How much damage could a modern nuclear weapon cause in southeastern Connecticut? How far would the damage spread, and for how long could it last? How likely is a firestorm to develop, how is it different from a regular forest fire, and how big could it get? If the bomb goes off close to the shoreline, I’d be okay up in Willimantic, right? I mean, how bad could it really be?

Professor Gordon S. Christiansen, chairman of the Connecticut College Chemistry Department in the 1960s, addressed these questions in this week’s excerpts from his 1960 pamphlet Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability. The first two excerpts regarded the effects of a Hiroshima-size atomic bomb detonated over the New London - Groton bridge: the initial blast, firestorms, and radiation. Excerpts #3 & 4 explore the same scenario but with a much more powerful “modern” thermonuclear weapon. Today’s excerpt finishes the second scenario with a brief discussion on the devastating firestorm that would rip through the entire region.

(Read Part 1 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2029219227228402)
​(Read Part 2 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2040482629435395)
(Read Part 3 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2046153552201636)
(Read Part 4 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2057147997768858)

In all previous excerpts, the catastrophic scenarios described were the results of single bombs of different sizes detonated over the New London - Groton bridge. In the final two excerpts after this one, the topic will turn to the more likely scenario of a general widespread nuclear attack on the New York - New England region — and what effects such an attack would have on southeastern Connecticut.

On Tuesday, people around the world celebrated the UN International Day of Peace. The theme this year was “recovering better for a sustainable and equitable world.” Earlier this year, the UN marked an even more impactful moment: the coming into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which made nuclear weapons illegal under international law. As we read the frightening scenario presented by Professor Christiansen, let us consider the barrier to international peace that the United States nuclear arsenal poses, how the mere existence of the arsenal encourages rival powerful governments to build their own nuclear weapons, the fact that the United States is the only government to ever use these weapons in war, and thus our special responsibility to dismantle our nuclear weapons immediately. A sustainable and equitable world cannot be recovered while we keep weapons of such destructive power in our holsters.

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After describing the effects of radiation it is almost too much to turn now to the effects of the fire which would be an inevitable result of this hypothetical nuclear incident in Southeastern Connecticut. But the searing heat and the attendant fire store are facts of nuclear war and any serious appraisal of this incident must consider them. The detonation of the bomb takes place in less than a millionth of a second. During that time the materials of the bomb itself and all substances near it, the earth, water, steel, concrete, are vaporized, then are heated to temperatures in excess of a hundred million degrees and are compressed to many billions of pounds pressure. A huge fire ball develops, increasing in size quickly to two miles across and rising at a rate of 300 miles per hour to a height of 25 or 30 miles. There are two pulses of heat radiation, the first lasting only a fraction of a second, the second reaching a maximum in a few seconds but lasting for half a minute or more. If our hypothetical man in Willimantic had looked at this fire ball [in New London], he would have had a very brief impression of something many hundreds of times brighter than the noon sun — then he would have been blinded permanently; his exposed flesh would have been charred; his clothing would have been burned off him. His frame house would burst into flame; his lawn, shrubs and trees would take fire; his asphalt driveway would melt.

The range of third degree burns to exposed people would be 25 to 30 miles out from this bomb. This would also mark the edge of the fire storm, in principle like the one described for the small, old fashioned atomic bomb but vastly greater and more devastating. The wooded areas of Southeastern Connecticut and Southern Rhode Island, extending from the Connecticut River almost to Narragansett Bay and north almost to Glastonbury and Danielson, would form one huge fire raging through the whole area, swept toward the center by 200 mile an hour winds. This fire would be many orders of magnitude greater than any ordinary forest fire. It is almost certain that it would only be extinguished by ultimately consuming all combustible material in its path. There would be some light rainfall along with the fallout during the early stages of the fire storm. But this would be ineffectual in controlling the fire and would also bring more unpleasant and dangerous material down with it. An example of such noxious secondary products of the bomb which would fall over the devastated area is the 120,000 tons of nitric acid which the nuclear explosion forms from the nitrogen and oxygen of the air.

It is possible that many people in the outlying areas might survive this combination of assaults on human life. But any attempt at prediction of numbers would be meaningless. Geographic location, precautionary measures, and intelligent understanding of the nature and timing of the threats would be important factors in determining individual survival. But the most important factor of all would be plain luck. If a particular unique set of circumstances prevailed so that the blast, the initial flash of heat, direct radiation, flying objects, falling buildings, fallout radiation, and ingested radioactivity were all avoided, then the lucky person might survive to deal with the untold almost unimaginable, exigencies of the post-attack period. But if any single one of the primary threats could not be avoided then post-attack living would be a problem. 

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Take Action

If you are concerned about nuclear weapons and live in Connecticut, consider joining the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Committee organizes demonstrations against nuclear weapons throughout the year. Sign up to the mailing list here: https://forms.gle/pX8v2U4CktAcz8s78 

You can also sign petitions to pressure our government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, like this one: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-nuclear-weapons-ban-treaty  

— 
Support Us

We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust 

— 
Sources

Christiansen, Gordon S. Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability. Connecticut College, 1961. 

