WI: LA experiences a nuclear meltdown in 1955

I've been watching a lot of classic 1950s films lately (more likely than not due to the Fallout franchise...) and came across a film noir known as "Kiss Me Deadly". Without getting into details, the ending shows a representation of a small nuclear meltdown inside a beach house right outside of Los Angeles.

My question is what do you think would be the ramifications of such an event if something like that occurred?
 
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