Radiation safety

America's own-goal nuclear holocaust: How hundred above-ground Nevada A-bomb tests during the 1950s exposed MILLIONS to 'tremendous' amounts of radiation and may have killed up to 695,000

Beginning in the 1950s, the US government conducted hundreds of atomic weapons tests at a remote site in Nevada, in efforts to ramp up nuclear capabilities amid building Cold War tensions.

But, nuclear fallout from reckless experiments prior to 1963 had grave and unintended consequences – and, new research reveals they may have been far more extreme than ever suspected.

Above-ground tests on US soil left millions of Americans exposed to ‘tremendous’ amounts of radioactive pollution, which made its way into the environment and the food supply, leading to as many as 695,000 deaths from 1951-1973.

The shocking new research suggests the total number of excess deaths was ‘comparable to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.’

After 1963, tests in the US were moved underground – but by then, there had already been 100 atmospheric tests at the Nevada Test Site.

In a new study, University of Arizona researcher Keith Meyers analyzed annual county level fallout patterns across the US.

And, there was one vector in particular through which Americans came in contact with the deadly pollution – milk.