While politicians argue whether the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation exists in the Middle East and whether the nuclear program of Iran is dangerous, those who participated in nuclear tests personally nave no doubts: nuclear tests are evil. More than 20 years ago the governmental-social organization of the Committee of Veterans of Special Risk Unities was founded in Russia. It unites people who took part in nuclear weapons tests.
Vladimir Bentsianov, the chairman of the Committee of Veterans of Special Risk Unities of Russia, chevalier of the Order of Courage, says that “on September 14, 1954, I took part in the Totsk war games with nuclear armament employment, where items we will call bombs, missiles, torpedoes were equipped with nuclear warheads in such a way, the bomb was much bigger than the Hiroshima one. The army was taken away from the epicenter, and nobody launched anything above the participants. Nevertheless, in 2 hours 46 minutes we were within 800 meters of the epicenter. There were 109 very strong guys, and now only a couple of them are alive in Belarus, and two in Russia. No one lost their lives due to old age. The influence of an adverse factor does not mean radiation a priori. When people compare us with the heroes of the Chernobyl events, which were created by the unprofessionalism of the authorities, I should say we were a different case. Why different? First of all, we established the nuclear shield for our state to prevent other owners of nuclear armaments from any kind of strike. Secondly, we were very proud (I was 20) of the fact the Motherland confided in us in such an affair.
It was a very irregular thing. Signing up for 25, 40 years and for your whole life to keep government military secrets made us people who would be secure. However, it wasn’t so – not only in Russia, but also in other countries owning nuclear armaments. People of this category have been forgotten. They have been forgotten because everywhere these events were secret. I would like to give an example to you that was unexpected for us. If we look at all nuclear tests from Los-Alamos in the US to 2007, i.e. the last explosion in North Korea, we will see that the members of the nuclear club are the United States, the USSR, China, France, the UK, and they exploded 2049 items, and one of them is still unknown. It was exploded above the Indian Ocean during the period of a moratorium in 1972. The figures are interesting because nobody writes about them.
Look at me: I’m 78, I had 70 hospital admissions, 9 surgeries, 5 of them were eye surgeries and 1 other surgery. But it doesn’t let me be silent and not to tell you what was totally secret. Today it is very important to maintain peace – nuclear and otherwise – and prevent any kind of proliferation of nuclear weapons. You cannot control the influence of adverse factors.
First of all, it is a blast wave with infrasound, which causes fibrillation at the level of the cell membrane, which is why rats, mice, dogs, cats, sheep, cows, horses, camels and some insects die immediately.
Secondly, electromagnetic emanation. Can you imagine its speed at 30,000 meters per second? I have a great request for you: please stop using mobile phones damaging your health, especially children.
Next, light and heat emission.
Then, the seismic aspect when the surface literally falls under you.
And only then does the radiation come.”
Bentsianov remembers that “the troops were taken away from the geographical epicenter for 4.5 km. The explosion took place at 9:34 a.m. At this moment our unit was 7.754 km from the epicenter. 9:34. The explosion. At first the ground started to shake a country swing. The ground began to swing. Then it seemed it fell under you. Then you hear a crack. It cannot be compared even with thunder in a storm: it penetrates you, cuts you, and you don’t know what’s going on with you. We had special equipment. The dug-out shelter was lit up by blue light, when we came to the surface 40 minutes later, it appeared we had received initial nuclear radiation, because a part of the nuclear cloud passed right above our dug-out shelter. Even though we are not victims of tests. I repeat: we are participants of the events who took part in nuclear war without an enemy.
Why do I say nuclear war? Because none of the nuclear armament possessors, military and civic people or scientists can control the influence of the adverse factors of nuclear weapons.
The hardest thing happened later. Diseases, health deviations, and ailments are present, but you cannot say where you had been, what you had done, because the sign-up inherent in any consequences.”
As for the influence of adverse factors, he said: “We saw water boiling and disappearing at once. What do you think the temperature in the explosion was? 1.5 million C. How long does the explosion take? 0.0000000001 second. Moreover, the influence of the first adverse factors, we call them under-investigated, like infrasound or electromagnetic emission, take 1/17 000 000 second. That is why everybody should be aware of it. Iran doesn’t need to build a reactor. It is about states which do it for themselves; hardly anybody today says we should produce these engines. Atomic power stations are another case. They can exist in any country. Germany rejected them. But we cannot say openly that Iran is producing a nuclear weapon today. There is no direct evidence. We should speak about it carefully. Accusations should rely on facts. It seems they can be caught only after tests, but you should prepare thoroughly for tests. That is why we should encourage settlement of the problem by diplomatic measures. Any statements might be empty, and we should maintain stability in the world. The more experts from various countries meet each other, the faster we will get rid of the problem of nuclear armament proliferation.”
