shields the earth's surface from most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. This radiation is harmful to many forms of life, so it is believed that the formation of the ozone layer is ca. 600 million years ago became the condition due to which multicellular organisms and life in general appeared on Earth. According to a report by the US National Academy of Sciences, in a global nuclear war, up to 10,000 megatons of nuclear charges could be detonated, which would lead to the destruction of the ozone layer by 70% over the Northern Hemisphere and 40% over the Southern Hemisphere. This destruction of the ozone layer will have disastrous consequences for all living things: people will receive extensive burns and even skin cancer; some plants and small organisms will die instantly; many people and animals will become blind and lose their ability to navigate.

A large-scale nuclear war will result in a climate catastrophe. During nuclear explosions, cities and forests will catch fire, clouds of radioactive dust will envelop the Earth in an impenetrable blanket, which will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in temperature at the earth's surface. After nuclear explosions with a total force of 10,000 Mt in central regions continents of the Northern Hemisphere, the temperature will drop to minus 31° C. The temperature of the world's oceans will remain above 0° C, but due to the large temperature difference, severe storms will arise. Then, a few months later, sunlight will break through to the Earth, but apparently rich in ultraviolet light due to the destruction of the ozone layer. By this time, the death of crops, forests, animals and the starvation of people will have already occurred. It is difficult to expect that any human community will survive anywhere on Earth.

Nuclear arms race.

Failure to achieve superiority at the strategic level, i.e. with the help of intercontinental bombers and missiles, led to the accelerated development of tactical nuclear weapons by nuclear powers. Three types of such weapons were created: short-range - in the form of artillery shells, rockets, heavy and depth charges and even mines - for use along with traditional weapons; medium-range, which is comparable in power to strategic and is also delivered by bombers or missiles, but, unlike strategic, is located closer to targets; intermediate class weapons that can be delivered mainly by missiles and bombers. As a result, Europe, on both sides of the dividing line between the Western and Eastern blocs, found itself stuffed with all kinds of weapons and became a hostage to the confrontation between the USA and the USSR.

In the mid-1960s, the prevailing doctrine in the United States was that international stability would be achieved when both sides secured second strike capabilities. US Secretary of Defense R. McNamara defined this situation as mutually assured destruction. At the same time, it was believed that the United States should have the ability to destroy from 20 to 30% of the population of the Soviet Union and from 50 to 75% of its industrial capacity.

For a successful first strike, it is necessary to hit the enemy's ground control centers and armed forces, as well as to have a defense system capable of intercepting those types of enemy weapons that escaped this strike. For the second strike forces to be invulnerable to the first strike, they must be in fortified launch silos or continuously moving. Submarines have proven to be the most effective means of basing mobile ballistic missiles.

Creating a reliable system of defense against ballistic missiles turned out to be much more problematic. It turned out that it is unimaginably difficult to solve the most complex problems in a matter of minutes - detecting an attacking missile, calculating its trajectory and intercepting it. The advent of individually targetable multiple warheads has greatly complicated defense tasks and led to the conclusion that missile defense is practically useless.

In May 1972, both superpowers, realizing the obvious futility of efforts to create a reliable system of defense against ballistic missiles, as a result of negotiations on the limitation of strategic arms (SALT), signed an ABM treaty. However, in March 1983, US President Ronald Reagan launched a large-scale program for the development of space-based anti-missile systems using directed energy beams.

Meanwhile, offensive systems developed rapidly. In addition to ballistic missiles, cruise missiles have also appeared, capable of flying along a low, non-ballistic trajectory, following, for example, the terrain. They can carry conventional or nuclear warheads and can be launched from the air, from water and from land. The most significant achievement was the high accuracy of the charges hitting the target. It became possible to destroy small armored targets even from very long distances.

Nuclear arsenals of the world.

In 1970, the United States had 1,054 ICBMs, 656 SLBMs, and 512 long-range bombers, i.e., a total of 2,222 strategic weapons delivery vehicles (Table 2). A quarter of a century later, they were left with 1,000 ICBMs, 640 SLBMs and 307 long-range bombers - a total of 1,947 units. This slight reduction in the number of delivery vehicles hides a huge amount of work to modernize them: the old Titan ICBMs and some Minuteman 2s have been replaced by Minuteman 3s and MXs, all Polaris-class SLBMs and many Poseidon-class SLBMs. replaced by Trident missiles, some B-52 bombers replaced by B-1 bombers. The Soviet Union had an asymmetrical, but approximately equal nuclear potential. (Russia inherited most of this potential.)