— 
Further Resources

“Electric Boat History.” General Dynamics: Electric Boat. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. http://www.gdeb.com/about/history/ 

“Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance.” Arms Control Association. August 2020 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat 

“Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.” United Nations: Office of Disarmament Affairs. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/

Wellerstein, Alex. “Nukemap.” Nuclear Secrecy. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ 

“What if We Nuke a City?” Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell. 13 October 2019 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iPH-br_eJQ ​

How much radiation does a nuclear detonation emit? How far does it span, and how long does it last? How quickly can radiation kill me after a nuclear explosion? These are the questions Professor Gordon S. Christiansen, chairman of the Connecticut College Chemistry Department in the 1960s, sought to answer in the following excerpt from his 1960 pamphlet Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability. Previous excerpts have dealt with the force of the initial blast, the potential for a firestorm to develop, and some of the effects or radiation. 

(Read Part 1 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2029219227228402) (Read Part 2 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2040482629435395)
(Read Part 3 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2046153552201636)

This excerpt continues the examination of radiation from a hypothetical nuclear blast over the bridge that connects New London and Groton, especially the shockingly brief amount of time one has to be exposed to radiation to receive a lethal dose, as well as the enormous geographical extent over which the radiation would spread.

Because of the inevitability of these weapons eventually being used in war, and because of the unconscionably horrifying amounts and types of destruction these weapons cause, on January 22, 2021, the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force. In honor of all of the victims of nuclear weapons, and with great hope in the new international treaty, we present Professor Christiansen’s Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability, part 4.

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Again, the truly awesome destructive effects of radiation are shown by the fallout from the bomb. The energy released by large nuclear weapons is divided among three major effects; somewhat over a third appears as blast, a third as heat, and less than a third appears as radioactivity. Nearly half of this radioactivity will be carried by the huge mushroom cloud into the stratosphere and will be more or less equally distributed over the whole earth. Much of the radioactivity of this worldwide fallout will be lost while it is remotely high up; the remainder will be so evenly distributed over the surface of the earth that it is of no concern in the local crisis. The most damaging effect is caused by the so called “local” fallout, that which falls within several hours of the detonation and within a couple of hundred miles of the center of the burst. This local fallout is distributed in two patterns. The major one is a long elliptical area up to 250 miles long and about 40-50 miles wide, with the long dimension in the direction of the prevailing winds. From our hypothetical bomb dropped on the Thames river bridge a deadly wave of fallout would sweep to the northeast. Providence — and the whole state of Rhode Island — would be covered within two hours; Boston and all of Massachusetts between there and Cape Cod would be covered within four hours after the detonation here. Over half of this huge elliptical pattern of “local” fallout would fall harmlessly into Massachusetts Bay and the Gulf of Maine — harmless that is, except that the fish and other sea life in this area would become too radioactive to eat for several months after the incident.

The second pattern of local fallout from this bomb would be of much more concern to us in Southeastern Connecticut. This pattern is roughly circular, about 25 miles in radius; it would start at Madison on the coast, include most of Middlesex County, just miss Middletown, include Willimantic to the north and the southwestern third of Rhode Island to the east; it would just miss Block Island and include the tip of Long Island as far back as Sag Harbor. Within this area large particles of fallout would rain down almost immediately after the bomb detonation; within an hour the whole area would be covered by a deep layer of wildly radioactive dust. It is not possible accurately to predict the level of this radioactivity within the area close to the bomb site. The most pertinent estimate is one made by the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. This institution has made the most detailed studies of actual fallout levels in the Pacific bomb tests and on the basis of these actual measurements has estimated the average level of fallout radioactivity over the whole land surface of the United States which would result from the explosion of 263 hydrogen weapons on strategic and population targets scattered throughout the country. On the basis of their estimates the average level of fallout radioactivity would be 7500 roentgens per hour at the end of the first hour. Since there are sizeable areas which would have no fallout at all, clearly some areas would have levels of radioactivity inordinately higher than the average and certainly among these would be the area immediately surrounding a big bomb drop. An extremely conservative estimate would be that the 25 mile circle around New London would have an initial (end of the first hour) level of radioactivity of 20,000 roentgens per hour (roughly three times the average); the level in the elliptical pattern would be much lower than this, probably less than twice the Naval Laboratory Radiological Laboratory estimate of average radioactivity.

A dose of radiation between 300 and 500 roentgens has a 50% probability of being fatal; a dose of around 700 to 900 roentgens is always fatal. Thus anyone exposed to the fallout within the 25 mile circle for as long as two minutes during the first hour would certainly die of radiation damage; in Providence the fatal exposure would be 10 to 20 minutes during the second hour. 

Further consideration of the damaging effects of the fallout radiation and the possibility of protection against it must take cognizance of three factors. The first is that the level of radioactivity decreases rapidly with time because of the natural decay of the radioactive materials[...] Thus, at the end of seven hours the level of radioactivity in Southeastern Connecticut would be about 2000 roentgens per hours[...] At the end of two days the level at the fringes would be about 200 roentgens per hour; at the end of two weeks it would be 20; in four months it would be 2 roentgens per hour.

The second factor to consider is the protection offered by various structures or shelters. An automobile or the first floor of an ordinary home offers a protection factor of about 2. That is, a person in (or under) an automobile or inside a house would receive only half the radiation he would in the open. In the basement of a house the factor would be between 10 and 100; the best basement shelter recommended by OCDM has a protection factor of about 1000; a self contained deep blast shelter would decrease the radioactivity by several thousand.

