In a newspaper column published in 1970 , Dr Harold Pettit MD wrote : " A healthy respect for the hazards of radiation is desirable . When atomic testing began in the early 1950s , these hazards were grossly exaggerated , producing a new psychological disorder which has been called " radiophobia " or " nuclear neurosis " . March 1 , 1954 , the operation Castle Bravo testing of a then , first of its kind , experimental thermonuclear '' Shrimp '' device , overshot its predicted yield of 4 – 6 megatons and instead produced 15 megatons ; this resulted in an unanticipated amount of '' Bikini snow '' or visible particles of nuclear fallout being produced , fallout which caught the Japanese fishing boat the Daigo Fukuryū Maru or '' Lucky Dragon '' in its plume , even though it was fishing outside the initially predicted ~ 5 megaton fallout area which had been cordoned off for the Castle Bravo test . Approximately 2 weeks after the test and fallout exposure , the 23-member fishing crew began to fall ill , with acute radiation sickness , largely brought on by beta burns which were caused by direct contact between the '' Bikini snow '' fallout and their skin , through their practice of scooping the " Bikini snow " into bags with their bare hands . One member of the crew , Kuboyama Aikichi the boat 's chief radioman , died 7 months later , on September 23 , 1954 . It was later estimated that about a hundred fishing boats were contaminated to some degree by fallout from the test . Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands were also exposed to fallout , and a number of islands had to be evacuated
Castle Bravo
Castle Bravo
Radiophobia