[Lancey Howard]

One interesting aspect of the atomic bombings of Japan is the fact that we experimented with uranium on Hiroshima and with plutonium on Nagasaki. I once read that the incidence of leukemia was significantly higher in Hiroshima versus Nagasaki during the 15 years following the bombings. Then I read somewhere else that that was a myth.

[lentulusgracchus]

I once read that the incidence of leukemia was significantly higher in Hiroshima versus Nagasaki during the 15 years following the bombings. Then I read somewhere else that that was a myth.

Interesting. Although there are a couple of points:

• The Hiroshima bomb was delivered squarely on target, while the Nagasaki bomb, because of cloud cover, was delivered inaccurately and landed in the outskirts of the city, some five miles from the target. Much of the city of Nagasaki remained intact, and its inhabitants were much less affected.
• The radiotoxicity effects would be only indirectly tied to the original fissionable materials used, and more directly tied to the variety and proportions of fission products injected into the bombs' fallout -- this would include the radiation types and intensity, which last would also be related to range effects, and in turn carry us back to the first point above, the aimpoint accuracy discrepancy.