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National Cancer Institute U.S. National Institutes of Health www.cancer.gov
Radiation Epidemiology Branch

Fallout Studies

Reconstruction of radiation exposures from fallout from nuclear weapons tests

Despite more than 50 years of exposure of the general population to fallout from nuclear weapons testing, estimates of the radiation doses and potential health effects were only undertaken beginning in the early 1980s. REB’s detailed estimates of geographic region-specific fallout exposures from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) were incorporated in a web-based thyroid dose and risk calculator to estimate an individual’s thyroid dose and cancer risk from Iodine-131. Currently, REB investigators are conducting studies to:

  • Estimate and improve radiation dose and risk from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted in the Republic of the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1962. This effort includes a detailed assessment of all historical and contemporary measurements of environmental radiation on the atolls from the Bikini and Enewetak tests as well as the use of a model of atmospheric dispersion and deposition; and
  • Assess radiation doses from fallout in Kazakhstan resulting from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted at the Semipalatinsk nuclear Test Site (SNTS) between 1949 and 1962 The methodology of dose estimation has been developed by a joint American-Russian collaboration.
  • Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, Kazakhstan