Table 2. ARSENALS OF STRATEGIC NUCLEAR WEAPONS AT THE HEIGHT OF THE COLD WAR
Carriers and warheads	USA	USSR
ICBM
1970	1054	1487
1991	1000	1394
SLBM
1970	656	248
1991	640	912
Strategic bombers
1970	512	156
1991	307	177
Warheads on strategic missiles and bombers
1970	4000	1800
1991	9745	11159

Three less powerful nuclear powers - Britain, France and China - continue to improve their nuclear arsenals. In the mid-1990s, the UK began replacing its Polaris SLBM submarines with boats armed with Trident missiles. The French nuclear force consists of M-4 SLBM submarines, medium-range ballistic missiles and squadrons of Mirage 2000 and Mirage IV bombers. China is increasing its nuclear forces.

In addition, South Africa admitted to building six nuclear bombs during the 1970s and 1980s, but - according to its statement - dismantled them after 1989. Analysts estimate that Israel has about 100 warheads, as well as various missiles and aircraft to deliver them . India and Pakistan tested in 1998 nuclear devices. By the mid-1990s, several other countries had developed their civilian nuclear facilities to the point where they could switch to producing fissile materials for weapons. These are Argentina, Brazil, North Korea and South Korea.

Nuclear war scenarios.

The option most discussed by NATO strategists involved a rapid, massive offensive by the Organization's armed forces Warsaw Pact V Central Europe. Since NATO forces were never strong enough to fight back with conventional weapons, NATO countries would soon be forced to either capitulate or use nuclear weapons. After the decision to use nuclear weapons was made, events could have developed differently. It was accepted in NATO doctrine that the first use of nuclear weapons would be limited-power strikes to demonstrate primarily a willingness to take decisive action to protect NATO interests. NATO's other option was to launch a large-scale nuclear strike to secure an overwhelming military advantage.

However, the logic of the arms race led both sides to the conclusion that there would be no winners in such a war, but that a global catastrophe would break out.

The rival superpowers could not rule out its occurrence even for a random reason. Fears that it would start by accident gripped everyone, with reports of computer failures in command centers, drug abuse on submarines, and false alarms from warning systems that mistook, for example, a flock of flying geese for attacking missiles.

The world powers were undoubtedly too aware of each other's military capabilities to deliberately start a nuclear war; well-established satellite reconnaissance procedures ( cm. MILITARY SPACE ACTIVITY) were reduced to acceptable low level risk of being involved in war. However, in unstable countries the risk of unauthorized use of nuclear weapons is high. In addition, it is possible that any of local conflicts could cause a global nuclear war.

Countering nuclear weapons.

The search for effective forms of international control over nuclear weapons began immediately after the end of World War II. In 1946, the United States proposed to the UN a plan of measures to prevent the use of nuclear energy for military purposes (Baruch Plan), but it was rejected Soviet Union as an attempt by the United States to consolidate its monopoly on nuclear weapons. The first significant international treaty did not concern disarmament; it was aimed at slowing down the buildup of nuclear weapons through a gradual ban on their testing. In 1963, the most powerful powers agreed to ban atmospheric testing, which was condemned because of the radioactive fallout it caused. This led to the deployment of underground testing.

Around the same time, the prevailing view was that if a policy of mutual deterrence made war between the great powers unthinkable, and disarmament could not be achieved, then control of such weapons should be ensured. The main purpose of this control would be to ensure international stability through measures that prevent further development nuclear first strike weapons.

However, this approach also turned out to be unproductive. The US Congress developed a different approach - “equivalent replacement”, which was accepted by the government without enthusiasm. The essence of this approach was that weapons were allowed to be updated, but with each new warhead installed, an equivalent number of old ones were eliminated. Through this replacement it was reduced total number warheads and limited the number of individually targetable warheads.

Frustration over the failure of decades of negotiations, concerns over the development of new weapons and a general deterioration in relations between East and West have led to calls for drastic measures. Some Western and Eastern European critics of the nuclear arms race have called for the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones.

