Slate: When nuclear blasts shook the barren steppe of eastern Kazakhstan, Soviet scientists and their families in the secret military city of Kurchatov took precautions: Schoolchildren went inside, residents shut their windows, and officials passed out iodine tablets to protect workers from radiation. But Valentin Kuklev, a civilian employee involved in the tests, remembered another precautionary step taken by rank-and-file technicians: They drank.