The third factor to consider is that harmful effects of radiation are cumulative. That is, if a person in Willimantic say, heard the explosion in New London and came out in the open to see what it was and stayed out long enough to be exposed to radioactive fallout for 30 seconds, he would have received about 150 roentgens. If he then went inside and took another 30 seconds to pick up his portable radio, he would have received another 75 roentgens. If he then went immediately to a near perfect deep blast shelter and stayed there from then on, he would still be in danger of dying from radiological exposure[...]

The chances of survival for people further out from the bomb blast would be much better; but those closer in would have much less chance. Also it is quite clear that the first minute, the first hour, the first day are the times when protection is most effective. If a person is inside an adequate shelter at the time of detonation and has an adequate supply of uncontaminated air, food, and water and sanitation facilities to hold out in a deep shelter for the first few weeks, he can then safely stand brief periods of exposure to the unshielded radiation from fallout. 

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Take Action

If you are concerned about nuclear weapons and live in Connecticut, consider joining the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Committee organizes demonstrations against nuclear weapons throughout the year. Sign up to the mailing list here: https://forms.gle/pX8v2U4CktAcz8s78 

You can also sign petitions to pressure our government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, like this one: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-nuclear-weapons-ban-treaty  

— 
Support Us

We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust 

— 
Sources

Christiansen, Gordon S. Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability. Connecticut College, 1961. 

— 
Further Resources

“Electric Boat History.” General Dynamics: Electric Boat. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. http://www.gdeb.com/about/history/ 

“Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance.” Arms Control Association. August 2020 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat 

“Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.” United Nations: Office of Disarmament Affairs. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/

Wellerstein, Alex. “Nukemap.” Nuclear Secrecy. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ 

“What if We Nuke a City?” Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell. 13 October 2019 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iPH-br_eJQ ​

What would happen if a Hiroshima-size atomic bomb detonated in New London? Several weeks ago, we began to give the details of that hypothetical scenario as outlined in a pamphlet made by Professor Gordon S. Christiansen, chairman of the Connecticut College Chemistry Department in the 1960s, who became involved with the Committee for Nonviolent Action (VPT’s predecessor) due to his nuclear concerns. Last week, we finished that scenario with details about the likely firestorm and the extent of destruction caused by such a detonation. That first scenario described by Professor Christiansen would result in unimaginably intense destruction and loss of life, but would also allow the possibility for societal recovery and rebuilding. 

(Read Part 1 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2029219227228402) (Read Part 2 here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/2040482629435395)

Unfortunately, our modern nuclear weapons today are much more powerful than the first-generation weapons the United States used on Japan in 1945. In the pamphlet, Professor Christiansen goes on to describe what would result from the detonation of a “modern” (in 1960) 20 megaton nuclear weapon in New London starting with the initial blast, the mile-wide crater it would leave behind, and the damage to buildings and infrastructure out as far as 100 miles from the blast. Rarely do we have the opportunity to read a well-researched description of the effects of a nuclear detonation specifically on our own community. 

Due to rising tensions and the uncertain state of nuclear weapons in our world today, on January 22, 2021, the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force, making the production, possession, and use of nuclear weapons to be an international crime. In honor of all of the victims of nuclear weapons, and with great hope in the new international treaty, we present Professor Christiansen’s Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability, part 3.

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The possibility of recreating a community life in this area after a general nuclear attack is, to put it as mildly as possible, much less promising. But it will be more meaningful to consider such possibilities after examining the effects of modern nuclear weapons on this area.

The effects of a nominal 20 megaton nuclear weapon (24 million tons of TNT explosive equivalent) have been determined by several actual tests of such weapons. A bomb of this size is over a thousand times as powerful as the Hiroshima type weapon and causes correspondingly greater damage. If such a weapon were to explode at ground level near the Groton-New London bridge, it would leave a crater about a mile across and 300 feet deep. This huge hole and the sizeable circular hill of earth and radioactive debris which would surround it would cover what was once the downtown New London and Groton areas. The sites of the present State pier, the railroads yards, Winthrop school, and the State Police barracks would be from 100 to 200 feet down the slope into the crater. The Coast Guard Academy, downtown New London and Groton, and the Electric Boat factory would be buried under the lip of the crater formed by the fall-back of the nuclear excavation. The area of total destruction, even of the most heavily reinforced concrete structures, would extend out about four miles. This circle includes Ocean Beach, Jordan Village, all of Quaker Hill and Connecticut College, all of the Submarine Base, all of the housing near the Sub Base, Poquonock Bridge, and Trumbull airport. In this area there would literally not be a stone in place. Streets, building sites and other landmarks would be obliterated in a tangled mass of wreckage; even deep blast shelters would be destroyed. No human being in this area would survive even the instantaneous blast.

Out to an area of six miles radius, which includes Niantic, Flanders, Montville, Uncasville, Gales Ferry, much of Ledyard, Mystic, and Noank, all brick buildings, even those with few windows and heavy construction would be totally destroyed and with them any basement shelters under them. Also in this area the blast would cause severe lung damage leading to virtual total casualties from this cause alone. At a radius of ten miles there would be total destruction of all frame buildings, damage beyond repair to all brick buildings, and serious (though partially repairable) damage to reinforced concrete structures. On the fringes of this area (beyond about 8 miles), which includes all of the towns of East Lyme, Waterford, Montville, Ledyard, New London, Groton, and the outskirts of Norwich, half of the town of Stonington (including the Village) and all of Fishers Island, deep blast shelters would be effective protection but basement fallout shelters would be of no use.

