Historical Perspectives on Selected Health and Safety Aspects of Nuclear Weapons Testing

This paper presents a general review of public safety standards as adapted by the nuclear weapons testing program in the United States, and the impact of these changing standards on the nuclear testing program itself. The review notes the importance of improvements in diagnostic instrumentation and methodologies from a relatively simple degree of sophistication to their current high level. Use of the improved methodologies uncovered a serious oversight affecting human exposure, namely, that of not recognizing the relative importance of all potential transport/dosimetric pathways for risk assessment. The testing program, from its inception in the Pacific in 1946 to the present time in Nevada, is viewed from the perspective of providing improved radiation protection to the general public.