Nuclear fallout facts for kids

The city of Pripyat abandoned after the fallout from Chernobyl disaster.

Fallout is the left over radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion. The name is because radioactive material "falls out" of the atmosphere into which it is spread during the explosion. These materials continue to undergo radioactive decay for minutes, days or centuries. "Fallout" commonly refers to the radioactive dust created when a nuclear weapon explodes. All nuclear explosions make fission products, which are the broken, radioactive atoms from a fission reaction. Neutrons from the explosion also make some nearby materials radioactive.

There was also radioactive fallout after a part of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl exploded. The fallout caused serious contamination over an area including Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Scandinavia and some parts of Europe. All people living in an area of 30 kilometres radius around the power plant were forced to move because of the fallout with villages and towns being abandoned.

Images for kids

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  The 450 km (280 mi) fallout plume from 15 megaton surface burst Castle Bravo, 1954. "Estimated total (accumulated) dose contours in rads at 96 hours after the BRAVO test explosion."

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  Per capita thyroid doses in the continental United States resulting from all exposure routes from all atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site from 1951–1962

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  Comparison of fallout gamma dose and dose rate contours for a 1 Mt fission land surface burst, based on DELFIC calculations. Because of radioactive decay, the dose rate contours contract after fallout has arrived, but dose contours continue to grow.

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  Fallout shelter sign on a building in New York City

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  Comparison of predicted fallout "hotline" with test results in the 3.53 Mt 15% fission Zuni test at Bikini in 1956. The predictions were made under simulated tactical nuclear war conditions aboard ship by Edward A. Schuert.

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  Following the detonation of the first atomic bomb, pre-war steel and post-war steel which is manufactured without atmospheric air, became a valuable commodity for scientists wishing to make extremely precise instruments that detect radioactive emissions, since these two types of steel are the only steels that do not contain trace amounts of fallout.

See also

In Spanish: Lluvia radiactiva para niños