The boy with no eyes — the dangers of a new nuclear arms race

Trump’s reckless nuclear testing threats risk reigniting the arms race and repeating the horrors witnessed by those injured in past explosions, writes Dr Jeff McMullen.

I CANNOT FORGET what I saw. Like Vladimir Putin And Donald Trump I wish they could have been with me long ago to meet the “boy with no eyes” as the nuclear saber escalates its roar.

After witnessing the human toll of nuclear weapons testing at the once-secret Soviet stronghold of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan (more on that later), I shuddered to hear that the American President had ordered the resumption of testing equivalent to those conducted by the Russians and Chinese.

Embers wrote:

‘Because of other countries’ [sic] To test the programs, I have instructed the War Department to begin testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.’

Trump’s sudden threat first sent Just before meeting with the President of China on October 30, 2025 Xi JinpingIt has triggered global confusion, some heightened anxiety and some skepticism among allies and foes.

A senior Russian official said Dmitry MedvedevDeputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, was mocked In Trump’s shock announcement:

‘No one knows what Trump means by ‘nuclear test’ (he probably doesn’t know either). But he is the president of the United States. And the consequences of such words are inevitable: Russia will have to evaluate for itself the feasibility of carrying out full-fledged nuclear tests.’

More subtly, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman reminded Trump of the moratorium on testing that the three superpowers have observed for three decades.

“China hopes that the United States will earnestly comply with its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and its commitment to a moratorium on nuclear testing.” Guo Jiakun said at a briefing in Beijing.

A now-familiar pattern has further fueled consternation over Trump’s bombshell. The US President and some of his most senior advisors often operate on separate pages.

The US Secretary of Energy is trying to calm fears of increased nuclear testing by the nine countries that possess these doomsday weapons. Chris Wright attempt explanation. He suggested that the Americans would not continue testing explosive nuclear warheads. They would modernize their arsenal with so-called subcritical testing of weapon parts and delivery systems.

Such tests are not sufficient for a complete chain reaction, and the most important evaluations are made with supercomputers that simulate explosions.

Donald Trump has other ideas. When gun control experts mock the US President “misinformed and out of touch”self-defining “very determined genius” It was like a nuclear centrifuge spinning at 100,000 revolutions per minute.

“We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times.” Trump is angry GISs Sixty Minutesand then doubled down on claims that Russia and China were secretly carrying out underground tests.

Trump said:

“Russia’s testing and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it… You don’t know exactly where they’re testing. They… they’re testing underground where people don’t know exactly what’s in the test. You feel some vibration. They’re testing, we’re not testing. We need to test!”

This is the risk that Trump will use or abuse his extraordinary presidential power. His state management is highly performant, self-centered and extremely successful in capturing the worldwide attention he desires. The geopolitical consequences are less certain.

What was most notable about his outbursts about resuming nuclear testing was his insistence earlier this year that Trump wanted to continue nuclear testing. Nuclear weapons talks continue With Russia and China.

Given his unique negotiating style, the failed former casino owner may have been playing poker.

‘best deal maker in the world‘ It continues negotiations with Russia and China to limit its nuclear weapons stockpiles (according to the State Department). New STARTThe bilateral agreement signed with the Russians in 2010 expires in February 2026.

There are many obstacles, especially considering that the friendship between Putin and Trump has drifted into a new and tense relationship.

the absence of a peace agreement to end Russia’s occupation of Ukraine; impose more sanctions US sanctions About the two largest oil companies financing the Russian war machine, repeated threats Putin’s resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons and Trump’s objection that he could always send Ukraine to long range Tomahawk missilesThere is a new tension between the two countries 90 percent One of an estimated 12,241 nuclear warheads in the world.

This tension was clearly visible in the Kremlin when Putin convened Russia’s Security Council. While the television cameras were rolling, he looked sullen instructed He asked his generals to prepare contingency plans for renewed nuclear tests.

Russian Defense Minister, Andrey Belousov, stated The Russians are said to be ready to resume nuclear testing at Novaya Zemlya, a testing range in the Arctic, if the United States moves toward an explosive nuclear test that could last months or even several years.

I have seen the disastrous results of nuclear testing around the world. As an ABC foreign correspondent, I filmed American nuclear bomb facilities and their landfills where high-level nuclear waste is stored, a reservoir of poison that will remain lethal for approximately 250,000 years.

Reporter for ABC in 1984 Four CornersI was the only journalist traveling to the Soviet Union with an American group. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. This was a bold attempt by medical scientists to bridge the gap of the Cold War.

After meeting with their Russian counterparts, including Dr. Yevgeny ChazovAmerican doctors, personal physicians to many of the aging Soviet leaders, learned of the terrifying scale of radiation sickness surrounding the top-secret military fortress in Kazakhstan where most of the Soviet testing was conducted. I was forbidden to go there until the Soviet Union collapsed.

In 1993, doctors in Kazakhstan helped me. Sixty Minutes The film crew arrives at Semipalatinsk, a nuclear testing site on a treeless plain with a few barren hills. We were wearing masks and white protective clothing, but our testing equipment showed that we were witnessing dangerous levels of radiation more than 1,000 times the safe exposure level.

A Russian expert from the Radiation Institute in Semipalatinsk confirmed that large radiation clouds from 116 above-ground bomb tests contaminated three nearby villages and several large cities we visited. Up to 1.5 million people may have been irradiated, and an estimated 250,000 have increased risk of breast, colon, esophagus, liver, lung and thyroid cancer.

I cannot forget this human disaster we witnessed. In a locked military laboratory, we saw glass cabinets and wooden shelves lined with vials preserving the legacy of 40 years of nuclear testing.

‘Falling like dolls in clear liquid, horribly deformed fetuses and stillborn babies silently screamed about chromosome damage caused by radiation. The single eye of a Cyclops child was looking at us from inside a large jar. In the middle of the room was a mermaid doll that was practically dancing in the light; A boy with no legs but what looks like a fish tail. There were more jars in the room than I could count.’

(From A Life Full of Extremes, Journeys and EncountersJeff McMullen)

The Red Army had built its own version of human civilization in Semipalatinsk, with concrete buildings, steel bridges, a locomotive engine and cars, as well as old planes, tanks and military trucks; All of these would be shattered to pieces. Local Cossacks were human guinea pigs.

Semipalatinsk Radiation Institute has a model of the test site near the village of Kurchatov. Here, Kazakh doctors asked me to meet 13-year-old “eyeless boy” Berik Syzdykov.

Many Kazakh villagers described being made to stand in front of their small houses to watch the explosions and huge mushroom clouds nearby. Others showed us cracked adobe walls and pointed out irradiated pastures where their animals grazed.

Berik’s mother, Zina Syzdykov, told me that she was pregnant with a baby boy when the ground was shaking badly under her feet. I slowly shook Berik’s extended hand. I could see large tumors covering his entire head and face.

“A bomb did this to my child” Miss Syzdykov told me. “He’ll never see it.”

We need to be alert to the dangers of the new nuclear arms race. Doctors Against Nuclear War were awarded Nobel peace prize For his efforts to warn the world about the disastrous consequences of using nuclear weapons in war or peacetime. If Donald Trump still covets this prize, he should never allow another nuclear test.

Dr Jeff McMullen AM is a journalist, author and filmmaker known for his reporting and advocacy for 60 years. McMullen has been a foreign correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a correspondent for Four Corners and Sixty Minutes, the presenter of ABC Television’s 33-episode Issue Series, Opinion Difference, and a director of independent documentaries. He was awarded the United Nations Media Peace Prize for his trilogy of hour-long documentaries about the conflict in Central America.

Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.