Nuclear tests 1945-1998 -- by Isao Hashimoto

This video entitled "1945-1998" shows all the nuclear tests between 1945-1998. Each second represents a month. The size of the flash varies with kilotonnage. It starts out slowly, with the Manhattan Project's single test in the US, and the small but terrible A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Eventually, 2053 blasts, of which the US detonated 1032.

The 2006 and 2009 tests by North Korea are not shown.
Hashimoto says "The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country conducted. I created this work [to show]... the extremely grave, but present problem of the world." He has also made Overkilled (2 min) and The Names of Experiments, on similar themes.

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The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was passed in 1996 by the UN but has not yet come into force, due to big-power reluctance to ratify it (especially US, China, India, Pakistan). See this US map by National Cancer Institute (NCI) showing Americans' exposures to radioactive (iodine-131) fallout from nuclear testing from atmospheric nuclear bomb tests carried out at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s and 1960s. Thereafter tests were done underground. (click on maps for a clearer view)And atomwatch's map of fallout from Chernobyl:
More details of each country's bombs and testing. Hashimoto's video shows one startling fact: the fusillade of tests by the big powers after the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and SALT 1971 and 1979 -- so much for the myth of the "peaceful atom". Their flagrant violation of good faith bodes ill for current climate negotiations.

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See also the new film Countdown to Zero and An Inconvenient Nuke on eliminating nuclear weapons: a campaign backed by True Majority, New Evangelical Partnership, Moveon.org, MySpace, NRDC, Human Rights Watch and others.