The Cold War left behind more than just political and economic consequences—its impact can still be found in unexpected ways. One striking example is how nuclear tests from that era continue to influence global weather patterns, with radioactive dust from the Sahara occasionally making its way to Europe and beyond.
A study conducted by France’s Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, published in Science Advances, found radioactive isotopes in dust samples collected after a major Sahara dust storm in 2022.
At first, researchers suspected that the radiation originated from France’s nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara between 1960 and 1966, when the country detonated 17 bombs in the region. While the desert itself is largely uninhabited, thousands of local residents and French soldiers were exposed to radiation at the time. Some estimates suggest as many as 60,000 Algerians were affected by the explosions.
An Unexpected Source of Radiation
Although France’s nuclear tests were initially suspected, further analysis revealed something surprising: the radioactive dust that reached Europe also carried isotopic signatures from nuclear tests conducted by the United States and the Soviet Union.
According to Yangjunjie Xu-Yang, the study’s lead author, French nuclear detonations accounted for just 0.02% of the total explosive power of nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. and the USSR between 1950 and 1970. Many of those tests took place at similar latitudes to southern Algeria, allowing radioactive debris to reach altitudes of up to 8,000 meters (26,000 feet) and spread rapidly across the globe.
Researchers noted that the plutonium levels in the dust did not match the expected isotopic ratios from French nuclear tests. Instead, they aligned with the nuclear signatures of U.S. and Soviet tests.
Despite these findings, experts emphasize that the detected radiation levels are extremely low—well below European Union safety limits—and pose no significant risk to human health. “Based on our findings, the risk is negligible,” Xu-Yang assured.
