Puff the magic dragon: How our understanding of fallout, residual and induced radiation evolved over fifty years of nuclear weapons testing

Abstract

Radiobiological science has proceeded on empirical principles since health physics became a necessary professional adjunct to the military and civilian uses of nuclear energy in the aftermath of the detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This paper reviews the data which gradually emerged indicating that early assumptions about the detonation of atomic and nuclear weapons underestimated the significance of fallout, residual and induced radiation as health hazards. Many of these assumptions are being examined in three test cases concerning veterans of United Kingdom atomic and nuclear weapons tests heard by the European Court of Human Rights in November 1997.

Key Words:

• Health effects
• Nuclear weapons testing
• Radiation
• Radioactivity
• Risk assessment