system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Fallout] The Great War was far from the first time nuclear radiation existed in the Fallout universe. Were ghouls ever created by this radiation?

I mean, we know Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still nuked, and nuclear weapons were used in the resource wars. They probably had their fair share of Chernobyl style accidents, and by the time of the Great War nuclear power was absolutely commonplace and waste was often improperly disposed. With all that radiation going around, would at least a few people have been exposed just right to become ghoulified?
gpt
The process to become a ghoul is not fully understood.  Certainly large doses of radiation are necessary, but given that the vast majority of people who get hit by intense radiation don't become ghouls, there's some additional X-factor at play.  

For example, it's possible that some additional genetic mutation is necessary for ghoulification, and only the people who have this mutant gene will become ghouls.  Alternatively, perhaps ghoulification is related to the forced evolutionary virus (FEV), which was only released on the world after the war.  A third possibility is that only certain types of radiation will lead to ghoulification.  

Now, we do know of two cases of pre-war individuals who irradiated themselves to deliberately become ghouls: Desmond Lockheart and Eddie Winter.  However, the procedures they underwent were experimental, and have now been lost to time (and the War).  

So, ultimately, we cannot say for certain that no other ghouls existed pre-war, but currently we have seen no indication of their existence. Furthermore, given that the only pre-war ghouls we know of underwent ghoulification deliberately, this suggests accidental ghouls were probably not a thing prior to the Great War.