Beginning in the 1950s, the US government conducted hundreds of atomic weapons tests at a remote site in Nevada, in efforts to ramp up nuclear capabilities amid building Cold War tensions. But, nuclear fallout from reckless experiments prior to 1963 had grave and unintended consequences - and, new research reveals they may have been far more extreme than ever suspected. Above-ground tests on US soil left millions of Americans exposed to 'tremendous' amounts of radioactive pollution, which made its way into the environment and the food supply (shown in the map), leading to as many as 695,000 deaths from 1951-1973. Las Vegas used the tests as a tourist attraction (pictured left).
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