At a radius of 15 miles (a circle beginning at the town of Saybrook, touching Essex and Hamburg, including all of the town of Salem, all of Bozrah, going well beyond Norwichtown and Taftville, including all of the towns of Preston and North Stonington, the city of Westerly, Rhode Island, and the whole Watch Hill area) all frame buildings buildings would be damaged beyond repair and any basement shelters under them would be badly compromised. Brick buildings would be severely damaged but generally repairable. In this area much damage would be done by flying objects, not the least of which would be people. AEC [Atomic Energy Commission] tests which have included dummies resembling human bodies left in the open have shown that a very serious cause of casualties will be flying human bodies, thrown through the air by the initial blast effect. Minor damage to houses and other construction, such as broken windows, falling plaster, and cracked walls, will extend out from the center over 100 miles. 

The area of instantaneous killing radiation, intense enough to penetrate more than two feet of concrete or earth, will extend out from the center to a radius of two and a half miles, including all of New London, the Cohanzie and Quaker Hill sections of Waterford, Connecticut College, all of the Submarine Base, and all of the town of Groton as far away as Poquonock Bridge. But in this area total killing by radiation is simply added to total killing by blast.

Again, the truly awesome destructive effects of radiation are shown by the fallout from the bomb. The energy released by large nuclear weapons is divided among three major effects; somewhat over a third appears as blast, a third as heat, and less than a third appears as radioactivity. Nearly half of this radioactivity will be carried by the huge mushroom cloud into the stratosphere and will be more or less equally distributed over the whole earth. Much of the radioactivity of this worldwide fallout will be lost while it is remotely high up; the remainder will be so evenly distributed over the surface of the earth that it is of no concern in the local crisis. The most damaging effect is caused by the so called “local” fallout, that which falls within several hours of the detonation and within a couple of hundred miles of the center of the burst… 

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Take Action

If you are concerned about nuclear weapons and live in Connecticut, consider joining the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Committee organizes demonstrations against nuclear weapons throughout the year. Sign up to the mailing list here: https://forms.gle/pX8v2U4CktAcz8s78 

You can also sign petitions to pressure our government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, like this one: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-nuclear-weapons-ban-treaty  

— 
Support Us

We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust 

— 
Sources

Christiansen, Gordon S. Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability. Connecticut College, 1961. 

— 
Further Resources

“Electric Boat History.” General Dynamics: Electric Boat. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. http://www.gdeb.com/about/history/ 

“Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance.” Arms Control Association. August 2020 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat 

“Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.” United Nations: Office of Disarmament Affairs. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/

Wellerstein, Alex. “Nukemap.” Nuclear Secrecy. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ 

“What if We Nuke a City?” Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell. 13 October 2019 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iPH-br_eJQ ​

This is the full-scan of the first-hand account of the Minutemen attack on VPT during the early hours of August 24, 1968. Mary Suzuki Lyttle, who had been on watch earlier that night, was in the family room of the Farmhouse with another woman, Bobbie Trask, when the assailants broke in.  To read the whole account, download the PDF file here.

Over the last few days, the world watched in horror as the NATO-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government collapsed amidst a hasty evacuation of the last US personnel from Kabul. Stephen Zunes’ recent piece in Truthout provides an excellent summary and analysis of the United States’ repeated failures in Afghanistan in the last 20 years, and how those failures compounded to create the present tragedy. Like many others around the world, we in the Voluntown Peace Trust community have opposed the War in Afghanistan on moral and strategic grounds from the start, and we have never been shy to express our stance on the matter. As the Taliban finish their consolidation of power over Afghanistan, and as long as authoritarians of all stripes and creeds oppress peoples in the world, we will continue to do our work raising awareness, appealing to conscience, and speaking truth to power. 

We at VPT have been in touch with Afghani war resisters for several years. If you are one of them, we would love to hear your thoughts, and we encourage you to leave a comment.

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‘We must not allow the tragedy unfolding in Afghanistan to be used to rewrite history and teach the wrong lessons… 

We must not erase the U.S.’s longtime role in the creation of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan: The current chaos and violence have been nearly 20 years in the making. Indeed, Biden actually delayed the withdrawal for several months beyond Trump’s May deadline, making claims by the former president and his supporters that Biden had suddenly decided to “surrender” to the Taliban particularly absurd…’

Read the rest of Stephen Zunes’ article here: https://truthout.org/articles/us-policy-toward-afghanistan-was-a-recipe-for-collapse-from-the-start/ 

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Take Action

If you are concerned about the events unfolding in Afghanistan, there are a few things you can do. First, educate yourself on the recent history of Afghanistan and the US-Afghanistan relationship. Especially seek out Afghani voices. Then, urge Congress to support refugee evacuations from Afghanistan, as they did after the US departure from Vietnam. As the situation continues to develop, we will share more information about groups to support. 

