It is a very bad situation.

I think that whatever made-up explanation they give as to why they are white will make roughly as much sense as the claim that they are solar panels...

One of the reasons Project Pluto was cancelled however was because ICBMs could do the job much more efficiently, especially once MIRVs were added to the mix.

On a more humorous note, I always found it funny that the engines for this were tested at Jackass Flats.

I would have liked to have seen Montana...

A neutron bomb would be kind of the opposite of what you’d want to use to create lingering radioactive contamination (or, almost as effectively, area-denying fear of it). Neutrons are readily absorbed by salt water.