“It is generally believed that humans exposed to about 500 rem of radiation all at once will likely die without medical treatment,” the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission says.īut at a distance so close to ground zero, a 300-kiloton nuclear explosion would almost certainly burn and crush to death any human being. Survivors finding themselves less than 460 meters (1,500 feet) from a 300-kiloton nuclear explosion will receive an ionizing radiation dose of 500 Roentgen equivalent man (rem). But in the vicinity of an explosion, buildings will be completely collapsed, and survivors will not be able to shelter. The acutely lethal effects from the fallout will last from days to weeks, which is why authorities recommend staying inside for at least 48 hours, to allow radiation levels to decrease.īecause its effects are relatively delayed, estimating casualties from the fallout is difficult the number of deaths and injuries will depend very much on what actions people take after an explosion. Radiation levels will be initially dominated by isotopes of short half-lives, which are the most energetic and so most dangerous to biological systems. For weapons in the hundreds of kilotons, the area of immediate danger can encompass thousands of square kilometers downwind of the detonation site. Radioactive fallout, a form of delayed radioactivity, will expose post-war survivors to near-lethal doses of ionizing radiation.Īs for the blast, the severity of the fallout contamination depends on the fission yield of the bomb and its height of burst. Within it is a highly-radioactive brew of split atoms, which will eventually begin to drop out of the cloud as it is blown by the wind.
Shortly after the nuclear detonation has released most of its energy in the direct radiation, heat, and blast, the fireball begins to cool and rise, becoming the head of the familiar mushroom cloud.
The thermal flash from a 300-kiloton nuclear weapon could cause first-degree burns as far as 13 kilometers (8 miles) from ground zero. The light radiated by the fireball’s heat-accounting for more than one-third of the thermonuclear weapon’s explosive energy-will be so intense that it ignites fires and causes severe burns at great distances. The fireball following the airburst explosion of a 300-kiloton nuclear weapon-like the W87 thermonuclear warhead deployed on the Minuteman III missiles currently in service in the US nuclear arsenal-can grow to more than 600 meters (2,000 feet) in diameter and stays blindingly luminous for several seconds, before its surface cools. Inside the fireball, the temperature and pressure are so extreme that all matter is rendered into a hot plasma of bare nuclei and subatomic particles, as is the case in the Sun’s multi-million-degree core. Microseconds into the explosion of a nuclear weapon, energy released in the form of X-rays heats the surrounding environment, forming a fireball of superheated air.
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