Sébastien Philippe, a 2025 MacArthur Fellow, spoke to The Daily Cardinal about designing simulations that evaluate nuclear fallout.
When he ran his first simulation mapping nuclear fallout across the United States in the case of a missile attack, the results were so large in scale and disturbed him so greatly that he couldn’t work for the rest of the day. Wisconsin residents would face significant risk in a nuclear attack, according to his simulations, with Madison residents specifically facing an average outdoor dose of 0.09 Grays across four days of nuclear fallout, almost double the annual limit for radiation workers.
‘The Missiles on Our Land’ project explores national nuclear fallout risk…