capitalization.
A further synergistic effect occurred when the Cincinnati Flu broke out. It was a rough flu, but it would have been tenth-page news in 1985. Because we were already weak from malnutrition, and low-level radiation caused some immune-response suppression in many of us, the flu cut through the American population like a scythe.
So, for most of us, the drift from the sky has meant hunger and influenza, not the wasting of radiation sickness. How delighted I would have been before the war to find out that direct fallout wasn’t a very serious threat. My own war fantasies often took the form of desperate escapes from the blowing dust.
Funny, that it was so much more benign than we thought, and so much more lethal, both at the same time.
DECLASSIFIED 5/16/93
JANUARY 5, 1989
EMERGENCY TASK FORCE ON DOMESTIC FALLOUT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
The Emergency Task Force on Domestic Fallout was created on December 15, 1988, as an interdepartmental unit to gather, assess, and monitor the radioactive fallout produced by the October 28, 1988, Soviet surprise attack against the United States. Data are presently being collected by field-based units within the Department, as well as from military and local government sources. This report is concerned only with the early fallout produced by the October attack, that is, the fallout produced and deposited within the first few days after the attack.
As a result of the Soviet attack, many monitoring facilities in the attack zones were either destroyed or disabled. Manned ground monitoring stations have been established on an emergency basis near bombed zones where human safety could be assured. Extensive remote/robot stations have been placed by helicopter or air- dropped into highly radioactive areas.
The purpose of this network has been to chart the extent and course of atmospheric fallout. A list of active major data collection stations appears in Attachment One.
For background purposes, each attack zone is briefly described in terms of target nature, weapon yield, etc. An abbreviated description of the causes and nature of radioactive fallout appears in Attachment Two.
This is a summary report only. Full details, as they are presently available, appear in other DOE documentation.
Radioactive fallout is an aftereffect of a nuclear detonation. Its nature, intensity, and range are results of weapon type (fission, fusion, or mixture), burst height (ground- or airburst), yield of weapon (usually calculated in megatons), and wind and other meteorological conditions. Brief coverage of these variables is presented in this report.
For comparison purposes, the October 1988 Soviet strike may be considered two attacks: one against U.S. urban centers and another against underground missile installations. As a consequence, the Soviets employed different attack strategies, which in turn produced different fallout patterns.
The attacks against urban centers utilized air and ground detonations, which resulted in both local fallout and broad distribution through the upper atmosphere. The attacks against missile silos produced intense ground- level radiation and severe long-range fallout. In both attacks, however, the multiplicity of warheads combined to produce aggravated fallout conditions.
The nature and extent of the attack and the prevailing winds produced in each case a unique fallout distribution. Some generalized, or averaged, comparisons can be drawn, however. In the case of the attacks on urban centers, it can be estimated that the following unit-time fallout conditions occurred similarly for all three attacks:
| DOWNWIND DISTANCE FROM GROUND ZERO | DOSE RATE IN ROENTGENS/HOUR |
|---|---|
| 50 MILES | 1600 R/HR |
| 100 MILES | 360 R/HR |
| 200 MILES | 125 R/HR |
| 300 MILES | 55 R/HR |
| 400 MILES | 20 R/HR |
| 500 MILES | 6 R/HR |
At the end of the first week, it is estimated that the dose rate for these distances was as follows:
| 50 MILES | 3400 R/HR |
| 100 MILES | 2700 R/HR |
| 200 MILES | 405 R/HR |
| 300 MILES | 144 R/HR |
