🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <132161@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> shaw@s119.es.llnl.gov (Henry Shaw 510 423-4645) writes:
>|>      3) What is the mechanism that makes fallout radioactive?
>Neutron capture on stable nuclei of the target material is what is
>responsible for most of the radioactivity.

It's my understanding that most of the radioactivity is from fission
products.  The reason a low-altitude blast produces more fallout is
that when all the vaporized trees, buildings, cats, etc. recondense and
drop out of the sky, they take a lot of those fission products with
them.  In a high altitude blast, the fission products are finely
divided at high altitude, and tend to stay in the upper atmosphere long
enough to get diluted and for the worst of it to decay.

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