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So what's happening with Hiroshima today? Is it completely livable? If so why can people live there and not near Chernobyl? I'm very confused about radiation

So what's happening with Hiroshima today? Is it completely livable? If so why can people live there and not near Chernobyl? I'm very confused about radiation effects.

diego 17y ago
I was in Hiroshima a few years back and it's completely livable. If someone left you downtown and never told you where you are, you wouldn't imagine that a nuclear bomb exploded there a few decades ago. BTW, all the information you are looking for is readily available on Wikipedia. I'm sure that if you are savvy enough to post this question on HN, you can find all the answers yourself through Google.
- jimbokun 17y ago
  "If someone left you downtown and never told you where you are, you wouldn't imagine that a nuclear bomb exploded there a few decades ago." Though the remains of the "the domed Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall" tip you off that something bad happened that people don't want to forget. The millions of origami cranes lying around in the park are also quite striking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki
  - donw 17y ago
    That's only a small section, outside of downtown, that has been explicitly preserved. Walk just a few blocks away from the peace museum, or the memorial, and there's office buildings, a huge underground shopping mall, and... well, it's just like a normal city. Because it is a normal city.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
- huherto 17y ago
  Yes. But is also nice to hear it directly from a guy that was actually there.(like you)
yhgtgygv 17y ago
Chernobyl scattered the material from a reactor core the size of a house over the surrounding area. Hiroshima exploded a football sized piece. There was 300-500x as much radioactivity released from Chernobyl. Although a slightly different mix of isotopes - this is relatively minor Think of it as the difference between a roadside bomb (small amount of energy concentrated in one place) and a forest fire (huge amount of energy spread over large area)

So what's happening with Hiroshima today? Is it completely livable? If so why can people live there and not near Chernobyl? I'm very confused about radiation effects.

diego 17y ago

I was in Hiroshima a few years back and it's completely livable. If someone left you downtown and never told you where you are, you wouldn't imagine that a nuclear bomb exploded there a few decades ago. BTW, all the information you are looking for is readily available on Wikipedia. I'm sure that if you are savvy enough to post this question on HN, you can find all the answers yourself through Google.

jimbokun 17y ago
"If someone left you downtown and never told you where you are, you wouldn't imagine that a nuclear bomb exploded there a few decades ago." Though the remains of the "the domed Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall" tip you off that something bad happened that people don't want to forget. The millions of origami cranes lying around in the park are also quite striking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki
- donw 17y ago
  That's only a small section, outside of downtown, that has been explicitly preserved. Walk just a few blocks away from the peace museum, or the memorial, and there's office buildings, a huge underground shopping mall, and... well, it's just like a normal city. Because it is a normal city.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
huherto 17y ago
Yes. But is also nice to hear it directly from a guy that was actually there.(like you)

yhgtgygv 17y ago

Chernobyl scattered the material from a reactor core the size of a house over the surrounding area. Hiroshima exploded a football sized piece. There was 300-500x as much radioactivity released from Chernobyl. Although a slightly different mix of isotopes - this is relatively minor Think of it as the difference between a roadside bomb (small amount of energy concentrated in one place) and a forest fire (huge amount of energy spread over large area)