The importance of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
By Maribel Hernàndez (Translation from the original Spanish by DeepL)
It has been 58 years since the day that changed the history of Palomares, that small hamlet of Cuevas de Almanzora which, since January 17, 1966, has been living with the aftermath of one of the most serious nuclear weapons accidents of the Cold War.
That morning, a U.S. B-52 bomber collided with the mother plane that was refueling it during a refueling maneuver. As a result of the collision, the four thermonuclear bombs it was carrying fell, each of them 70 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, with the good fortune that, since they were not armed, no nuclear explosion occurred. But two of the bombs fell without parachutes and, as a result of the impact, dispersed their plutonium charge, contaminating Palomares.
The story that followed is well known and, as usually happens in the relationship between power and nuclear armament, is one of machismo. Thus in the midst of Franco’s dictatorship, the narrative starred then Minister of Tourism and Information, Manuel Fraga. “Palomares, clean waters”, read the front page of ABC just two months after the accident. But the problem of plutonium was not in the water, but in the ground, from where it is inhaled in the form of invisible dust and where it remains almost six decades later.
The population was not evacuated nor were they informed of the danger of radioactivity, just as the nuclear powers did with the Indigenous populations of the places they chose to test their atomic bombs, such as the Marshall Islands, Nevada or the Australian Aboriginal lands, among others. Expendable populations far from the centers of power.
The United States organized a cleanup drill in which neighbors also participated, barely wearing gloves and exposed to the inhalation of radioactive particles, to collect debris from the airplanes and soil. Today we know that only a small part of the soil was removed, 4,810 barrels of 208 liters each, leaving 50,000 cubic meters contaminated. A good scenario, as has also been revealed thanks to the work of researchers such as José Herrera, to study the effects on the population of continued exposure to small doses of plutonium, the Indalo Project.
Silence and secrecy hovered over Palomares. The population, after years of oblivion, receives with skepticism the new promises that the land is going to be cleaned. Nor has it been studied whether there is a link between cancer cases and radiation. It was an investigation by The New York Times that put the issue on the table in 2016: American soldiers who had participated in the Palomares cleanup were claiming compensation after falling ill with cancer. Of the 40 veterans they identified, 21 suffered from the disease.
A year later, in 2017, the international community endowed itself with a historic Treaty banning nuclear weapons in their entirety, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which included in its articles measures to address the impunity and injustice that this type of weaponry has left in so many parts of the world. Article 6 provides for measures to assist the populations affected by nuclear weapons and to restore the environment in contaminated areas, while Article 7 urges States to cooperate and provide international assistance.
The TPNW is the only nuclear disarmament treaty that includes this humanitarian perspective. Perhaps for this reason, it is striking that a country like Spain, which has experienced nuclear stigma on its own soil, and which is in favor of nuclear disarmament, continues to turn its back on this Treaty.
In December 2023, just over a month ago, the States Parties to the TPNW met for the second time in New York to advance the implementation of the Treaty. Despite attempts to get Spain to attend as an Observer State, there was no Spanish presence other than that of the people who attended on behalf of the Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament. It was a lost opportunity for Spain. It is hard not to think of our own history when you hear the testimonies of the impact nuclear weapons have had on the lives of the communities affected by them.
In Palomares there was no detonation of those weapons that fell by accident and that would have wiped off the map a good part of the territory, but the nuclear legacy is still present. As long as there are nuclear weapons, there will be a risk that they will be used or that accidents like the one at Palomares will occur.
The NPT is a response to the many stories of injustice caused by the existence of this type of weaponry. Also that of Palomares. The only guarantee of non-repetition is the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Therefore, the accession of Spain to the TPNW is also a pending debt of our country with the population of this small Almerian village 58 years after that January morning.
Maribel Hernàndez is the Co-ordinator at Alianza por el Desarme Nuclear. This article was first published on Público and is republished with permission of the author. Read the original Spanish version here.
Headline photo: The two bombs that did not explode at Palomares are now in a museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The now-empty casings are shown. Photo by Mike McBey/Wikimedia Commons.
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