how were Oppenheimer and Groves able to stand at ground zero right after the first atom bomb exploded without getting radiation poisoning?

Question

Speaking specifically to this picture

https://www.atomicarchive.com/history/trinity/afterwards.html

In: 685

Answer 1

While the earlier bombs were probably fairly “dirty” relative to modern nuclear weapons, there is this idea that an atomic weapon renders the ground around it dangerous for all lifeforms for centuries. This is where fear rather outstrips the reality. The most dangerous time would be a few days/weeks at most. After which the most dangerous by products either decay and/or get scattered fairly thinly across a wide area.

Radioactivity and radiation is something we encounter naturally all the time (blame the sun probably) and the human body doesn’t “melt” or “mutate” when exposed to mild radiation.