tdpatriots12: Oldiron_79: Only 2 really mattered.

I'd say three had significance so far.

1) Hiroshima
2) Nagasaki
3) First Soviet weapons test (US monopoly on nuclear weapons is over)

Ninja Wicked: After seeing that I am amazed that the southwestern US isn't filled with horrible mutant freaks.

canyoneer: thetubameister: How is there anything left of the US Southwest?!?!?

The NTS is about 680 square miles. Most of the shots took place in a relatively small area, no bigger than metro NYC...something like that. Other tests were Ploughshares tests in northern New Mexico and Western Colorado (for example) where they were experimenting to see if natural gas production could be enhanced using atomic bombs to fracture rock strata (it didn't work).

So, it's all very, very scary if you don't put it in perspective and realize that most of the radiation (~99%) was contained underground, and that living in the Southwestern U.S. is a daily radiation bath anyway - just living in Colorado exposes one to about 200 millirems/year (high altitude). IOW, the menace of all of the testing is and was overblown. Yes, some of the early atmospheric tests were bad, and yes, there's no good reason to keep setting the damned things off, but no, the testing done to date has not poisoned vast stretches of the landscape. If I were you, I'd be far more worried about an x-ray or MRI.

Think and find out, don't let the hand-wringers frighten you.

Is a radiation dose of 360 millirem in a year harmful?

No. No effects have ever been observed at doses below 5,000 millirem delivered over a one year period. In fact, effects seen when humans are exposed to 100,000 millirem over a short time period are temporary and reversible. It takes a short-term dose of well over 500,000 millirem to cause a fatality. (new window)