I knew a guy who was in the Army when they were testing those things. He talked about he and his buddies being trucked out to desert test sites, given heavy duty googles, and herded into slit trenches to test the effects on troops from the firing position. He said the exposed areas of their skin got a bad "atomic sunburn". He was ate up with cancer from his mid 40's on and died in his early 50's.
I miss him, he was hoot. He had bear's head he kept in his freezer. He would ask first time visitors, "Wanna go see the bahr?" The reaction of those drunkards and stoners when he opened the freezer was always the same, "Gawddamn! It's a f'in bear!"