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Support Us

We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust ​

Last week, we marked Hiroshima Day with an examination of the effects of a nuclear detonation in a modern city as well as New London County’s involvement in the nuclear arms industry. For the next few weeks, we will continue thinking about nuclear weapons and New London County, specifically through the transcription of a pamphlet published in 1961 by Gordon S. Christiansen, former professor and chairman of the Connecticut College Chemistry Department. In the year after the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA) came to New London to educate the people about the realities of nuclear-armed submarines, Professor Christiansen wrote and published this pamphlet, ultimately donating a copy to the CNVA. Professor Christiansen produced this pamphlet to continue the community’s education of the nuclear weapons issue, giving scientific support to the ethical and strategic concerns the CNVA raised. In honor of the victims of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 76 years ago, we present Professor Christiansen’s Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability, part 1.

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Could Southeastern Connecticut survive a nuclear attack?
What would be the effects of an atomic weapon dropped within this area?
What conditions would we face if this area was not hit directly but other areas of New England and New York were hit by nuclear weapons?
What defenses are available to us?
What would conditions of post-attack living be like?
Is there anything we could do now to prevent their happening?

These are questions which all responsible citizens must face squarely; they are also questions which demand informed and thoughtful answers — answers which may determine whether or not this region survives as a community. 

[...] For the purposes of this discussion three hypothetical situations have been considered. First a small, Hiroshima type, atomic bomb (17,000 tons of TNT explosive equivalent) detonated above the Groton-New London bridge. Second a ground burst of a nominal 20 megaton (24 million tons of TNT explosive equivalent), again at the center of the bridge. And third, no nuclear weapons detonated in the immediate area but a general nuclear attack on the prime targets in Northeastern United States. (The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy did not consider the New London area to be a prime target.)

The Hiroshima bomb was detonated at 8:15 in the morning on a clear day; let us assume the same conditions here in New London. The immediate blast effect would be the total destruction, down to a virtual flattening, of an area about 2000 yards in diameter. This would include both bridges, all of East New London, all of the downtown Groton area, part of Electric Boat, most of the Coast Guard Academy, and all of the highway approaches with nearby buildings and installations. The area of destruction of heavily built brick buildings would extend out about a mile and a half. This would include virtually all of New London except the beach areas, all of Connecticut College, all of Groton Borough including the whole Electric Boat facility, and a part of the Submarine Base. Frame buildings would be totally destroyed out about a mile further, including much of Waterford, Quaker Hill, the Naval housing areas, and further parts of Groton.

The immediate killing radiation from the bomb detonation would cover an area comparable to that of the total blast destruction. In this central area the chance of survival would be virtually nil under any circumstances. If a person were inside a masonry building he might be protected from the direct radioactivity but would be crushed along with the building or burned in the fires. The local fallout would begin within a few minutes and would carry an exceedingly high level of damaging radioactivity. This fallout would be in the form of dust and flakes and larger particles and also in the form of rain consisting of black, sooty, dust-laden drops. The intensity of the fallout radiation would decrease with radial distance from the point of explosion, warped somewhat by the low level winds. It is hard to estimate the level of radioactive exposure that would result but it would certainly be of the order of a few thousand roentgens per hour at a distance of a few (perhaps three or four) miles out from the center. In terms of survival, this level of radioactivity is such that five or ten minutes of exposure would surely be lethal. But the level of radioactivity would fall off rapidly both with time and with distance out from the center. Within the four mile circle it would decrease to around a few hundred roentgens per hour by nightfall so that a person at Connecticut College or the Sub Base, for example, would need to be exposed in the open for an hour or so to get a fatal dose of radiation. The levels of radioactivity beyond the immediate area, out to Mystic, Norwich or Niantic, would never become so great as close in near the point of detonation and also would fall off rapidly with time. In these communities a person could avoid serious injury from radiation by taking shelter immediately and remaining inside for a few days.

Although the levels of direct radiation from fallout would drop to small fractions of their original killing power within a few days, there would be serious dangers for some weeks. It would be necessary to decontaminate most of the built up areas and to completely avoid using some facilities which are normally part of our lives. It would be particularly necessary to protect children from radiation. The double reasons of genetic damage to those who will be the parents of the next generation and the very much greater susceptibility of growing children to radiation damage would limit the lives of children in these communities to total protection (that is, constant living in an adequate shelter) for a few weeks and to very carefully restricted time outside of uncontaminated and adequately shielded buildings for a few months. The parents of these children would probably be willing to risk some levels of radiation damage (provided they were also willing never to have more children) in order to do the necessary jobs of supporting life in a shelter.

The most serious source of radiation damage would be the ingestion of particles of radioactive fallout. This could be done through breathing contaminated air (even the most elegant shelters usually do not have adequate supplies of clean air), through contaminated food or water, or through open wounds such as cuts or burns. Buildings or open areas could ultimately be decontaminated but once radioactive material gets inside the human system it remains there as a subtle and virulent source of radioactive poison throughout the lifetime of the radioactivity — or the poisoned individual. It is also a fact that many substances which are innocuous outside the body, because a few inches of air or a layer of clothing will absorb their type of radiation, are viciously destructive if ingested where they come in direct contact with body tissues…  

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Take Action

If you are concerned about nuclear weapons and live in Connecticut, consider joining the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Committee organizes demonstrations against nuclear weapons throughout the year. Sign up to the mailing list here: https://forms.gle/pX8v2U4CktAcz8s78 

You can also sign petitions to pressure our government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, like this one: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-nuclear-weapons-ban-treaty  

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Support Us

We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust 

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Source

Christiansen, Gordon S. Survival in Nuclear War a Vanishing Probability. Connecticut College, 1961. 