Calls for unilateral nuclear disarmament continued in the hope that it would usher in a period of good intentions that would break the vicious circle of the arms race.

Experience in disarmament and arms control negotiations has shown that progress in this area is likely to reflect warming conditions international relations, but does not generate improvements in control itself. Therefore, in order to protect ourselves from nuclear war, it is more important to unite a divided world through development international trade and cooperation than to follow the development of purely military developments. Apparently, humanity has already passed the moment when military processes - be it rearmament or disarmament - could significantly affect the balance of forces. The danger of a global nuclear war began to recede. This became clear after the collapse of communist totalitarianism, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the collapse of the USSR. The bipolar world will eventually become multipolar, and democratization processes based on the principles of equality and cooperation will possibly lead to the elimination of nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war as such.

Nuclear energy is fraught with danger as a result of accidental circumstances of radioactive contamination of the natural environment, which can occur not only as a result of the use of atomic weapons, but also due to accidents at nuclear power plants. Since there are no technical systems with 100 percent reliability, it is difficult to predict where new accidents will occur, but there is no doubt that they will occur. The problem of radioactive waste disposal has also not yet been resolved.
The fact that the modern environmental crisis is the reverse side of scientific and technological revolution is confirmed by the fact that it was precisely those achievements of scientific and technological progress that served as the starting point for announcing the onset of scientific and technological revolution that led to the most powerful environmental disasters on our planet. In 1945, the atomic bomb was created, indicating new and unprecedented human capabilities. In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant was built in Obninsk, and many hopes were placed on the “peaceful atom”. And in 1986, the largest man-made disaster in the history of the Earth occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a result of an attempt to “tame” the atom and make it work for oneself.
This accident released more radioactive material than the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The “peaceful atom” turned out to be more terrible than the military one. Humanity is faced with such man-made disasters that may well qualify for the status of super-regional, if not global.
The peculiarity of radioactive damage is that it can kill painlessly. Pain, as is known, is an evolutionarily developed protective mechanism, but the “cunning” of the atom is that in this case this warning mechanism is not activated. For example, the water discharged from the Hanford nuclear power plant (USA) was initially considered completely safe. However, it later turned out that in neighboring reservoirs the radioactivity of plankton increased 2000 times, the radioactivity of ducks that fed on plankton increased 40,000 times, and the fish became 150,000 times more radioactive than the waters discharged by the station. Swallows that caught insects whose larvae developed in the water detected radioactivity 500,000 times higher than that of the waters of the station itself. The radioactivity in the yolk of waterfowl eggs has increased a millionfold.
The Chernobyl accident affected more than 7 million people and will affect many more, including the unborn, since radiation contamination affects not only the health of those living today, but also those who are about to be born. The funds for eliminating the consequences of the disaster may exceed the economic profit from the operation of all nuclear power plants in the territory of the former USSR.
Chernobyl resolved the debate about whether we can talk about an environmental crisis on our planet or just about the environmental difficulties experienced by humanity, and how appropriate it is to talk about environmental disasters. Chernobyl was environmental disaster, which has captured several countries, the consequences of which are difficult to fully predict.
Physicists spoke about the fundamental possibility of creating weapons using the energy of a nuclear explosion even before the start of the Second World War. Many characteristics of such an explosion had already been calculated by that time. After the bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear war became a terrible reality. What struck the public consciousness most of all was not the number of victims, estimated in hundreds of thousands, and the complete destruction of two large cities in a few moments, but the consequences that the penetrating radiation brought. Not a single person who survived a nuclear bombing could be sure of his future: even after many years, the consequences of radiation could affect him or his descendants.
Thus, an increase in the content of radioactive strontium (90Sr, 89Sr) and cesium (137Cs) in milk was noted in New York in connection with the testing of atomic bombs. Observations recorded a decrease in content radioactive isotopes in milk after the conclusion of an agreement between the USA and the USSR banning ground tests of nuclear weapons (the last nuclear explosions were in 1962), and then again an increase in connection with nuclear tests in China and France - countries that rejected the nuclear moratorium.
