Quote Originally Posted by LiamKerrington View Post
As for the nuke-flash ... Datu and Hope were like approximately 25 to 30 miles away from the explosion; I don't know - would the flash of light still be of blinding quality for people to look at it from such a huge distance? Either way: Datu and Hope were shielded by some 7000'+ high mountains against the explosion; so the best thing Datu could of seen was kind of a flash ...
Flash blindness is rated as a severe hazard for a nuclear explosion to a distance of 40 miles, but you're right that the intervening mountains would absolutely protect them from the flash. Under these conditions the greatest danger is that the high outgoing winds from the blast will cause rockfalls or avalanches in the valley they're driving through. I suppose there is a small danger that a nuclear ground burst of this size could cause an earthquake if there's an active fault running under Boulder.