War Generates Radioactive and Political Fallout, 1939–1965

World War II vastly expanded the applications of, and exposure to, ionizing radiation, not only from many new radioactive isotopes but also from much higher voltage X-rays, nuclear reactors, and particle accelerators. The pre-war norms, established for the purposes of medical radiology, nevertheless proved durable, though not always observed, during the top-secret, crash program that produced atomic weapons in the United States. International scientific cooperation and the radiation protection regime revived after World War II, with the U.S. National Committee on Radiation Protection (NCRP) and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) playing leading roles. Public controversy raged in the 1950s over radioactive fallout from bomb testing. That, combined with specialist concern about genetic effects and cancer as well as the threat of encroachment by other professional institutions on NCRP and ICRP prerogatives, incentivized tightened norms intended to maintain their norm-setting dominance. The international radiation protection regime strengthened, though not in the ways some of its most fervent advocates advocated. Ford Foundation funding for the ICRP, and in the United States. A Congressional charter for the NCRP, proved sufficient, without strong legal mandates or institutional structures. Other countries created more conventional governmental institutions for radiation protection, notably the UK, Germany, and Sweden.