The hazardous rain zone of a nuclear explosion can easily extend 10 to 20 miles (15 to 30 kilometers) from detonation, depending on the explosive performance and weather conditions. The highest levels of outdoor rain radiation occur immediately after the arrival of rain and then decrease over time. According to estimates, the consequences of the more than 500 megatons of nuclear tests until 1970 will produce between 2 and 25 cases of genetic diseases per million live births in the next generation. Using updated models of Cold War nuclear explosions, the Wellerstein simulator can roughly predict the number of casualties and injuries from a nuclear bomb in a given location, large or small.
Sensors can fail and the results of a lack of preventive measures would cause local nuclear fallout. The 1963 Limited Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty ended atmospheric testing for the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, but two major non-signatories, France and China, continued nuclear testing at a rate of approximately 5 megatons per year. The ACS regulations against the potential consequences of nuclear reactors focused on the power plant's capacity for the maximum credible accident (MCA). Nuclear fallout can expose people to radiation poisoning, which can damage body cells and be fatal. The ACS then had to choose between active and static systems to protect the public from nuclear rain.
Because of this, steps must be taken to ensure that the risk of nuclear rain in nuclear reactors is controlled. The consequences can also relate to nuclear accidents, even though a nuclear reactor does not explode like a nuclear weapon. Since large doses of radiation of approximately 20 roentgen or more are needed to produce developmental defects, these effects would likely be limited to areas of heavy local rainfall in nuclear warring nations and would not become a global problem. The isotopic signature of a bomb's rain is very different from that of a serious accident in a power reactor (such as the one in Chernobyl or Fukushima). All nuclear explosions produce fission products, unfissioned nuclear material and weapon debris vaporized by the heat of the fireball. However, for more information on the current state of nuclear weapons in the world, including the scale of bombs, you can visit the Nuclear Notebook in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
There are three very different versions of the precipitation pattern of this test, because rainfall was measured only in a small number of widely spaced Pacific atolls. As the nuclear energy sector continues to grow, international rhetoric around nuclear war intensifies and the ever-present threat of radioactive materials falling into the hands of dangerous people persists, many scientists are working hard to find the best way to protect human organs from the harmful effects of high-energy radiation.
