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Do we actually know that anyone involved in this story had cancer that was likely caused by testing? The size of effects of very low dosages (which are only se
by jessriedel 9y ago
Do we actually know that anyone involved in this story had cancer that was likely caused by testing? The size of effects of very low dosages (which are only seen at the population-level) is not well understood, but the risks of dosages with large effect is very well quantified. Certainly, it does not appear that the radiation dose from this single test was large enough to give someone cancer with large (e.g., >5%) probability, which is less than the baseline population rate.
- Symmetry 9y agoWe don't know how much radiation the cameramen were exposed to. If they were close to enough nuclear tests they might very well have gathered a lifetime dose in the 100s of mS range without ever getting radiation poisoning. Which is certainly enough to up your cancer rates quite a bit. Some online calculators tell me that the 5 guys in the photo got about 50 mS which is barely enough to detectably raise cancer rates. With small nukes like that 2kt one the main danger tends to be from radiation rather than heat and blast. With big 2Mt nukes it's the opposite. Well, 2Mt nukes are basically all fission-fusion-fission devices and that last U-238 fission stage creates an immense amount of fallout.
- tgjsrkghruksd 9y agoIf it was testing it wasn't just this test. The exposure appears to be minimal.