radioactivity would

While the work on radioactivity by Becquerel and Marie Curie predates this, an explanation of the source of the energy of radioactivity would have to wait for the discovery that the nucleus itself was composed of smaller constituents, the nucleons.

This would reduce the incidence of fire, and thus the likelihood of Nuclear Winter, with the trade off that radioactivity would increase in the larger amounts of dust lofted in local Fallout by these low altitude detonation heights.

At one point, Firestone marketed plugs with polonium in the tip, under the ( questionable ) theory that the radioactivity would ionize the air in the gap, easing spark formation.

The initial radioactivity would be dominated by the < sup > 24 </ sup > Na activity ( half-life 15 h ) but with increasing time the < sup > 239 </ sup > Np ( half-life 2. 4 d after formation from parent < sup > 239 </ sup > U with half-life 24 min ) and finally the < sup > 60 </ sup > Co activity ( 5. 3 yr ) would predominate.