I don’t have anything to cite, but everything i’ve read about real or hypothetical major nuclear accidents affecting large areas talks about harms like increased cancer risk over the course of years. Dying within days or weeks as described in the original post requires orders of magnitude higher doses of radiation in a shorter time. I don’t think it’s possible to get those kinds of doses from the amount of radioactive material that can realistically be dispersed kilometers away from the accident. (Being concerned about loss of safely usable land for living and farming is reasonable and i’m only complaining about this point because you specifically described acute radiation syndrome.)
I don’t have anything to cite, but everything i’ve read about real or hypothetical major nuclear accidents affecting large areas talks about harms like increased cancer risk over the course of years. Dying within days or weeks as described in the original post requires orders of magnitude higher doses of radiation in a shorter time. I don’t think it’s possible to get those kinds of doses from the amount of radioactive material that can realistically be dispersed kilometers away from the accident. (Being concerned about loss of safely usable land for living and farming is reasonable and i’m only complaining about this point because you specifically described acute radiation syndrome.)