As far as I understand the issue, the Van Allen belts themselves were not the problem, but the high energy electrons released by the thermonuclear explosion, wh

As far as I understand the issue, the Van Allen belts themselves were not the problem, but the high energy electrons released by the thermonuclear explosion, which got caught in the belt. (Apparently the amount of high energy particles released during a solar mass ejection far exceeds that released by any of the nuclear weapons set off during Operation Fishbowl, but I guess people knew a lot less about SMEs back then.) The only reference I can find right now is the Wikipedia article on "High altitude nuclear explosion", which says: "The radiation dose rate was at least 60 rads/day at four months after Starfish for a well-shielded satellite or manned capsule in a polar circular earth orbit, which caused NASA concern with regard to its manned space exploration programs." Which sounds quite a bit less dramatic than I remembered.