Fallout: did you understand the title of the SF series? It hides much more than you think! – News Series

It’s almost the end of the world on Prime Video, but with panache! With Fallout, a free adaptation of the famous video game franchise, it’s time for fun and uninhibited pleasure even if the subject is a priori serious.

In the series, the world ends on October 23, 2077 in a series of nuclear explosions which causes a real apocalypse. And the term “fallout” literally means: “radioactive fallout”. As one might imagine, this fallout results in disaster.

The post-apocalyptic United States finds itself infested with mutated monsters (including cockroaches almost a meter long), irradiated humans called ghouls and survivors who live a tough life and who are just as tough. This is classic Atomic Age sci-fi material, the kind of story-books that Fallout draws inspiration from for its retro-futuristic version of America.

Very realistic

But there’s more science to this science fiction story than you might think, according to Pran Nath, a renowned physics professor at Northeastern University. In the opening minutes of Fallout, Los Angeles is hit by a series of nuclear bombs. Although the action takes place in a clearly fictionalized version of the City of Angels – the futuristic, glittering robots and skyscrapers in the distance are proof of that – the nuclear explosions themselves are shockingly realistic.

Nath explains on the site from his university that after the release of a nuclear device, the explosion takes place in three stages.

“When the nuclear explosion occurs, due to the chain reaction, a large amount of energy and radiation is released in a very short time“, explains Pran Nath. “First, a huge flash occurs, which corresponds to the nuclear reaction producing gamma rays. If you’re exposed to it… People, for example in Hiroshima, were essentially evaporated, leaving shadows“.

Depending on how far a person is from the blast, even partially protected people will see their bodies quickly heat up to 50 degrees, causing severe burns. The burned skin of ghouls in Fallout is not entirely invented (although their centuries-long lifespan makes this aspect unlikely).

A bit like in Oppenheimer

The second phase is a shockwave and blast of heat – what Nath calls a “fireball.” The shockwave that appears in Fallout’s first scene spreads quickly after the explosion, but Nath explains that it would likely happen even faster and in a less cinematic manner. It would move at approximately the speed of sound, or around 1,200 km/h.

The shock wave also exerts enormous pressure, “so huge it can collapse concrete buildings“. It is followed by a “fireball” which would burn all the buildings located in the explosion zone by an intense heat wave.

“The explosion zone is defined as the area where the shock waves and fireball are most intense“, explains Nath. “For Hiroshima, this zone was between 1.5 and 3 km. In fact, everything is destroyed in this explosion zone“.

One after almost worse

The third phase of the nuclear explosion is the fallout, which lasts much longer and has even more widespread effects than the explosion and shock wave. The nuclear explosion creates a mushroom cloud that can rise more than 15 km into the atmosphere. Carried by the wind, the cloud spreads radioactivity well beyond the explosion zone.

“During a nuclear explosion, up to 100 different radioactive elements are produced“, explains Nath. “These radioactive elements have lifetimes that can range from a few seconds to millions of years. They pollute, damage the body and cause longer-term damage, causing cancer, leukemia, etc.“

“The trick” in Fallout

A key element of the Fallout universe is vaults. These are enormous underground bunkers the size of a small town in which the luckiest – that is, the richest – can take refuge in the event of the end of the world.

These Vaults are much more elaborate than most fallout shelters that exist in our world, but Nath explains that this type of protection is necessary if we want to stay safe from the type of radiation emitted by nuclear weapons, especially gamma rays which can penetrate several meters of concrete.

“If you are further away and stay inside and behind concrete, you can avoid both the initial flash of the nuclear explosion and probably withstand the shock waves and heat wave that comes then, so that the survivability becomes greater,” explains Nath.

What about the mutants roaming the post-apocalypse Wasteland?

You might think that the colossal, monstrous mutant salamanders and giant cockroaches of Fallout are science fiction. But, in fact, there is a real basis for this, explains Nath.

“There are several types of abnormalities that occur with radiation“, explains the scientist. “They can also be genetic. Radiation can create mutations, which are similar to spontaneous mutations, in animals and humans. In Chernobyl, for example, mutated animals were discovered.“

In the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the genetic makeup of wild dogs has been radically altered. Scientists hypothesize that wolves living near Chernobyl evolved to be more resistant to radiation, which could make them “cancer resistant“, or at least less affected by cancer. As for frogs, they have adapted to have more melanin in their body, a form of protection against radiation, which makes them black.

And now ?

Fallout takes the horrific reality of nuclear war and turns it into a sci-fi story tinged with dark humor, but Pran Nath says it’s important to remember how devastating these bombs are.

An estimated 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 people in Nagasaki were killed by the effects of bombs dropped by the United States. According to Nath, the fallout could even exacerbate global warming.

“Thermonuclear war would be a global problem“, concludes the scientist, without specifying that today’s bombs are much more powerful than those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Fallout is currently available on Prime Video