[RC one]

I’m no nuclear physicist but it seems like there would be a whole lot of radioactive nucleotides with varying half lives disseminated into the upper atmosphere and the oceanic ecosystem. It seems as if those nucleotides would then spread out to other ecosystems through the food chain and various cyclical ecological systems and would ultimately find their way into human tissues. You can’t detonate a nuclear weapon above ground without creating large amounts of nuclear fallout. You don’t need to be a nuclear physicist to know this.

[Campion]

There is certainly contamination from an atmospheric detonation. We popped off quite a few of them, some very large, in the Pacific during the 1950's and early 1960's. The French were conducting atmospheric tests in the Pacific until the mid-1970's. It's not like this hasn't been done before.

Heavy fallout results from a detonation at or near ground level. The explosion sucks up a bunch of dirt, irradiates it, and blows it into the sky. A detonation at higher altitudes may produce an EMP, but won't produce much fallout.

[familyop]

"I’m no nuclear physicist but it seems like there would be a whole lot of radioactive nucleotides with varying half lives disseminated into the upper atmosphere and the oceanic ecosystem. It seems as if those nucleotides would then spread out to other ecosystems through the food chain and various cyclical ecological systems and would ultimately find their way into human tissues. You can’t detonate a nuclear weapon above ground without creating large amounts of nuclear fallout. You don’t need to be a nuclear physicist to know this."

Hahaha! Excellent. Thanks!

There have been many high altitude nuclear test shots, so we're already extinct and only imagining our existence. I'm sorry to inform you, though, that high altitude shots produce negligible amounts of fallout. Boring! Ground bursts produce the most and best fallout. The auroral displays from high altitude shots are really neat, though!