Nuclear Fallout from a Nuclear Reactor Accident

Nuclear reactor accident

Fallout can also refer to nuclear accidents, although a nuclear reactor does not explode like a
nuclear weapon. The isotopic signature of bomb fallout is very different from the fallout from a
serious power reactor accident (such as Chernobyl). The key differences are in volatility and
half-life.

Volatility

The boiling point of an element (or its compounds) is able to control the percentage of that
element a power reactor accident releases. In addition, the ability of an element to form a solid
controls the rate it is deposited on the ground after having been injected into the atmosphere by a
nuclear detonation or accident.

Half-life

A large amount of short-lived isotopes such as 97Zr are present in bomb fallout. This isotope and
other short-lived isotopes are constantly generated in a power reactor, but because the criticality
occurs over a long length of time, the majority of these short lived isotopes decay before they can
be released.

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Below is shown a comparison of the calculated gamma dose rates in open air from the fallout of
a fission bomb and of the Chernobyl release. It is clear that average half-life of the Chernobyl
release is longer than that for the bomb fallout.

A comparison of the gamma dose rates from Chernobyl and bomb fallout, to 10,000 days.
These have been normalised to the same Cs-137 level.

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Gamma dose rates from Chernobyl and bomb fallout, to 1,000 days.

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Gamma dose rates from Chernobyl and bomb fallout, to 100 days.

See also
• Atomic Cafe - Documentary film about nuclear civil defense films.
• Castle Bravo - largest nuclear fallout accident by United States.
• Dirty bomb
• Fallout (series)
• Fallout Protection - U.S. Government booklet
• Fallout shelter
• Fallout (RTÉ drama) - Irish drama exploring some of the possible scenarios following a
nuclear accident at Sellafield.
• Fission product
• Hot Particle
• Human radiation experiments
• List of nuclear accidents
• Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents
• Neutron bomb

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 • Nuclear war survival skills by Cresson Kearny
• Nuclear weapon design
• Nuclear terrorism
• Potassium iodide
• Project GABRIEL
• Protect and Survive, a series of booklets and a public information film series produced for
the British government in the 1970s and 1980s.
• Radioactive contamination
• Radiological weapon
• Radiation poisoning
• Radiation biology
• Radioactive waste
• Survival Under Atomic Attack, an official U.S. Government booklet regarding the effects
of a nuclear attack.
• Joseph Rotblat
References
Footnotes

1. ^ Simon, Steven L.; Bouville, André; Land, Charles E. (2006), Fallout from Nuclear
Weapons Tests and Cancer Risks, 94, American Scientist, pp. 48–57
General references

• Glasstone, Samuel and Dolan, Philip J., The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (third edition),
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977. (Available Online)
• NATO Handbook on the Medical Aspects of NBC Defensive Operations (Part I -
Nuclear), Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, Washington, D.C., 1996,
(Available Online)
• Smyth, H. DeW., Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, Princeton University Press, 1945.
(Smyth Report)
• The Effects of Nuclear War in America, Office of Technology Assessment (May 1979)
(Available Online)
• T. Imanaka, S. Fukutani, M. Yamamoto, A. Sakaguchi and M. Hoshi, J. Radiation
Research, 2006, 47, Suppl A121-A127.
• Sheldon Novick, The Careless Atom, (Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1969), p. 98
• Fallout game

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External links
• Fallout: After a Nuclear Attack - slideshow by Life magazine
• Downwinders.org We're all Downwinders Now
• potassium iodide information from Nukepills.com

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