I was thinking more of Napalm.
Napalm is dropped from a bomb-like shell, and it opens above the ground, spraying a ~100-200 meter area in extremely sticky, burning material (kind of like petroleum jelly) that is very hard to put out. It burns hot, but not hot enough to completely and instantly vaporize human bodies, bone and all, and leave ashy "shadows" on the walls behind where they stood. It also doesn't cause ionizing radiation.
Whatever was tested could have been anything and anyone that got sick, it could have been some other toxic sickness that they wouldn't have a clue about.
Yes, exception ionizing radiation from nuclear weapons causes a very specific set of symptoms. Hairloss, red blotches on the skin, fingernails falling off, vomiting up blood/bile, and even tumorous growths given enough exposure.
After all, who in those days knew anything about radiation sickness or it's variations.
Marie Curie and anyone who'd ever used an x-ray machine.
Did you know that the supposed atom bombs that were supposedly dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were never tested.
Yes that's right...no tests were done to see if they would work, they just dropped them without having a clue what would actually happen....yeah right.
Oh, so you've never heard of the
Manhattan Project. You know, the secret project back in the 1940s to create the weapon to end World War II where they tested several nuclear weapons, as well as toying with ideas of other weapons technologies?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_projectThe reason why they never tested it is because it wasn't an atom bomb and metals don't magically just blow up and destroy cities.
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You're right, metal doesn't magically explode, but very heavy metals like Uranium and Plutonium, which are highly radioactive, can have their atoms split, releasing energy and an extra neutron. Given the right push, the right amount of U-235, this can cause a massive chain reaction, causing a
nuclear explosion.