The Effects of Nuclear War
...s makes it possible to achieve a self-sustaining series of nuclear fissions; the neutrons, which are emitted in the fission, produce a chain reaction with continuous release of energy. Upon detonation, the expansion of gases causes the blast wave to form. The front of the blast wave behaves like a “wall of highly compressed air” , which can travel as fast as 1,150 feet “When the blast hits a structure, it functions rather like stomping on an empty cardboard box, except that, instead of it being a foot, it is a blast wave that rapidly exerts pressure on and around the entire structure for less than a second.” This jolt can be powerful and in a one-story home, one wall could readily receive a 193,100+ pound jolt at 3 psi. "The fact that the point of an explosion cannot be seen . . . by any means implies that the blast effects will not be felt. . . . blast waves can easily bend (or diffract) around apparent obstructions.” The box is not always crushed. If it is a reinforced box, if the box is filled with sufficiently strong material, or if the force applied is weak, the box may not crush the force may be insufficient to crush it. With a building, the same principles apply. If the building is reinforced, it may not collapse. And if the windows and doors are either open, or quickly break out, then the pressures on the outside wall may have less effect, because of high pressures rushing into the building, thus filling it with a counter balancing force (a bit like stomping on a filled box, versus stomping on an empty one). The minimum amount of fissile material (of a given shape) required to maintain the chain reaction is known as the critical mass. Going back to E=MC^(2) an example the mass of 2 pounds converted into pure energy would have more power than the biggest nuclear weapon ever developed. Nuclear weapons are not 100% efficient, or anywhere near that efficient since the damage radius increases with the power of the bomb, approximately in proportion to its cube root. For example, at Hiroshima, according to Einstein’s “E=MC^(2)” the explosion was only .1% efficient. There are quite a variety of nuclear weapons in existence today. Ranging from almost no ranged “dirty bombs” to Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s) which can travel from anywhere to anywhere in the world. The effects of most nuclear warheads (the actual bomb) vary between delivering a blast and nuclear fallout while some weapons will only deliver one, most weapons developed deliver both. The effects of the first nuclear weapons in Japan which were 20 kilotons(kt.) are considered minute by today’s standards, as well as the radioactive material at the time was a much lower grade which proves to be far less “effective”. That is the power for today’s smallest weapons, in most cases termed, “backpack nukes”. There are many types of small nuclear weapons, so allow me to elaborate. Mainly during the 60's most of these nuclear weapons were developed. Some of these weapons contained the power of the blast that hit Hiroshima in a convenient, 400 lbs. in a container that was similar to a vacuum cleaner. Another device for nuclear weapons was nicknamed SADM that weighed 163 pounds but didn’t have quite the destructive power of the bombs that hit Japan. The most revolutionary bomb known to civilians ever developed by the United States was nicknamed Davy Crockett. This small weapon was only 51 pounds and thus only contained 1 kiloton of power this weapon was 16 inches long and 11 inches in diameter. It is also known that Russia has developed other backpack nukes that have about 100 of kilotons of power. These nukes are about the size of a person and would be put into the ground like mortars. On a range of about 10 miles and with a blast range of approximately one mile.the fact that they are virtually undetectable by radar, (even if they were, it would be too late to take any action, even evacuation) is perhaps most frightening. Considering the size of these weapons they could be easily be smuggled into any country. It is also known that Russia cannot account for approximately 100 of these devices. If a small number (1-5) were to be released on an unsuspecting high density population area, they could potentially kill 10 to 100 times as many people as on 9-11. Today’s most powerful weapons would be in the 20 megaton ranges. This is 10 times more powerful than the bombs that hit Japan. The standard size of most weapons is 600 kt. which are usually five times as powerful as the bombs that hit Japan. These weapons can be fired from anywhere to anywhere via ICBMs. Typically speaking most of today’s “country to country” missiles will come in an ICBM with at about 10 warheads (the actual nuclear device) that reenter the atmosphere as MIRVs (multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles). These warheads will probably contain 600 kt. of power. Another important factor of nuclear weapons is the thermal effects. The very high temperatures created in a nuclear explosion result in the formation of an extremely hot “incandescent mass of gas called a fireball.” For a 10-kiloton explosion in the air, the fireball will attain a maximum diameter of about 300 m (about 1,000 ft); for a 10-megaton weapon the fireball may be 4.8 km (3 mi) across. A flash of heat (thermal) radiation is emitted from the fireball and spreads out over a large area, but with swiftly decreasing intensity. The amount of heat energy received a certain distance from the nuclear explosion depends on the power ...