At the end of 1989, the USSR published a message from a commission that dealt with the “obvious today” consequences of the atomic bomb tests carried out in Chukotka (50s - 60s). Since the Chukchi live off deer, which feed on lichens that accumulate radioactivity, their poor health is explained by the radioactive contamination of that time: almost 100% have tuberculosis, 90% have chronic pulmonary diseases, the incidence of cancer is significantly increased (for example, mortality from esophageal cancer is the highest in the world , the incidence of liver cancer is 10 times higher than the national average). The average life expectancy is only 45 years (since the mortality rate among newborns is 7-10%).
It was in radiation, in various manifestations of radiation sickness, that scientists and the public saw the main danger of the new weapon, but humanity was able to truly appreciate it much later. For many years, people saw the atomic bomb, although very dangerous, as just a weapon capable of ensuring victory in the war. Therefore, leading states, intensively improving nuclear weapons, were preparing both for their use and for protection against them. Only in recent decades has the world community begun to realize that a nuclear war would be the suicide of all humanity. Radiation is not the only, and perhaps not the most important, consequence of a large-scale nuclear war.
Fires in the event of a nuclear war will engulf everything that can burn. It is estimated that an average bomb charge of 1 Mt of TNT burns 250 km2 of forest. This means that in order to burn 1 million km2 of forest, only about 13% of the total nuclear potential of the planet that existed at that time (1970) would be required. At the same time, more than a hundred million tons of biomass (and atomic carbon) will be released into the atmosphere in the form of soot.
However, the largest amount of soot will be released into the atmosphere during fires in cities. Such calculations were first carried out by English biochemists back in the 60s. They calculated that with a sufficiently high thermal impulse (more than 20 cal/cm2), the ignition of everything that can burn will occur in any building. They proved, in particular, that an average charge of 0.5 Mt of TNT can completely burn out more than 200 km2 (which is 100-200 times the area directly covered by the ball of a nuclear explosion).
In the early 80s. American scientists began to analyze various scenarios for a possible nuclear war. In the basic scenario, taken as a basis by a group of scientists led by K. Sagan, it was assumed that in a nuclear war there would be an exchange of nuclear strikes with a charge power of about 5000 Mt TNT, i.e. less than 30% of the total nuclear potential of the USSR and the USA, which is hundreds thousand times more powerful than the explosive device used in the bombing of Hiroshima. In addition to the destruction of about 1,000 of the largest cities in the northern hemisphere, the resulting huge fire will release so much soot into the atmosphere that the atmosphere will not allow light and heat to pass through. Along with forest burning, a large volume of optically active aerosols, capable of extremely absorbing sunlight, is released during city fires (when factories filled with plastic materials, fuel reserves, etc. burn). In this case, the effect of large-scale traction also occurs, i.e. in cities, almost everything that can burn completely burns out, and combustion products are released into the upper part of the atmosphere and the lower part of the stratosphere. While large particles settle rather quickly under the influence of gravity, the washing out of small aerosol particles (including soot) from the atmosphere is a complex and little-studied process. Small particles (especially atomic carbon) that end up in the stratosphere can remain there for quite a long time. They also block sunlight. The efficiency of sunlight reaching the earth's surface depends not only on the amount of aerosols in the stratosphere, but also on the time of their washout. If the washout process occurs over several months, then within a month the earth’s surface will receive less than 3% of the usual amount of solar radiation, as a result, “nuclear night” and, as a consequence, “nuclear winter” will be established on Earth. However, a complete picture of the entire process could be obtained only on the basis of an analysis of a large-scale mathematical model of the joint dynamics of the atmosphere and the World Ocean. The first models were built at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences back in the 70s. , and calculations using them for the main scenarios of nuclear war were carried out in June 1983 under the leadership of Academician N.N. Moiseev V.V. Aleksandrov and G.L. Stenchikov et al. Later, similar results were obtained at the US National Climatic Research Center. Similar calculations were carried out many times in subsequent years by scientific institutions in other countries. The magnitude of the temperature drop does not depend much on the power of the nuclear weapon used, but this power greatly affects the duration of the “nuclear night.” The results obtained by scientists from different countries differed in detail, but the qualitative effect of “nuclear night” and “nuclear winter” was very clearly identified in all calculations. Thus, the following can be considered established:
