Do you know how many nuclear weapons have been detonated worldwide? If you don’t know, take a minute to guess the number and write it down.

We are inviting you to learn about the overwhelming number of nuclear weapons tests worldwide in this animated video by Isao Hashimoto. Each country that detonates a nuclear weapon is designated by a different color. You can also explore the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) new interactive map to learn more about the tests, survivors' stories and their activism for justice.

 
 

The U.S. detonated over 900 nuclear weapons in the southwest of the United States showering the region with nuclear fallout (the radioactive dust and ash that is created when a nuclear weapon explodes). Listen to Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians, describe the history of the “most bombed nation on Earth” in this 3 minute video. 

“When the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, 13 kilotonnes of nuclear fallout rained down on the Japanese city. According to a 2009 study in the Nevada Law Journal, between 1951 and 1992, the tests conducted on our land caused 620 kilotonnes of nuclear fallout.” Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians

 
 

Announcements were made about tests, but not the danger associated with them. Evelyn Samalar, a Southern Paiute elder, shared this memory of nuclear testing in an interview with Valerie Kuletz on the Moapa River Indian Reservation:

“They didn’t tell us how dangerous it was. They just said in the news media and the papers that there was going to be a test. So naturally, you know, a whole bunch of us after we got off work, away we’d go headed right toward that place. And we’d get on the road there, and there’d be miles and miles and miles of cars just to see it. We’d all get out and get on the little hills, you know, all around there and we could see right across there where it was, this big beautiful cloud! Just all white and fiery, you know, and just gorgeous! They didn’t tell us how dangerous it was. They just told us they were going to have it at such and such a time. And now I think, I think personally, we’re suffering - almost all of us have something wrong with us. I’ve had thyroid problems”. The Tainted Desert: Environmental and Social Ruin in the American West by Valerie Kuletz

There are more than 10,000 nuclear weapons worldwide. The Doomsday Clock, created in 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to indicate how close humankind is to nuclear annihilation, is a chilling yearly touchstone that takes stock of this threat. In Jan 2023, the clock moved to “90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.” 2023 Doomsday Clock announcement

Want to dig deeper? Check out some of these resources to learn more about nuclear weapons testing. If you have a favorite resource you see missing, let us know. Thanks!

  • A message from the most bombed nation on Earth by Ian Zabarte (article and video)

  • Interactive Online Map from ICAN - The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: Learn more about the tests, survivors' stories and their activism for justice in the interactive map. (interactive map)

  • A Time-lapse map of Every Nuclear Explosion since 1945 by Isao Hashimoto (video)

  • Nuclear Dissent: A Look-Back at Activism to Build a Better Tomorrow by Jan3 and Rogue Productions (interactive documentary) Jam3 and Rogue Productions’s interactive documentary reveals how the protest movement brought nuclear testing to an end.

  • The Tainted Desert: Environmental and Social Ruin in the American West by Valerie Kuletz (book) 

  • Nevada Test Site Overview, Atomic Heritage Foundation (webpage)

  • Marshall Islands Nuclear Weapons Testing Overview, Atomic Heritage Foundation (webpage)

  • Disarming Doomsday: The Human Impact of Nuclear Weapons Since Hiroshima by Becky Alexis-Martin (book)

  • bikinis and other s/pacific n/oceans by Teresia K. Teaiwa, The Contemporary Pacific, Vol. 6, No. 1 (SPRING 1994), pp. 87-109 (article)

  • Chapter 3: Rational Mutants from Unmaking the Bomb by Shannon Cram (book), (pre-order your copy, will be released Oct 10, 2023) Includes excerpts from letters written by women concerned about fallout. 

  • The Atomic Soldiers by Morgan Knibbe (video)

  • Nuclear Weapons History, ICAN Website (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) (webpage)

  • The Human Cost of Nuclear Testing, ICAN Website (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) (webpage)

  • Nuclear Testing Tally, Arms Control Association (webpage)

  • Infographic: The Impact of Nuclear Weapons Tests Around the World, Al Jazeera (article)

  • Trinity: “The most significant hazard of the entire Manhattan Project”, by Bob Alvarez (article)