written 11 May, 2025
published 18 May, 2025
Production of the WWII atomic bomb was "need to know", limited to physicists and engineers for security. The two fission bombs immediately killed about a quarter million Japanese. The enduring health effect of nuclear radiation on the survivors was unexpected, since few biologists had been involved in the project.
When matter comes apart in fission, energy releases in four forms in addition to heat: gamma radiation, and beta, neutron, and alpha particles. Electromagnetic gamma radiation is massless, with deep penetrating power, damaging cells and DNA throughout the body. Beta particles are high energy electrons. The small mass is less penetrating than gamma radiation, but damages living systems through ionization and impact. Neutrons, 2,000 times more massive than beta electrons, can also be "captured" into the nucleus of other atoms, creating unstable isotopes, which decay radioactively over time. Alpha particles, four times more massive than neutrons, with a larger electrical charge than beta particles, have reduced penetrating power. An outer layer of dead skin is sufficient protection, but once ingested into the body, damage is intense.
The US postwar investigation of radiation health impact focused primarily on the effect of the bomb's gamma radiation, and considered just the immediate death and injuries data, but radiation exposures were overestimated due to few solid measurements. The report set a standard for radiation damage, defining "safe" levels of exposure. There were no long-term studies of damage resulting from internal exposure to radioactive material from breathing, drinking, and eating, which can occur with low exposure building over time. This report conveniently shielded the growing nuclear industry from responsibility for those health effects. Radiation can't be seen or felt, and the long-term damage can't be tied to one specific exposure: the best kind of externalized cost.
Two nuclear industries thrived after the war: production of nuclear weapons and nuclear electrical power. Weapons production evolved to plutonium production from irradiated uranium, and each nuclear power plants uses tons of enriched uranium annually. Both industries require extensive handling of radioactive material, producing thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste products. The government, and the corporations selected for plant construction and operation, had economic incentive to disregard "unproven" health dangers for their employees, or the civilian communities surrounding and downwind from the production sites. The limited gamma radiation data from Japan was accepted as justification for avoiding further investigation, so people and property were contaminated for decades.
Over time, people began to notice chronic health issues and word slowly leaked out. In 1979, Three Mile Island brought radiation concerns to the public. The nuclear industry response was, and still is: there is no risk, people are experiencing psychological radiation trauma, not real health issues. There were no radiation monitors at the plant. With no quantitative evidence of contamination, corporate denial was hard to refute.
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia brought radiation contamination to worldwide attention. Soviet disregard for human nuclear exposure was as extreme as the Americans. Awareness of the explosion only came when nuclear plant workers in Sweden set off detectors as they were heading into work. The Russians didn't tell their own citizens, even those eventually evacuated from the irradiated areas. In the US, Chernobyl forced the government to address the decades of contamination emanating from the Hanford plutonium facility in Washington state, and actual production ceased in 1989. Over the last 35 years the Hanford "clean up" has cost $65 billion, with an estimated total cost of $600 billion by 2086, which may be optimistic. This will just clean up the plant site, without considering the contaminated surrounding land, ground water, or citizens.
Only time makes radioactive material safe for living systems. Some material is lethal longer than humanity has lived. No real "cleanup" is possible. Radioactive material must be removed from contact with living systems, and there is no place to put it. Radioactivity accumulates as it moves up food chain, concentrating in humans in specific areas, such as breast milk, the gonads, and bone marrow. This causes chronic fatigue, depressed immune systems, tumors and growths, cancers, hormonal imbalances, genetic mutations in offspring, and death. But the people who make money spreading this stuff are never held accountable for the consequences.
Chronic diseases are on the rise. Cancers now strike young children. Human fertility is declining. Our economy has saturated us with chemicals, bits of plastic, and radiation. Might there be a connection?
