The fallout on fallout in Fallout

Completely unrelated and shameless plug for what I'm listening to while I write this:
since you're either perusing the internet for nuclear related topics or a Nuclear Eng. classmate "encouraged" to read this, I'm guessing there's a decent possibility you're a Star Wars fan,. If that's true and you fancy EDM music, I would highly recommend the new Star Wars Headspace album produced by Rick Rubin.
"Neither stale tribute nor sloppy lovefest, Headspace aims for simple fun and hits it square, like a T-16 targeting womp rats back on Tatooine."

Okay, back to business! This post came about from the idea that Fallout 4 may actually be a semi-accurate depiction of survival and long term effects of thermonuclear war. After some reading, i found 2 articles that really summed up what I wanted to say, i didn't think it necessary to butcher them and put it here. Instead, here's the first one that talks about almost exactly what I wanted to say. Next, here's one that simplifies a lot of the hard to understand stuff about dose terms, decay rates, and other background explanations that might help you understand better rather than just accept what is being said.


Basically, Fallout may actually be a good depiction of what the landscape would look like after a thermonuclear war. The mechanics behind it (like immediate curing from radiation poisoning)  and the mutant animals, not so much.

Moving on from the reference in the blog title that grabbed your attention, it's time for a real world reference and application of the topic!

Fallout lore states, in reference to what caused it to be a nuclear wasteland: "the city of Las Vegas, from Fallout: New Vegas, was the target of 77 nuclear warheads alone" and page 11 of the Fallout 1 game manual states "the average size of a nuclear warhead is between 200-750 kilotons." Over 41 years, the federal government detonated 921 nuclear warheads underground at the Nevada Test Site
 ranging from 10 kilotons to 1 megaton yield. So, why doesn't Nevada look like Fallout? Well, it kind of does, being a desert, but again, no mutants. The main difference is the manner in which the detonations happened. In Fallout, they hit cities which caught on fire and pumped tons of carbon into the atmosphere all while poisoning the landscape and water supplies. In real life Nevada, most of the tests were underground and in the middle of no where, thus no giant city to burn and mostly contained poisoning. But what about the groundwater and landscape?

This is of growing concern to Nevadians (? Help please ?). The contained radioactive fallout is still there. Fortunately it's underground in a desert with a naturally low water table but eventually, it still reaches the water table and can then be transported wherever the water goes. Unfortunately, once it gets there, it cannot be removed except by time and we can only monitor that transport and decay progress. This article says about 300 million Ci is contained in the slow-moving aquifers underneath the desert. For now, it's a waiting game to see if the contaminated water will move out from under the test site and how fast it will decay. Moving 12 - 18 inches a year, it's no Usain Bolt, but it is steadily moving to dangerous water table locations where people in Nevada drink from (if not already there). Nevada is petitioning the government for recompense for the damages and is fighting against a "massive part of their state [becoming] a permanent environmental sacrifice zone." 
Gotta go! More next time!

-Michael