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Nuclear fallout is residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes. The amount and spread of fallout is a product of ...
Nuclear fallout is the distribution of radioactive contamination by the 520 atmospheric nuclear explosions that took place from the 1950s to the 1980s. In nuclear accidents, a measure of the type and amount of radioactivity released, such as from a reactor containment failure, is known as the source term.
Nuclear radiation is harmful to the environment over immediate (seconds or fractions thereof) as well as long-term (years or centuries) timescales, and it affects the environment on both microscopic and macroscopic (population) levels. Degrees of these effects are dependent on external factors, especially in the case of humans.
The rainclouds of the rainout are often formed by the particles of a nuclear explosion itself and because of this, the decontamination of rainout is more difficult than a "dry" fallout. In atmospheric science, rainout also refers to the removal of soluble species—not necessarily radioactive—from the atmosphere by precipitation. [2]
The forest is so named because in the days following the disaster the trees appeared to have a deep red hue as they died because of extremely heavy radioactive fallout. In the post-disaster cleanup operations, a majority of the 10 km 2 forest was bulldozed and buried. The site of the Red Forest remains one of the most contaminated areas in the ...
Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences and damage to the environment. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power, industry, and ...
Surrounding the other components is a hohlraum or radiation case, a container that traps the first stage or primary's energy inside temporarily. The outside of this radiation case, which is also normally the outside casing of the bomb, is the only direct visual evidence publicly available of any thermonuclear bomb component's configuration.
Radiation poisoning, also called "radiation sickness" or a "creeping dose", is a form of damage to organ tissue due to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation. The term is generally used to refer to acute problems caused by a large dosage of radiation in a short period, though this also has occurred with long-term exposure to low-level radiation.