Exposure to a nuclear blast doesn't necessarily make things radioactive. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not radioactive wastelands. Even in Chernobyl, the other reactors continued to operate for a time after the accident, and nature is thriving.
But, the radiation detector is on the upper surface of the rear fuselage. Hypothetical Beta particles from the ground will strike the underside of the aircraft and not the detector.
Strontium-90 is a major component of fallout and strongly in the ‘really not good for you’ category.
> Exposure to a nuclear blast doesn't necessarily make things radioactive
Isn’t this neutron activation?