> Worse than nukes race, which at least did not affect common man
At least not visibly, we were deprived of a clean source of surgical steel and many in the areas were uncompensated for sicknesses they experienced as a result of testing
I can find vague mentions of "medical" uses for low background steel, and one specific claim that it's used to shield some rooms or large devices for measuring how much radiation is coming off a person's body. That's pretty niche.
To this day Kazakhstan pays out monthly monetary compensations to people whose health was negatively affected by the nuclear tests on the Semipalatinsk nuclear polygon. Several people I know personally receive these compensations.
https://egov.kz/cms/en/news/nuclear_tests
https://egov.kz/cms/en/services/family_support/pass035_mtszn
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/8/29/a-message-from-...