1. As a result of a large-scale nuclear war, a “nuclear night” will establish over the entire planet, and the amount of solar heat entering the earth’s surface will be reduced by several tens of times. As a result, a “nuclear winter” will come, that is, there will be a general decrease in temperature, especially strong over the continents.
2. The process of purifying the atmosphere will continue for many months and even years. But the atmosphere will not return to its original state - its thermohydrodynamic characteristics will become completely different.
The decrease in the temperature of the Earth's surface a month after the formation of soot clouds will be significant on average: 15-200C, and at points remote from the oceans - up to 350C. This temperature will last for several months, during which the earth's surface will freeze several meters, depriving everyone of fresh water, especially since the rains will stop. A “nuclear winter” will also come in the Southern Hemisphere, as soot clouds will envelop the entire planet and all circulation cycles in the atmosphere will change, although in Australia and South America the cooling will be less significant (by 10-120C).
The ocean will cool by 1.5-20C, which will cause a huge temperature difference near the coast and constant severe storms. The atmosphere will begin to heat up not from below, as it is now, but from above. The circulation will stop, since lighter and warmer layers will appear at the top, the source of convective instability of the atmosphere will disappear, and the fall of soot to the surface will occur much slower than under the Sagan scenario, which did not take into account the movement of the atmosphere, connections between the atmosphere and the ocean, precipitation, and temperature changes in different parts of the Earth.
Moiseev's group used new data on the possible effects of nuclear explosions, took into account the influence of interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean, and the conclusions showed the destructive consequences of the disaster for the biosphere in the first year. The biosphere of the equatorial zone, adapted to constant conditions, will suffer especially severely. IN temperate zone in case of a disaster in winter time, when a living thing is in suspended animation, something can survive if it is not destroyed by fires. If the explosion occurs in the summer, then all living things will die, with the exception of lower forms of life. Phytoplankton will die due to a long absence of sunlight. Moiseev believes that such “a blow to the biosphere can be considered as a bifurcation that dramatically changes its evolution” and transfers the biosphere to a qualitatively different level, but the consequences of any bifurcation cannot be predicted in detail.
Until the early 1970s. the problem of the environmental consequences of underground nuclear explosions was reduced only to protective measures against their seismic and radiation effects at the time of implementation (i.e., the safety of blasting operations was ensured). A detailed study of the dynamics of processes occurring in the explosion zone was carried out exclusively from the point of view of technical aspects. The small size of nuclear charges (compared to chemical ones) and the easily achievable high power of nuclear explosions attracted military and civilian specialists. A false idea arose about the high economic efficiency of underground nuclear explosions (a concept that replaced the less narrow one - the technological efficiency of explosions as a truly powerful method of destroying rock masses). And only in the 1970s. It began to become clear that the negative environmental impact of underground nuclear explosions on the environment and human health negates the economic benefits received from them. In 1972, the United States terminated the Plowshare program for the use of underground explosions for peaceful purposes, adopted in 1963. In the USSR, since 1974, they abandoned the use of external underground nuclear explosions. Underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes in the Astrakhan and Perm regions and in Yakutia.
Of these, four explosions on the territory of Yakutia were carried out for the purpose of deep seismic sounding of the earth's crust, six explosions were carried out to intensify oil production and gas flow, one was carried out to create an underground tank - an oil storage facility.
The Kraton-3 explosion (August 24, 1978) was accompanied by an emergency radioactive release. As a result of the analysis carried out by the Radium Institute. V.G. Khlopin (St. Petersburg), a large amount of plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 was detected in the soil. The emergency release of radionuclides to the surface amounted to about 2% of the total fission products with an explosion power of about 20 kt TNT. Directly above the epicenter, an exposure dose rate of 80 µR/h was recorded. The concentration of cesium-137 was 10 times higher than the level of natural radioactive background.
Features of the combined impact of nuclear explosive technologies were manifested in emergency situations that occurred at the Astrakhan gas condensate, as well as Osinsk and Gezh oil fields.
