Thread by @CaptainMal77

So, Wastelanders, in preparation for my #FalloutForHope streams this week — for which my wife, the upcoming chef, may join me — I wanted to share with you my favorite thing I learned in some notes I found from when I started researching #Fallout foods for a video series.

THREAD:

So in the mid-to-late 1950s and beyond, the government was conducting a series of experiments known as “Operation Teapot,” to test new nuclear weapon designs and technologies and see their effects. One study, particularly relevant to our @Fallout subject, was titled:

“"The effect of nuclear explosions on commercially packaged beverages.”

Answering the burning and eternal question that everyone has on their minds; as NPR put it, “After the bomb, can I drink the beer?”

So, as one does, they exploded two bombs, "with an energy release equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT," at a test site in Nevada, with various bottles and cans at different distances from ground zero. Some were simply left around, some were buried, etc.

I’m not making this up.

So what did they find when they went to crack open what was by then pretty close to a good ol’ Nuka-Cola or two?

Well, a good deal of the bottles and cans survived, for one thing.

But the more amazing thing is this: only the bottles within around 1,500 feet were radioactive, and even then only “mildly so.” According to the Atomic Energy Commission, they were still “well within the permissible limits for emergency use.”

Or as the abstract puts it, “Induced radioactivity, subsequently measured on representative samples, was not great in either soft drinks or beer, even at the forward positions, and these beverages could be used as potable water sources for immediate emergency purposes.

“Although containers showed some induced radioactivity, none of this activity was transferred to the contents.”

(Read it yourself here: osti.gov/biblio/4333346…)

AND.

When they had “immediate taste tests” of the contents(I wonder if those guys got bonuses?), they were found to be of “commercial quality” still, even though the flavor of the drinks closer to ground zero was decidedly “off” a bit. More so in beer than in the soft drinks.

When they had those taste results checked by laboratory testing it was found that the contents were “acceptable.”

So their conclusion? If you end up crawling out through the fallout for real and can’t find that purified water, reach for a beer or a nice soda, and you’ll be fine.

This is a video of one of the Operation Teapot explosions, for context.

I am just absolutely fascinated by this. It’s true then— if you were to find some Nuka-Cola lying around after the War, you’d be in more danger of radiation exposure from the original contents than from the residual fallout.

#Fallout foods and their real-world counterparts!

If you stuck with me for this whole thread, THANKS! Make sure to tune in this week and next for both my streams and a lot of great content from the greatest community. And some Fallout food!

#Fallout76 #Bethesda #streamer #food #coolfacts

Edit: one was 20, one was 30. Sorry!

@threadreaderapp unroll?