CHAPTER 7 - RADIOACTIVITY OF CRATERS OF
MULTI-MEGATON EXPLOSIONS
1. The information in this chapter is about the very high
radiation levels to be expected in craters; it need have little
practical impact on current civil defense planning. It has been
recognized that emergency actions near the crater (such as rescue

or firefighting) would be futile in any case because of the severity
of the destruction that would have occurred so close in to ground

zero. In other words, there would be no surviving people to be
rescued or standing structures to be saved from fires.

2. It is noted that the craters, which might have
for burial grounds or repositories for debris and other
damaged beyond repair by the blast, because of the high
radioactivity should not be counted on for such use, at
early months following the detonation,

been considered
material
levels of
least in the

3. Although mostly academic, also it is noted that the intensely
radioactive crater areas are not shown or accounted for in conventional

fallout prediction models, nor do they show up in national depictions
of the fallout conditions associated with hypothetical nuclear attack
studies.

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