Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster, Oppenheimer, has reminded us of the destructive potential of nuclear weapons, but also of the ethical and moral implications that can arise from the scientific and technological development .

The "father of the atomic bomb", as Robert Oppenheimer is known, led the project Manhattan in the United States, which resulted in the test Trinity, the first nuclear bomb in history, detonated in the early hours of July 16, 1945 in the desert workshop del Muerto, in the U.S. state of New Mexico.

Since then, the de jure nuclear states - China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia - and de facto nuclear states - North Korea, India, Israel and Pakistan - have posted their weapons capabilities on test , and have conducted numerous nuclear tests as sample of their military potential.

The United States, with more than 1,000 nuclear bombs detonated in different locations from Trinity until 1992, and the former Soviet Union, with more than 700 nuclear tests between 1949 and 1990, stand out as the greatest exponents.

The fact is that, after the Cold War period, States have hardly ever carried out nuclear tests. However, there is still no international legal instrument that completely prohibits them, and the consequences of such tests continue to affect human health and the environment.

The consequences of the use of a nuclear weapon are devastating, as was seen after the dropping of the U.S. nuclear bombs Little Boy and Fat Man on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, in August 1945.

Nuclear tests do not produce direct casualties, since they are usually carried out in areas more or less distant from population centers, such as remote islands or vast deserts. However, such is the impact of a nuclear bomb that the effects of radiation and contamination can be experienced from miles away.

As illustrative examples, it suffices to point out two references. The first is found in the pages of Hiroshima (1946). There, John Hersey crudely tells the story of six survivors, or hibakusha (Japanese for "people affected by an explosion"), who suffered lasting after-effects from the radiation of the American nuclear bombs, including chronic weakness, dizziness, digestive problems and even discrimination by the Japanese population itself.

The second, more recent and less known to the general public, are the so-called downwinders, i.e. the inhabitants of the U.S. towns of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. There, the radioactive contamination resulting from nuclear testing has exposed the population to diseases, especially cancers of various kinds subject and consideration, as well as congenital malformations, transmitted from generation to generation.

The international community's efforts to ban nuclear testing have been partially fruitful and reflect the lights and shadows of national policies at subject security and defense.

In 1963, the Partial Test Ban Treaty came into force, banning tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in space. However, it had two important limitations: it did not prohibit subway nuclear tests; neither China nor France signed the Treaty and continued to conduct atmospheric nuclear tests until 1980 and 1974, respectively.

The adoption of the 1963 Treaty, however, demonstrated the need to slow down degree program armament, and contributed to the subsequent development of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), created in 1996 to prohibit the conduct of any nuclear essay in and by the signatory countries.

Again, the impact of this agreement has been very limited. Given the absence of some de jure nuclear states - the United States and China - and all de facto nuclear states, the 1996 Treaty has not entered into force.

goal Faced with this bleak outlook and with the aim of making the harsh reality of nuclear testing more visible, on December 2, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted resolution 64/35, in which the States agreed to declare August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests. 

Pending the entry into force of the CTBT at entrance , some of the populations affected by nuclear testing have not hesitated to take legal action to assert their rights, such as the tiny archipelago of the Marshall Islands, which has taken on the major nuclear powers.

While the lawsuits filed by the Marshall Islands against India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom before the International Court of Justice have not been successful, the petitions filed by the affected parties before the US courts have been successful and have resulted in financial compensation for the damages suffered. result . However, the human and environmental damage is largely irreversible, and islands such as Bikini Atoll are still uninhabitable due to nuclear contamination.

Far from ceasing, the degree program arms race has been fueled by the rapid technological development and by a tense geopolitical scenario. For example, since 2006, North Korea has conducted successive nuclear tests as sample of development its military capability.

The great victory of the Marshall Islands is the visibility of a reality that thousands of people in the world still suffer as a consequence of nuclear testing. Unfortunately, the entrance in force of the CTBT does not seem to be a reality any time soon. Consequently, civil society has the primary commitment to raise its voice every August 29th and promote a social awareness -already growing- to accelerate, or rather restart, nuclear disarmament and promote scientific development for peaceful purposes.