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Further Resources

“Electric Boat History.” General Dynamics: Electric Boat. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. http://www.gdeb.com/about/history/ 

“Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance.” Arms Control Association. August 2020 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat 

“Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.” United Nations: Office of Disarmament Affairs. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/

Wellerstein, Alex. “Nukemap.” Nuclear Secrecy. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ 

“What if We Nuke a City?” Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell. 13 October 2019 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iPH-br_eJQ ​

Tomorrow is Hiroshima Day: the 76th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the Japanese city Hiroshima. It is a somber annual reminder that too few Americans let pass without a second thought: a reminder of one of the most vicious, destructive, and world-changing actions the United States has ever committed. The moral legitimacy and strategic necessity of using the atomic bomb in war has been debated since even before the weapon was completed in 1945, but much of the recent scholarship concludes that the primary motivation for using the bomb on primarily civilian targets in Japan came from political expediency and racist ideas of the Japanese. As of January 22 of this year, nuclear weapons are illegal under international law: that includes prohibitions on developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, deploying, and using or threatening to use nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia combined possess over 12,000 nuclear weapons, more than 90% of those in the world. All of the countries presently possessing nuclear weapons are now in violation of international law, but the United States has a unique responsibility among the nuclear-armed nations to dismantle its nuclear weapons and commit to a future free of nuclear weapons: the United States is the first and only country to ever use nuclear weapons in war.

Since at least the beginning of the Cold War, the economy in southeastern Connecticut has been heavily influenced by the military-industrial complex. General Dynamics: Electric Boat (EB) in New London and Groton is the 6th largest military contractor in the country, and has been designing and building nuclear-armed submarines for decades. Despite the outsized importance of EB in New London County’s economy, the company does not appreciably benefit the vast majority of residents — the City of New London’s median income is less than $36,000 per year, while CEO of EB Phebe Novakovic earned nearly $19 million in 2020. In fact, it was EB’s production of the Polaris subs, the first to carry nuclear weapons in the world, that brought the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA) to the region in 1960. Two years later, as they continued their opposition to the growing nuclear weapons industry, the CNVA established the Voluntown Peace Trust.

One common argument employees of Electric Boat often repeat is that EB does not build nuclear weapons; they merely build the delivery system. But how reasonable is this argument? Did the EB workers reach this conclusion on their own or is this argument part of the corporate culture? Is this argument taught to workers as the official company line? To take an example from another chapter of Connecticut’s history: while Colt did not produce ammunition, no one can reasonably claim that the company’s manufacture of its famous revolvers and rifles wasn’t a part of the firearms industry. Those guns were made to serve no other practical purpose than to shoot specific ammunition; so, too, are the modern submarines being built at EB. But while bullets can only usually strike one or two targets each, the modern nuclear weapons delivery system on the new Columbia-class submarines is designed to hold up to 16 Trident D-5 missiles, with each missile capable of carrying up to 14 W-76-1 thermonuclear warheads. Each of those warheads possess six times the destructive force as what the United States detonated over Hiroshima in 1945. Therefore, due to the way that multiple warheads are bundled into bigger missiles, the modern submarine-based nuclear weapons delivery system is specifically designed to launch multiple, city-destroying nuclear weapons at once. As Frida Berrigan recently concluded in a recent op-ed in New London’s The Day: “Multiply 12 times 16 times 14 times 6 and the potential carnage is almost unfathomable. The best way to understand the Columbia class submarine, then, is as a $100 billion-plus initiative that aims to deliver 16,128 Hiroshimas.” 

Many Americans think that they understand nuclear weapons. We’ve seen the iconic photographs of the mushroom cloud and of the ghostly black shadows where people close to the epicenter were vaporized, seen the shockwave on TV and in movies, perhaps even deployed such weapons in video games. But nothing, not even the actual historical examples of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, can fully convey the sheer devastation and suffering a nuclear detonation would have on a modern city today. First of all, a modern city relies much more on its infrastructure than even 76 years ago. A thermonuclear detonation over a modern city would be very much like several natural disasters at once, except far worse: buildings, bridges, roads, and essential infrastructure collapse like in an earthquake; a blast of wind shatters windows as far as 12 miles away and sends the lethal debris at unsuspecting bystanders; fires suddenly appear across the city at once as people begin burning alive and gas stations start exploding with no warning; if the city is lucky, the mushroom cloud will merely begin to rain down tarry, radioactive sludge; if the city is unlucky, the mushroom cloud will turn into a firestorm. Secondly, scientists and military leadership now know that after most nuclear detonations, anyone who enters the affected area within two weeks of the detonation will likely receive a lethal dose of radiation. This means that after a nuclear detonation, no doctors, nurses, firefighters, emergency response personnel of any kind, not even the military — no one will come to help for at least two weeks. 

