Why isn’t Hiroshima a Nuclear Wasteland? Like Chernobyl! (2024)

FAQs

Why isn’t Hiroshima a Nuclear Wasteland? Like Chernobyl!? ›

The bomb was detonated in Hiroshima about half a kilometer above the city. As a result, the fireball did not touch the ground, minimizing the risk of long-term exposure to radiation. The dust and debris that get vaporized during the destruction of a nuclear bomb can contain radioactive particles.

Because of the altitude of the detonations, most of the radiation from the explosions did not even reach the ground in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Jeffrey Hart, RERF's chief of public relations and publications, said in an email.

Chernobyl released a /lot/ of radiation, making it very unsafe for humans to live there, but had a fairly small explosive release, not even completely destroying the building the reactor was located in. Hiroshima was an air burst detonation, set to maximize explosive force and minimize fallout effect.

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki contained many orders of magnitude less fissile material than Chernobyl. An atomic bomb uses a small amount of fissile material (like, 100 lbs or so) to generate one big explosion.

Chernobyl. The immediate short term impact of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was greater, but the long term impact of Chernobyl was worse. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been rebuilt with no residual effect. The loss of life, as opposed to damage, was vastly worse for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Compared with other nuclear events: The Chernobyl explosion put 400 times more radioactive material into the Earth's atmosphere than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima; atomic weapons tests con ducted in the 1950s and 1960s all together are esti mated to have put some 100 to 1,000 times more radioactive material into ...

It's more or less safe to live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the fallout from the bombs has long since dissipated to safe levels. The majority of the fuel in the bombs didn't actually undergo fission, so not as much radioactive particles were released as there could have been.

Today, the city of Hiroshima explains on its website, the city's level of radiation is “on a par with the extremely low levels of background radiation (natural radioactivity) present anywhere on Earth” and has no effect on humans (here).

The restoration process took approximately two years and the city's population, which had dwindled to about eighty thousand after the bombing, doubled in a short time. Until March 1946 the ruins were cleared, and the buildings that were damaged but still standing underwent controlled demolition.

In 1958, the population of Hiroshima reached 410,000, finally exceeding what it was before the war. It is currently a major urban center with a population of 1.12 million people. Major industries in Hiroshima today are machinery, automotive (Mazda) and food processing.

Will Chernobyl ever be habitable again? ›

Chernobyl will be habitable again in about 20,000 years due to the long-lasting effects of ground absorption of radiation. Visiting Chernobyl is now considered safe, but there are still risks associated with touring due to the structural instability of the ruins.

1. f*ckushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant, Japan is one of the world's most radioactive places. f*ckushima is still highly radioactive today.

The radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today is on a par with the extremely low levels of background radiation (natural radioactivity) present anywhere on Earth. It has no effect on human bodies.

It was being said, he reported, that Hiroshima might remain uninhabitable for 75 years. Yet within 24 hours, survivors were already returning to the city to search for relatives, friends, and former homes in the rubble. Ms. Kondo's family was among those who would return and rebuild their lives upon the ashes.

With an air burst, the fission products rise into the stratosphere, where they dissipate and become part of the global environment. Because Little Boy was an air burst 580 meters (1,900 ft) above the ground, there was no bomb crater and no local radioactive fallout.

Hiroshima was supposed to be targeted because, the city's size and layout made it a suitable test site for the bomb's destructive power, and the concentration of military and munitions facilities was another factor in the decision, while most of Japan's other major cities had already been destroyed by air attack at the ...