U.S. military, at the start of of World War II, initiated research in nuclear energy (the genesis of the Nuclear Age) with two primary missions:

           MISSION I.          [1942 - 1945] Weaponry
           Performance:        HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI [1945]
 

           MISSION  II.        [1945 - 2000] Therapy - nuclear victims.
           Performance :       ZERO

Tokaimura, 30 September 1999, a small    uncontrolled    runaway nuclear reaction exposed 63 individuals to excessive nuclear radiation. The Japanese request for nuclear medical assistance to the US radiation research establishment elicited a null response:      WHY?

A few small excellent laboratories [NMRI, Argonne National Labs., Brookhaven...] literally created the field of Radiation Biology. In 1962, a unit at the Naval Medical Research Institute, NMRI, successfully isolated a radiation protective factor, a protein from spleen. This factor increased the survival of subjects exposed to near-lethal levels of X-radiation by a factor of 100% compared to controls.This research and unit was terminated due to the activation of AFRRI.
Katz. S. and Ellinger, F. "Isolation of a Radiation - Mortality Reducing Factor from Spleen": NATURE , 197, 397 , 1963.

In 1962 the U.S. military created the Armed Force Radiation Research Institute, AFRRI. This elephantine organization was to be led by dynamic productive research director with the mission of developing nuclear radiation protective agent[s]. Unfortunately, AFRRI in its 38 years of existence, had zero success in this area. AFFRI dissipated its resources on a series of conceptually flawed prophylactic (preventive) projects. Radiation prophylaxis involves the injection of extremely potent (hazardous) agent, X, to a population of potential victims before being subjected to a radiation catastrophe which should occur at point, Z at precisely time, T.