Downwinders 2 - Hanford 1

          The United States government began construction at Hanford in south central Washington State in 1943. Three nuclear reactors and two chemical processing plants were built and operated at Hanford during the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons for use in World War II. The U.S. government retained private contractors including DuPont and General Electric to oversee the production of materials for nuclear weapons.

Downwinders 1 - Introduction

          The term “downwinders” refers to people, either individually or in communities, who have been exposed to radioactive materials as a result of nuclear fuel mining, nuclear weapons production and testing, nuclear waste disposal or nuclear accidents. The term derives from the fact that people who are downwind of an event that expels radioactive particles and gases into the atmosphere will be exposed to the fallout when the particles move through the air and fall to the ground.

NGO Radiation Organizations 3 - International Commission on Radiological Protection

          Shortly after the discovery of X rays in 1895, papers began appearing in scientific publications about the negative effects of high levels of exposure to such radiation. In the first year, suggestions about how to protect against ionizing radiation were made including the three main measures that are still emphasized today, limit the exposure to the shortest possible time, maintain as great a distance from the source as possible and employ shielding of some sort.

NGO Radiation Organizations 2 - International Radiation Protection Association

           After the Second World War, weapons research and work on civilian use of nuclear power were producing more and more radioactive materials. Scientists in the Manhattan Project had been assigned to work on what was then called “Health Physics.” A decade after the end of the war, the first conference on Health Physics was held at Ohio State University. One result of the conference was the formation of a professional Health Physics Society (HPS).

NGO Radiation Organizations 1 - Radiation and Public Health Project

           In 1988 the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) was created by the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. Jay M. Gould and Benjamin A Goldman started the project as a spinoff of their work at Public Data Access, Inc. In 1995 RPHP became an independent non-profit 501(c)3 organization. The mission of the organization includes research, education and raising public awareness.

Radiation Protection 8 - Fallout Shelter

            Back in the 1950s at the height of the cold war, there was a great deal of talk about fallout shelters. When people were very serious about the prospect of nuclear war with the Russians and the Chinese, shelters were built that were intended to allow people to survive if their city was hit by a nuclear blast and they were outside the radius of immediate destruction.

Radiation Protection 7 - Protecting your home against fallout

            If there is a nuclear accident or explosion and radioactive fallout may reach your area, there are preparations that you can make to protect yourself and your family from the fallout. Time being one of the factors that reduces the danger of fall out, here are some temporary measures that will protect your home and family for a few days. These actions will take time to prepare so in order to be effective, they must be done well before any accident or explosion occurs.

Radiation Protection 6 - Radioresistance

            Radioresistance is defined as the ability of some organisms to survive in environments where there is a high level of radioactivity. There may be naturally occurring radiation from uranium ores or man-made radiation from nuclear bombs or nuclear accidents. After the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine, scientists were surprised to find that many species survived when the assumption was that the high level of radiation should have killed most of them.

Pages