What Happened To All The Radiation From Hiroshima?

Today, the city of Hiroshima is bustling with population of over two million. But shouldn't Hiroshima be uninhabitable with all the radiation that was released from the atomic bomb in 1945? Something doesn't add up.


Nuclear detonations release energy by overpressure (blast), thermal radiation (heat) and ionizing radiation (radioactivity).  Roughly 50% of the energy released is distributed as blast force, 35% as heat, and the remaining 15% as radioactivity. The adverse impacts of blast and heat is felt right away, while the impact of radioactivity is longer term.

The atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima was detonated about 2000 feet above the ground, with most of the immediate casualties and property damage caused by the blast force and the heat. The explosion resulted in a massive fire ball which burnt or vaporized a big chunk of the residual radioactive material.  Had the bomb been exploded on the ground instead of high up in the air, it would have left far more radioactive dust and debris.

Nature compounded the city’s misery with a powerful typhoon on September 17th, 1945, about a month after the bomb was dropped.  Ironically, this typhoon washed away some of the residual radiation into the sea.

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