The resulting inferno, and the blast wave that follows, instantly kill people directly in their path. But a new study finds that some people two to seven miles away could survive—if they're lucky enough to find just the right kind of shelter.
Explosion and heat radiation
Around the fireball, the air expands and triggers a shockwave that destroys all buildings within 2.5 miles. The destruction would be moderate after five miles, but the heat radiation would cause third-degree burns to people within a 12-mile radius.
A nuclear device no larger than a conventional bomb can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Since they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a focus of international relations policy.
Although some windows may be broken over 10 miles (16 km) away, the injury associated with flying glass will generally occur at overpressures above 0.5 psi. This damage may correspond to a distance of about 3 miles (4.8 km) from ground zero for a 10 KT nuclear explosion.
The study published in the journal Risk Analysis describes Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as the island countries most capable of producing enough food for their populations after an “abrupt sunlight‐reducing catastrophe” such as a nuclear war, super volcano or asteroid strike.
Is nuclear war likely? No. No matter the chances of nuclear war breaking out between the United States and Russia, there's a “0.0% chance” that Russia would survive the attack, according to Schwartz. This makes the actual possibility of nuclear war look pretty slim, no matter what Putin says.
The existence of nuclear weapons has a strong impact on the environment. Nuclear war would mean a climate disruption with devastating consequences. The world would fall under a nuclear winter, be subject to a deadly global famine and exacerbated effects of global warming.
Radiation levels are extremely dangerous immediately after a nuclear detonation, but the levels reduce rapidly, in just hours to a few days. This is when it will be safest to leave your shelter and participate in an orderly evacuation.
The safest place: the corners of a room, author Ioannis Kokkinakis of Cyprus' University of Nicosia said in a statement. “Even in the front room facing the explosion, one can be safe from the high airspeeds if positioned at the corners of the wall facing the blast,” Kokkinakis added.
Move to a shelter, basement, or other underground area, preferably located away from the direction that the wind is blowing. Remove clothing since it may be contaminated; if possible, take a shower, wash your hair, and change clothes before you enter the shelter.
The safest place in your home during an radiation emergency is a centrally located room or basement. This area should have as few windows as possible. The further your shelter is from windows, the safer you will be.
But the vast majority of the human population would suffer extremely unpleasant deaths from burns, radiation and starvation, and human civilization would likely collapse entirely.
If Russia were to ever start—voluntarily or accidentally—nuclear war with the United States and other NATO countries, the number of devastating nuclear explosions involved in a full exchange could waft more than 150 Tg of soot into the stratosphere, leading to a nuclear winter that would disrupt virtually all forms of ...
Russia 'very unlikely' to use nuclear weapons, US intel chief | Reuters.
Some of the larger targets include active nuclear plants. There are approximately 90 plants across the US, with some located in Alabama, Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Areas of rural Idaho, Maine, Northern California, as well as Oregon may be more improbable targets.
You can try to sort through your anxieties and identify what is connected to the nuclear threat and what can be connected to something else in your life. Differentiating between the various issues and trying to deal with them separately can reduce the anxiety.
Stay clean and destroy potentially contaminated clothing. Wash yourself heavily with soap and “clean” water. Stay positive. Should we ever experience a devastating event such as a nuclear blast, we will all need to band together and lean on each other to make through each day going forward.
Generally, it is believed that the world would not survive a third world war. With more advanced weaponry and a global population far greater than it was during previous world wars, the destruction would likely be catastrophic and potentially irreversible.
Make sure you have an Emergency Supply Kit for places you frequent and might have to stay for 24 hours. It should include bottled water, packaged foods, emergency medicines, a hand-crank or battery- powered radio to get information in case power is out, a flashlight, and extra batteries for essential items.
The "Doomsday Clock," created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, moved its "time" in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for the past three years.
In addition to killing hundreds of thousands of people instantly, a nuclear explosion would create visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light waves that would combine to produce a large, very hot fireball capable of burning everything and creating third-degree burns within an even larger radius than the blast damage.
Alpha particles can be stopped completely by a sheet of paper. Beta particles travel appreciable distances in air, but can be reduced or stopped by a layer of clothing, thin sheet of plastic or a thin sheet of aluminum foil.
To seal a room:
Seal all windows, rooms and air vents in one room with 2-4 mil. thick plastic sheeting and duct tape. You might want to measure an duct the plastic sheeting in advance to save time. Cut the plastic sheeting at least six inches wider than the openings and label each sheet.