The Cold War - The Nature of Risk | 4
American History Tellers
The History of the Atomic Age
Americans in the 1950s embrace what historian Alex Wellerstein has called atomic kits Flooding movie theaters to see bad sci-fi flicks based on mutations snacking on atomic fireball candies. Medical researchers pin their hopes on radio isotopes which are unstable by products of radioactive decay and give off types of radiation that can be used as cancer treatments or medical tracers. The AEC distributed almost 64 thousand shipments of radio isotopes in the first decade of the atomic age. In 1951 the AEC even built a 50 bed hospital in Argon, Illinois Dedicated to exploring the possibilities of radio isotope in cancer treatments,. but these hopes proved misplaced Turned out that radio isotopes could not cure
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