They did not understand radiation sickness and fallout well.
In fact, after the war, the US set up clinics with the ulterior motive of studying the survivors. They talk about it in this documentary, that I’d highly recommend:
They did not understand radiation sickness and fallout well.
oh yes they did. No one in the military cared.
Fermi thought the Trinity blast would ignite the atmosphere, they did it anyway.
Then the USA continued with above ground testing for another decade in the West, knowing prevailing winds would carry fallout across the country. Military refused to move testing to the East Coast where fallout would have been carried over the ocean.
Everyone knew the dangers, but so much money had been invested and they feared Russians developing bigger bombs.
Fermi thought the Trinity blast would ignite the atmosphere, they did it anyway.
This is a myth. He had that idea and worked out the math, and concluded it would be extremely unlikely well before the test. He’s often misquoted as stating something like “I’m not entirely sure until we try it.”
Watch the PBS documentary. The US military had an intense interest in studying the effects on victims, not really knowing what the effects would be. The crime was treating them like experiments and PR control over helping them, but it’s clear they didn’t really know.
…And yeah. The suffering of Nevada’s nearby (minority) population, and indigenous people in the Pacific, is well documented :(
They did not understand radiation sickness and fallout well.
In fact, after the war, the US set up clinics with the ulterior motive of studying the survivors. They talk about it in this documentary, that I’d highly recommend:
https://www.pbs.org/articles/hibakusha-stories-of-survivors-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
oh yes they did. No one in the military cared.
Fermi thought the Trinity blast would ignite the atmosphere, they did it anyway.
Then the USA continued with above ground testing for another decade in the West, knowing prevailing winds would carry fallout across the country. Military refused to move testing to the East Coast where fallout would have been carried over the ocean.
Everyone knew the dangers, but so much money had been invested and they feared Russians developing bigger bombs.
This is a myth. He had that idea and worked out the math, and concluded it would be extremely unlikely well before the test. He’s often misquoted as stating something like “I’m not entirely sure until we try it.”
Watch the PBS documentary. The US military had an intense interest in studying the effects on victims, not really knowing what the effects would be. The crime was treating them like experiments and PR control over helping them, but it’s clear they didn’t really know.
…And yeah. The suffering of Nevada’s nearby (minority) population, and indigenous people in the Pacific, is well documented :(
We knew what radium poisoning was for quite a while the question was would this work the same way.