SS
Stephen Schwartz
@atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Editor/Co-author, “Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons Since 1940” • I write primarily about nuclear weapons (including history, costs, accidents, and policy), and the Presidential Emergency Satchel (aka the nuclear “Football”).
3k followers478 following4.9k posts
The most significant radioactivity came from strontium-90, cerium-144, and zirconium-95. Some 15,000-23,000 square kilometers were contaminated with at least 0.1 curies of Sr-90/sq. km, about 2 times greater than fallout from nuclear weapons testing; 1,000 sq. km were 20 times more contaminated.
The Soviet Union kept this nuclear accident secret until June 1989. Some 270,000 people are estimated to have lived in the most heavily contaminated 15,000-kilometer zone, but only 10,180 were evacuated, and then only in phases over about two years. They were never told why they had to leave.
SS
Stephen Schwartz
@atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Editor/Co-author, “Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons Since 1940” • I write primarily about nuclear weapons (including history, costs, accidents, and policy), and the Presidential Emergency Satchel (aka the nuclear “Football”).
3k followers478 following4.9k posts