The significance of the radiation’s effect and the two-week nuclear quarantine period cannot be overstated. In every other kind of massive disaster, outside help is feasible and even expected. Such help is impossible in the two weeks after a nuclear detonation, and no government on Earth has a practical, aid-oriented planned response to such an event. Meanwhile during those two weeks, thousands will remain trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, while thousands more with their clothes melted into their skin will wander the streets looking for food and water. Within the two weeks, still more thousands will have died from radiation sickness, physical injuries, and sheer exhaustion.

Such a horrifying event is not simply possible; if we do not dismantle all nuclear weapons on Earth, it is inevitable. In some city someday, this will happen if we continue on the present path. It is naive to think that such a thing wouldn’t happen in New London County either; the very fact that Electric Boat is the US Navy’s primary submarine manufacturer, as well as the presence of Naval Submarine Base New London just upriver makes the region a key military target. Though the Hiroshima victims and the hibakusha (“explosion affected people”) are fading from living memory, we must never stop retelling their stories. But as long as nuclear weapons — and the tailor-made means to deliver them — are held by the United States, we as Americans have a unique responsibility to pressure our government to be rid of them. And as residents of New London County, we have a double-responsibility to honestly examine how the products of our local economy will eventually, inevitably cause the unthinkable level of death, devastation, and suffering inherent in a nuclear attack.

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Take Action

If you are concerned about nuclear weapons and live near New London, CT, consider joining the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons tomorrow, August 6 at the corners of Howard and Bank Streets in downtown New London. We will be there from 3p-5p to honor the victims of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, as well as to educate the public about the new illegality of nuclear weapons. See the Facebook event page for more info and to RSVP: https://fb.me/e/D33GQsIP 

You can also sign petitions to pressure our government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, like this one: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-nuclear-weapons-ban-treaty  

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Support Us

We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust 

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Sources

Berrigan, Frida. “On Friday, ‘Say no to nuclear weapons.’” The Day. 1 August 2021 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.theday.com/article/20210801/OP03/210809975 

“Electric Boat History.” General Dynamics: Electric Boat. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. http://www.gdeb.com/about/history/ 

“Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance.” Arms Control Association. August 2020 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat 

“Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.” United Nations: Office of Disarmament Affairs. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/

Wellerstein, Alex. “Nukemap.” Nuclear Secrecy. [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ 

“What if We Nuke a City?” Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell. 13 October 2019 [Accessed 4 August 2021]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iPH-br_eJQ ​

Almost two months ago, we recounted the story of the first modern protest ship, the Golden Rule, which in 1958 the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA) sponsored to sail from Hawai’i into the sea around the Marshall Islands (read about here: https://www.facebook.com/VoluntownPeaceTrust/posts/1970864523063873). The goal of the four-crew vessel was to disrupt the ecologically-devastating and belligerent US nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean. Although the Golden Rule was prevented from achieving its goal, the peace vessel’s crew inspired the crew of another ship, the Phoenix of Hiroshima, to attempt the mission. The “Forbidden Voyage,” as the Phoenix’s captain Earle Reynolds would call it, changed his life and the lives of the other four on his yacht, made history as the first civilian vessel to ever disrupt a nuclear weapons test, and possibly influenced the US to accept the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. 

Anthropologist Earle Reynolds had not planned to become a peace activist: not when he left Antioch University to work for the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Japan in 1951, nor after studying the effects of radiation on Japanese children for three years, becoming one of the world’s experts on health and radiation. Instead, Earle followed his dream of having a yacht built in which to travel the world with his family. In 1954, a native Hiroshima shipbuilder Mr. Yotsuda finished the 50 ft two-sail ketch to Earle’s specifications. Inspired by the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes, shared by both Western and Eastern traditions, and also by the fact that the East Asian variety symbolizes peace, they christened the ship the Phoenix of Hiroshima. Earle Reynolds completed the first part of his report to the AEC and, on May 5, 1954, he, his family, and three Japanese crewmen set sail.

Earle, his wife Barbara, son Ted (16), daughter Jessica (10), and three young Japanese yachtsmen from Hiroshima, Niichi ("Nick") Mikami, Motosada ("Moto") Fushima and Mitsugi ("Mickey") Suemitsu first sailed to Hawai’i before looping down to the islands of the South Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia. They continued on west, stopping in South Africa rather than attempt the northern route during the Suez Crisis, stopping in Brazil, doing a tour of the east coast of the United States, visiting the West Indies, and crossing through the Panama Canal. There, Motosada and Mitsugi flew home. By that point, about four years into their journey, the Reynolds family had become well-experienced sailors themselves.

When the Phoenix finally returned to Hawai’i, they found the Islands abuzz about the Quaker pacifists of the Golden Rule — the day before the Phoenix had arrived, the crew of the Golden Rule had made their first attempt. Earle, upon first hearing about the attempted action, thought that they sounded “a bit like crackpots” but also that “it’s about time somebody did something about those tests.” But after Barbara urged him to attend the Golden Rule crew’s trial, Earle quickly became fascinated by these men and tried to learn everything he could about their case. Ted, now 20 years old, also researched what he could about the legality of the injunction the US government had imposed while the Golden Rule had been en route from San Pedro to Honolulu. Meanwhile, Earle investigated his old employer, the AEC, discovering that the government agency had “been playing false with the American public” with regards to the extreme dangers of radiation. Father and son determined that the injunction had no legal precedent, actually contradicted international maritime law, and could not hold up in “an honest court.” Barbara, for her part, was almost immediately moved by the men’s moral conviction. In a newsletter to their hundreds of friends and fans, they condemned the AEC and announced their support for the Golden Rule.

