Rasmussen Report October 1975, WASH-1400, updated by Union of Concerned Scientists

The report states that in the “worst possible case” (an assumed 10 million people at risk) 3,300 people would die of severe radiation damage within several days; 10,000 to 100,000 people would develop acute radiation sickness within two to six weeks of initial exposure.

45,000 would become acutely short of breath because the intensely radioactive gases produce lung damage; 240,000 others would develop acute hypothyroidism with symptoms of weight gain, lassitude, susceptibility to cold, impaired and slow mental functions, loss of appetite, constipation, and absent menstruation.

350,000 males would become temporarily sterile as gamma radiation damages sperm, and 40,000 to 200,000 women would cease to menstruate, many permanently.

In the fetal population, up to 100,000 babies would be born as cretins with mental retardation from destruction of their thyroid glands by radioactive iodine, 1,500 others would develop microcephaly (small heads) as the developing brain is highly susceptible to the deleterious effects of radiation. There would be 3000 deaths in utero with spontaneous abortions. Five to sixty years later cancer would develop in various bodily organs of 270,000 people and there would be 28,800 cases of thyroid cancer.