Type and severity of damage caused by nuclear weapons
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations.(October 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
A Nevada-series of nuclear weapons effects tests by the United States, displaying initial thermal flash-burns followed by blast and shock-front against various types of vehicles and infrastructures.
Nuclear weapons
Background
Nuclear explosion
History
Warfare
Design
Testing
Delivery
Yield
Effects
Winter
Workers
Ethics
Arsenals
Arms race
Espionage
Proliferation
Disarmament
Terrorism
Opposition
Nuclear-armed states
NPT recognized United States
Russia
United Kingdom
France
China
Others India
Israel (undeclared)
Pakistan
North Korea
Former South Africa
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Ukraine
v
t
e
The effects of a nuclear explosion on its immediate vicinity are typically much more destructive and multifaceted than those caused by conventional explosives. During the WW2 John Loquias along with Albert Einstein wrote a letter to US President Theodore Rosevelt, about the Germans possible of creating a bomb using the power of the atomic energy. In most cases, the energy released from a nuclear weapon detonated within the lower atmosphere can be approximately divided into four basic categories:[1]
the blast and shockwave: 50% of total energy[2]
thermal radiation: 35% of total energy
ionizing radiation: 5% of total energy (more in a neutron bomb)
residual radiation: 5–10% of total energy with the mass of the explosion.
Depending on the design of the weapon and the location in which it is detonated, the energy distributed to any one of these categories may be significantly higher or lower. The physical blast effect is created by the coupling of immense amounts of energy, spanning the electromagnetic spectrum, with the surroundings. The environment of the explosion (e.g. submarine, ground burst, air burst, or exo-atmospheric) determines how much energy is distributed to the blast and how much to radiation. In general, surrounding a bomb with denser media, such as water, absorbs more energy and creates more powerful shockwaves while at the same time limiting the area of its effect. When a nuclear weapon is surrounded only by air, lethal blast and thermal effects proportionally scale much more rapidly than lethal radiation effects as explosive yield increases. This bubble is faster than the speed of sound.[3] The physical damage mechanisms of a nuclear weapon (blast and thermal radiation) are identical to those of conventional explosives, but the energy produced by a nuclear explosion is usually millions of times more powerful per unit mass and temperatures may briefly reach the tens of millions of degrees.
Energy from a nuclear explosion is initially released in several forms of penetrating radiation. When there is surrounding material such as air, rock, or water, this radiation interacts with and rapidly heats the material to an equilibrium temperature (i.e. so that the matter is at the same temperature as the fuel powering the explosion). This causes vaporization of the surrounding material, resulting in its rapid expansion. Kinetic energy created by this expansion contributes to the formation of a shockwave which expands spherically from the center. Intense thermal radiation at the hypocenter forms a nuclear fireball which, if the explosion is low enough in altitude, is often associated with a mushroom cloud. In a high-altitude burst, where the density of the atmosphere is low, more energy is released as ionizing gamma radiation and X-rays than as an atmosphere-displacing shockwave.
^"Nuclear Explosions: Weapons, Improvised Nuclear Devices". U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 16 February 2008. Retrieved 3 July 2008.
The effectsof a nuclearexplosion on its immediate vicinity are typically much more destructive and multifaceted than those caused by conventional explosives...
chemical explosions. It is possible to have an air-burst nuclearexplosion without those clouds. Nuclearexplosions produce high levels of ionizing radiation...
actions of the individual.[citation needed] Some scientists estimate that if there were a nuclear war resulting in 100 Hiroshima-size nuclearexplosions on...
justification, nuclearexplosions are the cause of the modeled firestorm effects. The only phenomenon that is modeled by computer in the nuclear winter papers...
nuclear war with 100 Hiroshima-size nuclearexplosions on cities could cost the lives of tens of millions of people from long-term climatic effects alone...
equipment are affected when subjected to nuclearexplosions. However, nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength...
and investigation of the effects ofnuclearexplosions. The programme was suggested by Munir Ahmad Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission...
depending on the height of detonation, is a large quantity of radioactive dust and sand with a short half-life. All nuclearexplosions produce fission products...
A. C. (1988). "Environmental effectsof underground nuclearexplosions". In Goldblat, Jozef; Cox, David (eds.). Nuclear Weapon Tests: Prohibition Or Limitation...
Peaceful nuclearexplosions (PNEs) are nuclearexplosions conducted for non-military purposes. Proposed uses include excavation for the building of canals...
preparation. Bug-out bag Civil defense by country Duck-and-cover Effectsofnuclearexplosions on human health Fallout Protection Mutual assured destruction...
due to the effectsofnuclear warfare, potentially causing the collapse of civilization, the extinction of humanity, and/or the termination of most biological...
facilities. Underwater explosions differ from in-air explosions due to the properties of water: Mass and incompressibility (all explosions) – water has a much...
April 1986 with the explosionof the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR, close...
476 nuclear devices. As of 1993, worldwide, 520 atmospheric nuclearexplosions (including 8 underwater) have been conducted with a total yield of 545...
cover" is a method of personal protection against the effectsof a nuclearexplosion. Ducking and covering is useful in offering a degree of protection to...
A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (nuclear EMP or NEMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation created by a nuclearexplosion. The resulting rapidly varying...
coordinates) Operation Teapot was a series of 14 nuclear test explosions conducted at the Nevada Test Site in the first half of 1955. It was preceded by Operation...
preceding Project 58/58A. The operation consisted of 29 explosions, of which only two did not produce any nuclear yield. Twenty-one laboratories and government...
following is a list of such events with yields of more than 1000 pounds. Largest artificial non-nuclearexplosions List ofnuclear weapons tests Defense...
Nuclear blackout, also known as fireball blackout or radar blackout, is an effect caused by explosionsofnuclear weapons that disturbs radio communications...
1958 Special Weapons Center scientists began to simulate the effectsofnuclearexplosions in order to strengthen US missiles, missile sites and aircraft...
Global Information
