3 ms·

Can you cite sources for these claims? I've found it's very hard to find good scientific sources for the effects, but all of the research I've done on the topic

Can you cite sources for these claims? I've found it's very hard to find good scientific sources for the effects, but all of the research I've done on the topic suggests that you are grossly underestimating the effects. Here is an example: http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abolition-Stanford-Nuclear-Series/dp/0804737029 http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abolition-Stanford-Nuclear-Serie... And here is another terrifying account of the effects of a nuclear explosion: http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_... And another good source which shows just how destructive a bomb would be on a major metropolitan area: http://www.nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ http://www.nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

mikeash 13y ago
I'm not sure what your first link says, but the other two generally seem to agree with me. The second one gets EMP wrong, as everyone does, but Wikipedia covers it well enough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse I'm rather confused as to why you think that map suggests that I'm grossly underestimating the effects. It lines up perfectly. For example, select a Topol and put it over downtown Manhattan. You see that the fireball covers a few blocks, the death-by-radiation zone covers most of downtown, as does the destroy-all-buildings zone, the destroy-residential-buildings zone reaches up to Central Park, parts of Brooklyn, and into New Jersey, and severe burns for exposed people and random fires started by the flash goes out to most of Manhattan, much of Brooklyn, and big chunks of New Jersey. The zone in which "duck and cover" would save lives (outside the death-by-radiation area, inside the death-by-collapsing-residential-buildings-and-flying-glass area) covers almost 100km^2 and probably a couple of million people.

mikeash 13y ago

I'm not sure what your first link says, but the other two generally seem to agree with me. The second one gets EMP wrong, as everyone does, but Wikipedia covers it well enough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse I'm rather confused as to why you think that map suggests that I'm grossly underestimating the effects. It lines up perfectly. For example, select a Topol and put it over downtown Manhattan. You see that the fireball covers a few blocks, the death-by-radiation zone covers most of downtown, as does the destroy-all-buildings zone, the destroy-residential-buildings zone reaches up to Central Park, parts of Brooklyn, and into New Jersey, and severe burns for exposed people and random fires started by the flash goes out to most of Manhattan, much of Brooklyn, and big chunks of New Jersey. The zone in which "duck and cover" would save lives (outside the death-by-radiation area, inside the death-by-collapsing-residential-buildings-and-flying-glass area) covers almost 100km^2 and probably a couple of million people.