[mirimir]

In states near the Nevada test site, senior government officials evacuated before test series, with their families. And Kodak was notified in advance, so they could avoid using fallout-contaminated paper to interleave with their X-ray film.

[windlep]

What's even creepier is that the main reason Kodak was notified is because they were able to determine when the testing was occurring based on their manufacturing defects (and it meant they lost a lot of product to sell). They sued to stop the US Govt but got an agreement to know the testing schedule so they wouldn't produce film on those days.

The article mentioning this was on HN awhile back,

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a21382/how-ko...

[mirimir]

Right. And there was no publicity about potential health impacts. Also, results of fallout deposition tests were kept secret for decades. And even after they became public, health impacts, mostly hypothyroidism and thyroid cancer, were bullshitted away. Because they're readily treatable. So there was no need to alarm people.

[Glauc]

While interesting, what does chernobyl have to do with nuclear weapons testing?

[mirimir]

The common thread is governments lying to their people about radiation releases.