Just like the title says, I don’t understand how they can test nuclear bombs in the desert, or Bikini Atoll (in the ocean) without permanently irradiating the ecosystem (and consequently, Earth) beyond repair.
They’ve tested dozens and dozens of nuclear bombs throughout the years, and I’m confused why that hasn’t messed our world up?
In: 352
Two ways.
First, people misunderstand radiation. The more radiactive some material is, the faster it gets to stable isotopes that emit very little radioactivity. So, a bomb has extremely high radioactivity in order to produce energy to destroy stuff, but that means those emitted radioisotopes will quickly become stable ones. The more problematic isotopes are the ones in intermediate range, where they are radioactive enough to harm people, but take too long to become stable isotopes.
The second is that harming the environment is less of a problem if its done in a desert. Most of the unstable isotopes will be left in the environment nearby, not far away. While nuclear winds are an issue, they have far less radioactive material than the immediate ground of a nuclear weapon.
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