At some sites where underground nuclear explosions were carried out, radioactive contamination was detected at a considerable distance from the epicenters, both in the depths and on the surface. Dangerous geological phenomena begin in the vicinity - movements of rock masses in the near zone, as well as significant changes in the regime of groundwater and gases and the appearance of induced (provoked by explosions) seismicity in certain areas. Operated explosion cavities turn out to be very unreliable elements of technological schemes of production processes. This violates the reliability of industrial complexes of strategic importance and reduces the resource potential of subsoil and other natural complexes. Prolonged stay in explosion zones damages the human immune and hematopoietic systems.
For near-surface underground nuclear explosions with soil release, the radiation hazard remains to this day. In the north of the Perm region (in connection with the implementation of a project planned in the 1970s to transfer the flow of northern rivers to the south) on the watershed of the Pechora and Kama rivers, it was planned to create a canal section using 250 such explosions. The first (triple) Taiga explosion was carried out on March 23, 1971. The charges were placed in loose, water-logged soils at depths of 127.2, 127.3 and 127.6 m at a distance of 163-167 m from each other. During the explosion, a gas and dust cloud with a height of 1800 m and a diameter of 1700 m arose. After it sank, a trench excavation 700 m long, 340 m wide and about 15 m deep was exposed in the terrain. Around the excavation a shaft of soil about 6 m high and wide about 50 m with a zone of scattered blocks up to 170 m wide. Gradually, this excavation filled with groundwater and turned into a lake. Over the course of many years, radioactivity in the area of ​​the Taiga facility reached 1100 μR/h (more than 100 times higher than the level of natural radioactive background).
The main environmental problem in Russia from Murmansk to Vladivostok is massive radiation pollution and contamination of drinking water
The situation at the Severny training ground of the famous Krasnoyarsk-26 recently became known. There, an underground radioactive lens spreads at a speed of 300 meters per year. The nearest tributary of the Yenisei is 1 kilometer 800 meters away. Or six years.
In one of the publications of Minatom - the book “Nuclear Industry of Russia” (M., Publishing house AT, 1998) - it is noted: “The fact that radioactive substances from Lake Karachay in Chelyabinsk-40 have already penetrated several kilometers in width and depth of the territory and, Perhaps in the coming years they will begin to seep into running water, which should alert specialists.” And one more thing: “The waste is in various states, including in tanks, the design service life of which, 30 years, is expiring. In Tomsk-7, Krasnoyarsk-26, Chelyabinsk-40, radioactive waste is partially in emergency condition in open surface reservoirs, radioactive waste in quantities of over 120 million curies in the water and silt of Lake Karachay poses a particular danger.”
There is a proposal to use thermonuclear explosions "of the lowest possible power... in a large underground chamber" to produce plutonium, which would then be burned in nuclear reactors.
The subsequent development of peaceful applications of nuclear charges (the so-called “clean” charges) created the conditions for the use of a more environmentally friendly and economical energy production scheme, which consists of the following. The energy charge, consisting of a small amount of fissile material (FM) - plutonium-239 or uranium-233 - which serves as a fuse, and deuterium, which provides the bulk of the energy, explodes in a durable cavity called an explosive combustion boiler (ECC). At the moment of explosion, the boiler body is protected by a thick layer of liquid sodium (protective wall) from high temperature, pulse pressure and penetrating radiation. Sodium also serves as a coolant. The resulting thermal energy is then transferred to steam turbines to generate electricity in the usual way. During the explosion, 43.2 MeV of energy is released into 6 deuterium atoms with the formation of two neutrons. These neutrons are used to produce plutonium-239 or uranium-233 (from uranium-238 or thorium-232) in quantities exceeding the DM consumption during operation of the power charge fuse. The produced fissile material is used for fuses of subsequent energy charges and as fuel for secondary nuclear power reactors. The developers hope that explosive deuterium energy will be able to provide cheap electricity and heat, and will also help eliminate the fuel deadlock of traditional nuclear power plants.
To create a CBC, the usual materials are needed: steel, concrete, sodium. The amount of radioactive waste per unit of energy produced is tens of times less than during the operation of traditional nuclear power plants. Deuterium reserves are huge and its cost is low. The uranium already mined from the depths will be enough for reserves for a millennium.
Pure deuterium charge is a fundamental element of the concept under consideration. Several versions of such charges were developed at the Federal Nuclear Center VNIITF under the leadership of Academician E. N. Avrorin many years ago. They have absorbed the knowledge and ingenuity of many scientists and have been repeatedly used for environmentally friendly peaceful applications.