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Not credible. The dangers of radiation exposure were fairly well understood. I think it's more like they were under extreme pressure from governent and military
by ams6110 9y ago
Not credible. The dangers of radiation exposure were fairly well understood. I think it's more like they were under extreme pressure from governent and military interests during the cold war to just "get it done" and safety was a secondary concern.
Especially in the USSR where they were using prison labor for a lot of the nastier work.
- pvg 9y agoI think your misreading of what I'm saying is what's not particularly credible.
- mikeash 9y agoThe dangers of acute exposure were well understood. The long term consequences much less so, as well as the many ways things could go wrong to cause exposure in the first place. That era is full of examples of terrible human damage done because people didn’t really get the consequences of pollution. These are mostly special just because the pollution was radioactive
- pvg 9y agoThe consequences of long-term exposure were also known, perhaps not as well as now, but I think it's inaccurate to suggest this sort of thing was done out of ignorance, rather than expedience (and general disregard for human life). This isn't something like someone eventually noticing DDT was decimating bird populations or that lead from leaded gasoline was getting into everything.