i would have to say, assuming the contribution of Mr. Hudson is correct, that if the once-common "safe" exposure was 8R per 20 second exposure, that a one minute dose could be up to 25R and more, for one occurrence, and breaking the 50R mark with two.
When the Mutually-Assurred Destruction (or MAD) rational of nuclear deterrence was formulated, then-Federal Defense Secretary Robert McNamera had a study done with the then-current measurement used for the megatonnage needed to effectively whipe out the human race from radiation exposure, and it was determined in 1962 that a fatal dose would be an arbitrary 40R.
(the context would be an exchange of 200 missiles, whose combined megatonnage would equal a mean dispersion of about 800R across and throughout the planet, within a variety of time models then calibrated to where various U.S. and U.S.S.R. targets would have been liquidated, wind patterns, "leakage," missiles not reaching their targets, etc.; as a species cockroaches still thrive in an 800R atmosphere, so life would not end, jus' revert to an earlier experience in a post-nuclear world).
So from the information provided above, one could surmise that an individual could conceivably receive an over-the-top, fatal dosage of radiation with just two exposures from these machines.
That they should be historic items on display, demonstrating through such display a failure of technology saved and not destroyed as a technological witness of that failure, we as a species need to look at the amount of accumulative radiation that has been contributed by human arrogance, and not pass off that contribution as naturally-bourne radon, which does exist, but not as the background radiation which in actuality has been caused by Humanity, which irradiates us all, "Now, More Than Ever."
When the Mutually-Assurred Destruction (or MAD) rational of nuclear deterrence was formulated, then-Federal Defense Secretary Robert McNamera had a study done with the then-current measurement used for the megatonnage needed to effectively whipe out the human race from radiation exposure, and it was determined in 1962 that a fatal dose would be an arbitrary 40R.
(the context would be an exchange of 200 missiles, whose combined megatonnage would equal a mean dispersion of about 800R across and throughout the planet, within a variety of time models then calibrated to where various U.S. and U.S.S.R. targets would have been liquidated, wind patterns, "leakage," missiles not reaching their targets, etc.; as a species cockroaches still thrive in an 800R atmosphere, so life would not end, jus' revert to an earlier experience in a post-nuclear world).
So from the information provided above, one could surmise that an individual could conceivably receive an over-the-top, fatal dosage of radiation with just two exposures from these machines.
That they should be historic items on display, demonstrating through such display a failure of technology saved and not destroyed as a technological witness of that failure, we as a species need to look at the amount of accumulative radiation that has been contributed by human arrogance, and not pass off that contribution as naturally-bourne radon, which does exist, but not as the background radiation which in actuality has been caused by Humanity, which irradiates us all, "Now, More Than Ever."