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Originally Posted by Sr. Mints
Trying to remember this from when I learned about it, I dunno, ~20 years ago.... it's the ash, soot, etc. that goes into the atmosphere which causes a nuclear winter, yes? Is that the same as fallout, or does the latter involve the spread of radioactive material? Seems like "nuclear winter" has become a colloquial umbrella term.
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Yes, it's from the ash and soot primarily.
Radioactive fallout is actually much less of an issue than people think. Radioactive levels will fall to non-critically dangerous levels within a few weeks. If you survive a few weeks, apart from direct blast sites, the risk of dying from radiation sickness is quite low, although cancer levels would likely be elevated (but not nearly as elevated as people think).
The below document is an explainer for health care professionals/disaster management experts on how to manage the fallout from a nuclear attack. If you can get through it, you'll see radiation isn't nearly the problem people think it is - not that that really matters since the other problems associated with a nuclear war are so severe.
https://remm.hhs.gov/nuclearfallout.htm