From YouTube video
Nuclear Tests That Went Horribly Wrong
Quote >>… The real killer came in the form of radioactive fallout. New research has revealed that there has always been a hidden cost of developing nuclear weapons, and it’s in the form of numerous American deaths. Between 1951 and 1973 it’s estimated that anywhere between 340,000 and 690,000 Americans died as a result of nuclear fallout in their own country. Between 1951 and 1963 the US tested nuclear weapons above ground, inadvertently exposing thousands of workers to fallout. In high doses this fallout is deadly to humans and even in low doses it can still lead to cancer. The emissions did not remain localized at the test site. Instead, wind blew the fallout into local communities. Over time, it was revealed that towns near nuclear test sites had significantly higher rates of cancer when compared to other cities.
Unfortunately, the impact of these tests lingers in American society. It’s entirely plausible that millions of Americans were exposed to fallout and suffer from illnesses related to that exposure. <<
What this has to do with nuclear power
I’m bringing this up because so many nuclear power proponents claim that nuclear power plants are the safest form of power. They may be the safest so far. But at Chernobyl and Fukushima there are whole cities (one is Pripyat) that are abandoned and uninhabitable for decades or centuries because of radioactive fallout from the accidents at nearby nuclear power plants.
But there was a lot of fallout from the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents. This was diluted by the environment — by rain, by wind and spread thinly around the world. This fallout may not have been enough to kill anyone outright. But it could have caused cancers in many people where it was never proved what caused the cancer. The power plant fallout could have caused the premature deaths of many thousands of people.
