How bad would the fallout be from a nuclear bomb?

• As Russia wages war in Ukraine, experts have described what would happen in the event of a nuclear strike, which is unlikely.

• A modern nuclear bomb could wipe out an entire city and cause third-degree burns nearby.

• But the force of an explosion depends on the size of the bomb and how it exploded.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine with missile strikes and bombings in February 2022, triggering a dramatic escalation of conflict in the region, and in the months that followed the situation continued to worsen.

Russia launched thousands of missiles and other munitions in Ukraine since the start of the war. As a result of Russian aggression, more than 23,000 civilians have been killed or injured in the fighting, according to the latest tally from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and millions of Ukrainians have fled the country and became refugees.

While the Ukrainians suffered greatly, the Russian forces, which were losing ground, also suffered enormous losses, with losses estimated at more than 223,000 people.

Security experts hope the conflict will not spread further or escalate to the point where a nuclear weapon could be used, but concerns are growing, especially as Russian President Vladimir Putin makes nuclear threats targeting both Ukraine and the West and that its forces continue to take action. Heavy losses.

A nuclear strike is unlikely but not entirely implausible, experts told Insider.

“I hope the situation doesn't escalate, and I think there's a good chance it won't, but the risk is real whenever nuclear-armed states are engaged in conflict with each other,” said Tara Drozdenko, director of the Union of Nuclear Countries. Concerned Scientists' Global Security Program, told Insider last year.

“Ukraine does not have nuclear weapons, so the risk of nuclear war in this scenario is if somehow the conflict escalates and attracts NATO countries or States -United,” she added. “This increases the risk of a nuclear confrontation because some NATO countries possess nuclear weapons.”

The United States, for example, has about 5,500 nuclear weapons, while Russia has about 6,000, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Drozdenko said U.S. nuclear weapons typically have an explosive power equivalent to about 300 kilotons of TNT, while Russian nuclear weapons tend to range from 50 to 100 kilotons to 500 to 800 kilotons, although every country has nuclear weapons more powerful.

“Modern weapons are 20 to 30 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Drozdenko said, adding: “If the United States and Russia launched everything they had, it could potentially end civilization.”

Death, starvation, radiation poisoning and 3rd degree burns

A single nuclear weapon can easily wipe out an entire city, Kathryn Higley, a nuclear science professor at Oregon State University, told Insider.

“It's really hard to say, 'Well, this city will survive and that city won't,'” she added. “It depends very, very much on the size of the weapon, what the topography looks like, where it detonates, who is upwind, who is downwind.”

When a nuclear bomb hits, it triggers a flash of light, a giant orange fireball, and shockwaves that topple buildings. People in the center of the blast (within a half-mile radius for a 300-kiloton bomb) could be killed instantly, while others nearby could suffer third-degree burns . A 1,000-kiloton nuclear explosion could produce third-degree burns up to 8 kilometers away, second-degree burns up to 9 kilometers away, and first-degree burns up to 11 kilometers away, according to an estimate from AsapScience . People up to 53 miles away could also experience temporary blindness.

“Let's say you're in a city and you're far enough from the center of the explosion that you won't receive a lethal dose of radiation. You're very likely to be injured by a falling building or have third-degree burns a large portion of your body,” Drozdenko said, adding, “There are not enough empty burn beds in the entire United States to handle even one. nuclear attack on a single city in the United States.”

Nuclear explosions also produce clouds of dust and sand-like radioactive particles that disperse into the atmosphere – known as nuclear fallout. Exposure to this fallout can lead to radiation poisoning, which could damage body cells and prove fatal.

Fallout can block sunlight, causing temperatures to drop dramatically and shortening the growing season of essential crops. Drozdenko said agricultural production could be drastically changed for decades, leading to famine in some regions.

If a nuclear weapon struck Washington, DC, it could kill approximately 300,000 people.

If a 300-kiloton nuclear weapon hit a city the size of Washington, D.C., many residents would not survive and some nearby residents would suffer devastating injuries.

“A lethal dose of radiation would cover most of the city and a little bit of Virginia,” Drozdenko said. “The thermal radiation, the heat, is going to extend into parts of Maryland, a little further into Virginia, and everyone in that area is going to have third-degree burns.”

Drozdenko estimated that a single nuclear weapon could kill about 300,000 people in the Washington area and injure as many more. Several weapons could kill millions, she said, depending on the number of bombs dropped and the power of the explosions.

“The bigger the weapon, the bigger the radius,” she said.

The fallout from a nuclear bomb also depends on how a country chooses to detonate it.

If the weapon hit land, the explosion would produce more radioactive fallout as dirt and other materials would be released into the atmosphere. But if a country detonated the bomb in mid-air, the shock waves would bounce off the ground and amplify each other, Drozdenko said, resulting in a much larger area of ​​destruction. This “aerial blast” could also send radioactive material up to 50 miles into the atmosphere, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Countries rely on simulations and weapons tests to anticipate these effects, but it is difficult to know how a modern nuclear attack would play out in reality.

“There is no historical precedent for this,” Drozdenko said, adding: “The only time nuclear weapons were used in conflict was during World War II.”

This article, originally published in February 2022, has since been updated and republished amid continued nuclear threats from Russia.

Read the original article on Business Insider