Only intending to stay for a couple weeks in Hawai’i before heading back to Hiroshima, the Reynolds family quickly realized that the nuclear tests blocked their route home too, and the bureaucratic process to pass through the zone legally seemed interminable. Meanwhile, the Golden Rule crew continued to impress the Reynolds family. On the evening of June 3, the day before the Golden Rule made its second attempt, its crew Albert Bigelow, Jim Peck, George Willoughby, and Orion Sherwood had dinner with the Reynolds family and Niichi, during which Earle expressed his desire to help the Golden Rule somehow. A few days after the crew of the Golden Rule were stopped and jailed for the second time, the Phoenix crew debated whether to take on the Golden Rule’s mission in their stead; they decided to sail as far as they could toward Hiroshima and to make the ultimate decision at sea, as they neared the restricted zone. Earle himself did not like to break rules and was also not eager to end his professional career — he knew that the AEC would never accept him back, and that he would likely be blacklisted in academia. But the coincidences were too great not to consider: the Phoenix was built in Hiroshima, the first victim of a nuclear attack; Niichi was a Hiroshima citizen whose family members had suffered and died as a result of the bombing, and was wholly supportive of the endeavor; Earle was one of the world’s foremost experts on the effects of radiation, and was personally concerned about it; they were intending to head back to Japan through that route anyway; and finally, as Barbara impressed on Earle, they were there at the exact time and place with the exact means to help. The Golden Rule crew gave the Phoenix crew their supplies. Earle and Barbara considered leaving Jessica, now 14 years old, in Honolulu and sending for her grandmother to take care of her, but Jessica fiercely refused to be left behind, arguing, “Remember, it’s my world too, and I have a right to fight for it just as much as you have.”

On June 11, the Phoenix left for the restricted zone, but unlike the Golden Rule, no one tried to stop the Phoenix at first. After sailing for 20 days, as the Phoenix approached the edge of the restricted zone, the decision was finally made. Around noon on July 1, 1958, Earle announced by radio that they were crossing into the zone “as a protest against nuclear testing,” and at around 8:00pm that evening, the Phoenix did just that. The next day, Earle was arrested. 

Earle Reynolds was convicted of trespassing in the restricted zone, but he appealed and eventually had the conviction overturned. As he and his son Ted had suspected, the injunction had been illegal after all. Ultimately returning to Japan, the Reynolds family were hailed as heroes and the Phoenix as a national shrine. Niichi Mikami was praised as the first Japanese yachtsman to circumnavigate the globe, and moreover as an exemplary Hiroshima citizen in crossing into the restricted zone with the Reynolds family. Due to the experience, both Earle and Barbara became peace activists and continued to do actions. In 1961, the family sailed to Nakhodka, USSR with hundreds of letters appealing for peace from Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, but were turned away by the Soviet Coast Guard. In 1962, Earle sailed to the Soviet Union again, this time as the captain of another CNVA vessel, Everyman III. Meanwhile, Barbara traveled around the world with two hibakusha (people affected by nuclear explosion) as Peace Pilgrims, urging world leaders to ban nuclear weapons. After their divorce in 1964, Earle and Barbara separately continued to work for peace, with Earle attempting “friendship and reconciliation” voyages into China in the late 1960s, and Barbara founding the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima 1965 to share the stories of hibakusha to foreign visitors. Years later, Barbara would assist Cambodian refugees fleeing Pol Pot. Their daughter Jessica went on to write many articles and three books about their experiences as peace activists on the high seas over the years, and their granddaughter Naomi Reynolds has been involved in raising and restoring the original Phoenix of Hiroshima. Regardless of the future for the Phoenix, the legacy of the Reynolds’ initial “Forbidden Voyage” reached far beyond the restricted areas around the Marshall Islands and provides inspiration for us today. 

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Support Us

We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust 

— 
Sources

“1951-1954: Origin of Phoenix.” Phoenix of Hiroshima Project. (Accessed 28 July 2021). https://phoenixofhiroshima.wordpress.com/our-history/building-the-boat/ 

“1954-1958: The Reynolds’ Family Voyage.” Phoenix of Hiroshima Project. (Accessed 28 July 2021). https://phoenixofhiroshima.wordpress.com/our-history/1951-1958-the-reynolds-family-voyage/ 

“1958-1961: Nuclear Protests.” Phoenix of Hiroshima Project. (Accessed 28 July 2021). https://phoenixofhiroshima.wordpress.com/our-history/pleasure-yacht/ 

“Friends Journal 1958 coverage of the Golden Rule.” Friends Journal. 31 July 2013 (accessed 28 July 2021). https://www.friendsjournal.org/golden-rule-1958/ 

Reynolds, Earle. The Forbidden Voyage. David McKay Company, Inc., 1961. 

“The Golden Rule and Phoenix voyages in protest of U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, 1958.” Global Nonviolent Action Database. (Accessed 28 July 2021). https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/golden-rule-and-phoenix-voyages-protest-us-nuclear-testing-marshall-islands-1958 ​