On May 19 , 1953 , the United States government detonated the 32-kiloton ( 130 TJ ) atomic bomb ( nicknamed " Harry " ) at the Nevada Test Site . The bomb later gained the name " Dirty Harry " because of the tremendous amount of off-site fallout generated by the bomb . Winds carried fallout to St. George , where residents reported " an oddly metallic sort of taste in the air . " The Howard Hughes motion picture '' The Conqueror '' was being filmed in the area of St. George at the time of the detonation . The fallout is often blamed for the unusually high percentage of cancer deaths among the cast and crew . However , the rates of cancer from that cast and crew ( > 90 out of 220 ) were almost identical to the general population , in which 43 % may be expected to contract cancer in their lifetimes , and 23 % die from it . Nonetheless , there are speculations of a connection
Dirty Harry
Upshot-Knothole Harry
Nevada Test Site