Ambient office  = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Jalepano pepper from Central Market = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 64 nanosieverts per hour

       With the antagonism for NATO and the European Union being expressed by the U.S. President, the NATO members who do not have nuclear weapons are coming to doubt the reliability of the U.S. in coming to their aid if attacked by a nuclear armed enemy such as Russia. The U.S. President himself has even suggested that in addition to increased defense spending, some non-nuclear nations might consider getting their own nuclear weapons. This flies in the face of international attempts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
       Since the end of World War II, the Protocol of the Treaty of Brussels has forbidden Germany to have nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Now a prominent German political scientist named Christian Hacke has suggested that Germany does need to have nuclear weapons in order to deal with current international tensions.
       Hacke recently published an opinion piece that said, “National defense on the basis of a nuclear deterrent must be given priority in light of new transatlantic uncertainties and potential confrontations. “Since the American nuclear guarantee has become doubtful and presumably no European deterrent variable seems feasible, the conclusion follows that in extreme cases, Germany can only rely on itself. Germany can no longer rely 100 percent on the fact that an allied nuclear power would intervene atomically for its security in an emergency. With that, the gaze is turned to the white elephant in the room, about which nobody wants to speak in Germany. How do we think about a potential nuclear power Germany?”
       Irike Franke is an analyst for the European Council on Foreign Relations. He recently expressed a belief that it was “crucial” for Germany to have a debate over nuclear weapons. He said, “What Germany is slowly realizing is that the general structure of the European security system is not prepared for the future.
      Germany started two world wars in the Twentieth Century and the world is still divide on the idea of Germany acquiring the most power weapons in the world. They certainly have the technical and industrial mean to develop and test nuclear weapons if they choose to. The U.K. has nuclear weapons and they are leaving the European Union. France has nuclear weapons and there are French politicians who would like to leave the E.U. behind. Spain, Greece and Italy have growing movements which would like to see the end of the E.U.
       If the E.U. collapses, the countries of Europe might return to the adversarial positions that led to two world wars. In addition, Russia has been aggressively brandishing it nuclear arsenal in order to intimidate the countries of Europe. Russia and Germany are old enemies and there are wounds on both sides left by World War II have never hears.
       In the increasingly unstable and contentious international atmosphere, German politicians would be remiss in their duties not to consider a future in which Germany might have to face a nuclear armed Russia alone. It would only make sense for them to be thinking about their own nuclear arsenal.

Ambient office  = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 63 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Roma tomato from Central Market = 63 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 98 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 72 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Black beans from Central Market = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 151 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 143 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 136 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 125 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 122 nanosieverts per hour

Roma tomato from Central Market = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water =  46 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 115 nanosieverts per hour

There have been a few false alarms that almost triggered a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and decided to wait for confirmation before launching an all-out nuclear war. Although some of the false alarms were cases of human error, others were related to design issues of the detection systems being employed. There has also been concern that natural phenomena such as meteors could trigger the early warning systems.      
         On July 25, a meteor exploded in a fireball twenty-six miles above Thule Airbase in Greenland with a force of about two kilotons. Thule hosts a Ballistic Missile Early Warning Site which is one of the early warning radar bases built primarily to detect a Russian nuclear attack.
        Hans M. Kristensen is the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. He said, “We’re still here, so they correctly concluded it was not a Russian first strike. There are nearly 2,000 nukes on alert, ready to launch. A freak incident like this could potentially trigger an alert that caused the United States to overreact, although such an event is unlikely.”
       “The potential risks are about what could happen in a tense crisis where two nuclear powers were at each other’s throats and a conventional shooting war had broken out and part of the command and control system degraded. The early warning systems are supposed to be able to differentiate and in most cases probably would be able to do so. But with large number of nuclear weapons on high alert, the concern would be that an overreaction could trigger a series of events that escalated the conflict significantly. There have been cases during the Cold War where atmospheric events caused early warning systems to falsely report nuclear attacks. Fortunately, military officers figured out that they were false alarms.”
        He pointed out that tensions were low between the U.S. and Russia at this time, so it is unlikely that something like a meteor could trigger a nuclear war between the two nations. He said, “I don’t think there is any risk that such an event could trigger a nuclear launch under normal circumstances. There are no other indicators that nuclear adversaries at this point are about to launch nuclear weapons against the United States.”
       Most of the nations on Earth that do not have nuclear weapons have signed a treaty to work for the elimination of all nuclear weapons on Earth. It is not surprising that the nations with nuclear weapons did not sign the treaty. The possibility of an accidental nuclear war that would end human civilization is a powerful argument for the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
       Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to prove that a particular nation did not have nuclear weapons hidden somewhere. The nations who have nuclear weapons offer this as a reason that it would be unwise to give up all their nuclear weapons. They believe that their nuclear weapons will continue to act as a deterrent against nuclear attacks by other nations. The best we can do is try to reduce nuclear stockpiles, reduce tensions between nuclear armed nations and improve remote early detection systems for missile launches.