Editing Cobalt bomb (section)

==Nuclear fallout==
[[Fission products]] are more deadly than neutron-activated cobalt in the first few weeks following detonation. After one to six months, the fission products from even a large-yield thermonuclear weapon decay to levels tolerable by humans. The large-yield thermonuclear weapon is thus automatically a weapon of radiological warfare, but its fallout decays much more rapidly than that of a cobalt bomb. A cobalt bomb's fallout on the other hand would render affected areas effectively stuck in this interim state for decades: habitable but not safe for constant habitation.

Initially, gamma radiation from the fission products of an equivalent size thermonuclear weapon are much more intense than Co-60: 15,000 times more intense at 1 hour; 35 times more intense at 1 week; 5 times more intense at 1 month; and about equal at 6 months. Thereafter fission product fallout radiation levels drop off rapidly, so that Co-60 fallout is 8 times more intense than fission at 1 year and 150 times more intense at 5 years. The very long-lived isotopes produced by fission would overtake the <sup>60</sup>Co again after about 75 years.<ref name="Nuclear Weapons FAQ: 1.6">{{cite web|url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html#nfaq1.6|title=Section 1.0 Types of Nuclear Weapons|work=nuclearweaponarchive.org}}</ref>

Complete 100% conversion into Co-60 is unlikely; a 1957 British experiment at Maralinga showed that Co-59's [[neutron cross section|neutron absorption ability]] was much lower than predicted, resulting in a very limited formation of Co-60 isotope in practice. In addition, fallout is not deposited evenly throughout the path downwind from a detonation, so some areas would be relatively unaffected by fallout, and the Earth would not be universally rendered lifeless by a cobalt bomb.<ref name="gandd">{{Cite journal |title=The Effects of Nuclear Weapons |publisher=United States Department of Defense and Department of Energy |date=1977 |location=Washington, D.C. |url=http://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents/Weapon_Effects/Effects_1977_09.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents/Weapon_Effects/Effects_1977_09.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |editor-first1=Samuel |editor-last1=Glasstone |editor-first2=Philip J. |editor-last2=Dolan |edition=3rd}}</ref>  The fallout and devastation following a nuclear detonation does not scale upwards linearly with the explosive yield. As a result, the concept of "overkill"—the idea that one can simply estimate the destruction and fallout created by a thermonuclear weapon of the size postulated by Leo Szilard's "cobalt bomb" thought experiment by extrapolating from the effects of thermonuclear weapons of smaller yields—is fallacious.<ref name="bmart">{{Cite journal |first=Brian |last=Martinus |title=The global health effects of nuclear war |journal=Current Affairs Bulletin |volume=59 |number=7 |date=December 1982 |pages=14–26 |url=http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/82cab/index.html}}</ref>