Editing Nuclear fallout (section)

===Local fallout===
[[Image:Bravo fallout2.png|right|300px|thumb|The {{convert|280|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} fallout plume from 15 [[TNT equivalent|megaton]] surface burst [[Castle Bravo]], 1954.<br/>"Estimated total (accumulated) dose contours in [[Rad (unit)|rad]]s at 96 hours after the BRAVO test explosion"<ref>{{cite book|first1=Samuel|last1=Glasstone|first2=Philip J.|last2=Dolan|title=The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (3rd ed.)|year=1977|publisher=U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65tBAAAAIAAJ|pages=436–437|isbn=9780318203690 |quote=(page 436.) 9.107 A radiation dose of 700 rads over a period of 96 hours would probably prove fatal in the great majority of cases.}}</ref>]]
During detonations of devices at ground level (''[[ground burst|surface burst]]''), below the fallout-free altitude, or in shallow water, heat [[vapor]]izes large amounts of earth or water, which is drawn up into the [[mushroom cloud|radioactive cloud]]. This material becomes radioactive when it combines with [[fission products]] or other radio-contaminants, or when it is [[neutron activation|neutron-activated]].

The table below summarizes the abilities of common isotopes to form fallout. Some radiation taints large amounts of land and [[drinking water]] causing formal [[mutation]]s throughout animal and human life.

{| class="wikitable collapsible"
|+ Table (according to T. Imanaka ''et al.'') of the relative abilities of isotopes to form solids
! Isotope !! <sup>91</sup>Sr!! <sup>92</sup>Sr!! <sup>95</sup>Zr!! <sup>99</sup>Mo!! <sup>106</sup>Ru!! <sup>131</sup>Sb !! <sup>132</sup>Te !!<sup>134</sup>Te!! <sup>137</sup>Cs!! <sup>140</sup>Ba!! <sup>141</sup>La!! <sup>144</sup>Ce
|-
| Refractive index || 0.2|| 1.0|| 1.0|| 1.0|| 0.0|| 0.1|| 0.0|| 0.0|| 0.0|| 0.3|| 0.7|| 1.0
|}

[[Image:US fallout exposure.png|right|thumb|Per capita [[thyroid]] doses in the continental United States resulting from all exposure routes from all atmospheric [[nuclear testing|nuclear tests]] conducted at the [[Nevada Test Site]] from 1951 to 1962 and from emissions from plutonium production at the [[Hanford Site]] in Washington state]]
A surface burst generates large amounts of particulate matter, composed of particles from less than 100 [[nanometre|nm]] to several millimeters in diameter—in addition to very fine particles that contribute to worldwide fallout.<ref name="effects2005"/> The larger particles spill out of the stem and cascade down the outside of the fireball in a downdraft even as the cloud rises, so fallout begins to arrive near [[ground zero]] within an hour. More than half the total bomb debris lands on the ground within about 24 hours as local fallout.<ref name="KDFOC3">{{cite book |last1=Harvey |first1=T. |title=KDFOC3: A Nuclear Fallout Assessment Capability |date=1992 |publisher=Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories |url=https://narac.llnl.gov/content/mods/publications/op-model-description-evaluation/UCRL-TM-222788.pdf |access-date=4 December 2018 |archive-date=27 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927002905/https://narac.llnl.gov/content/mods/publications/op-model-description-evaluation/UCRL-TM-222788.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Chemical properties of the elements in the fallout control the rate at which they are deposited on the ground. Less volatile elements deposit first.

Severe local fallout contamination can extend far beyond the blast and thermal effects, particularly in the case of high yield surface detonations. The ground track of fallout from an explosion depends on the weather from the time of detonation onward. In stronger winds, fallout travels faster but takes the same time to descend, so although it covers a larger path, it is more spread out or diluted. Thus, the width of the fallout pattern for any given dose rate is reduced where the downwind distance is increased by higher winds. The total amount of activity deposited up to any given time is the same irrespective of the wind pattern, so overall casualty figures from fallout are generally independent of winds. But [[thunderstorm]]s can bring down activity as [[rain]] allows fallout to drop more rapidly, particularly if the [[mushroom cloud]] is low enough to be below ("washout"), or mixed with ("rainout"), the thunderstorm.

Whenever individuals remain in a [[radioactive contamination|radiologically contaminated]] area, such contamination leads to an immediate external radiation exposure as well as a possible later internal hazard from inhalation and ingestion of radiocontaminants, such as the rather short-lived [[iodine-131]], which is accumulated in the [[thyroid]].