How Far Could Nuclear Fallout Spread?

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IF YOU'VE WONDERED about the effect a nuclear attack could have on the nation's capital, you might be interested in this analysis from Peter D. Zimmerman, a former science adviser for arms control at the State Department, and Ben P. Stein, a senior science writer at the American Institute of Physics in The Post's Sunday letters section:

[T]he most probable nuclear event today is a terrorist bomb with a yield of about 1 kiloton, many thousands of times less powerful than a Soviet bomb and detonated at or near ground level. For such a burst, the total fallout dose would have significant effects — as defined as 50 percent mortality from radiation — up to 3.4 miles downwind of the detonation and diminishing to 5 rads (the government's annual dose limit for radiation workers) at about 36 miles downwind.

The letter was written in response to a story in The Post last month detailing how areas in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley are touting themselves as outside the fallout range should a nuclear bomb be detonated in D.C. The article estimated that range at 50 miles — but Zimmerman and Stein say the effects of that the kind of smaller weapon a terrorist could wield wouldn't spread that far.

» "Risk and Reality in a Nuclear Attack" [Letters to the Editor/WaPo]
» "New Rural Sales Pitch: Work Outside D.C.'s Fallout Zone" [WaPo]

Photo courtesy National Archives and Records Administration