The Basics
Both Atom and Hydrogen Bombs are Nuclear weapons.
Atomic bombs
- Nuetron +
- Nucleus of uranium-235 or plutonium-239=
- Destabalizes atoms=
- Gamma Rays and thermal energy
Hydrogen bombs
- Extreme heat from atomic bomb explosion
- Deuterium and tritium=
- Fused hydrogen isotopes
- =Light, heat, concussive blast, explosion, soot cloud
- =Blindness from a distance
- =Supersonic shockwave knocking down buildings for several miles from the blast.
Gravity bombs
- Such as "Fat Man" that was dropped over Nagasaki in 1945[1]
Throw weight missle delivery system
- Such as the Soviet "SS-18-Satan" [2]
- =highest "throw weight"
- =10 warheads and 40 penetration aids reentering atmosphere
Major players
United States
- 7,700 current warheads[3]
- Longest range:6,800 miles. [5]
- Or, From Maine to Moscow.
- Largest weapon yield: Castle Bravo (15 mega tons)
- Or, could demolish all of New York.
Russia: 8,500 current warheads.
- Longest range: 9941 miles[6]
- Or, from Moscow to Anywhere in America (to cali over atlantic ocean is roughly 6000 miles.)
- Largest weapon yield: Tsar Bomba (50 mega tons).
- Or, If dropped on Philidelphia it would also flatten Wilmington, DE, and Trenton, NJ[7]
- United Kingdom: 225 current warheads.
- France: 300 current warheads.
- China:250 current warheads.
- India: 100 current warheads.
- Pakistan: 110 current warheads.
- North Korea: <10 current warheads.
- Isreal: 80 current warheads.
With numbers much higher during the Cold War.
- 1964;US;6,800;7,500
- 1964;Sov.;500;1,000
- 1966;US;5,000;5,600
- 1966;Sov.;550;1,200
- 1968;US;4,500;5,100
- 1968;Sov.;850;2,300
- 1970;US;3,900;4,300
- 1970;Sov.;1,800;3,100
- 1972;US;5,800;4,100
- 1972;Sov.;2,100;4,000
- 1974;US;8,400;3,800
- 1974;Sov.;2,400;4,200
- 1976;US;9,400;3,700
- 1976;Sov.;3,200;4,500
- 1978;US;9,800;3,800
- 1978;Sov.;5,200;5,400
- 1980;US;10,000;4,000
- 1980;Sov.;7,200;6,200
- 1982;US;11,000;4,100
- 1982;Sov.;10,000;8,200
There are only 1/3 of the nuclear weapons there once were. But they're now exponentially stronger.
The advancing science of destruction
1 kiloton= 1000 tons of TNT
"Little Boy" in Moscow (15 kilotons) (Bomb from 1946)
- .04 miles squared fireball/590 ft. radii
- .59 miles squared extreme concussive wave/2,280 ft. radii
- 2.18 miles squared extreme radiation/.83 mile radii
- 3.57 miles squared moderate concussive wave/1.07 radii
- 5.65 moderate thermal radiation fallout/1.34 mile radii
- Estimated 24-hour casualties: 87,460
"Fat Man" in New Delhi, India (20 kilotons)(bomb from 1946)
- .05 miles squared fireball/660 ft. radii
- .71 miles squared extreme concussive wave/2,510 ft. radii
- 2.4 miles squared extreme radiation/.87 mile radii
- 4.33 squared miles moderate concussive wave/1.17 mile radii
- 7.28 miles squared moderate thermal radiation fallout./1.52 mile radii
- Estimated 24-hour casualties: 263,780
1 megaton = 1000 kilotons =100,000 tons of TNT
B-83 (largest bomb currently in US arsenal) in Tehran, Iran (1.2 megatons)
- 1.31 miles squared fireball
- 7.94 miles squared extreme radiation
- 10.9 miles squared extreme concussive blast
- 66.3 miles squared moderate concussive blast
- 258 miles squared moderate thermal radiation fallout
- Estimated 24-hour casualties: 3.24 million
Dong Feng (Current China ICBM) in Washington D.C. (5 megatons)
- 4.1 miles squared fireball/1.14 radii
- 11.3 square miles of extreme radiation/1.89 radii
- 28.2 square miles extreme concussive blast./3 radii
- 172 square miles moderate concussive blast/7.39 radii
- 874 square miles moderate thermal radiation fallout/16.7 radii
- Estimated 24-hour casualties: 1.28 million
"Ivy Mike" (first U.S. Hydrogen Bomb)in Beijing, China (10.4 megatons)(1952 bomb)
- 7.37 miles squared fireball/1.53 radii
- 14 miles squared extreme radiation/2.11 radii
- 46 miles squared extreme concussive blast/3.83 radii
- 280 miles squared moderate concussive blast/9.44 radii
- 1,620 miles squared moderate thermal radiation fallout/22.7 radii
- Estimated 24-hour casualties: 5.27 million
Tsar Bomba (largest nuclear weapon ever detonated) in NY(50 megatons)(1961 bomb)
- 25.9 miles squared fireball/2.87 mile radii
- 31 miles squared death by radiation/3.14 mile radii
- 131 miles squared extreme concussive wave/6.46 mile radii
- 797 miles squared moderate concussive wave./15.9 mile radii
- 5,920 miles squared moderate thermal radiation fallout/43.4 mile radii
- Estimated instant casualties: 8.7 million
A one megaton bomb dropped on a several million person city would leave up to 50 times more victims of severe burns than there are hospital beds in America.[9]
The stakes are too high for someone to hit the shiny red button. Support Nuclear Disarmmament.
SOURCES
- [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-18_Satan
- [3]http://bos.sagepub.com/content/69/2/77.full.pdf+html
- [4]http://www.distance.to/Hawaii/Moscow
- [5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midgetman_missile
- [6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-36_(missile)
- [7]http://www.carloslabs.com/node/16
- [8]http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html
- [9]http://www.3ammagazine.com/magazine/issue_4/articles/nuclear_bomb_effects.html
- [10]http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap3d/
- [11]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arms_race
-http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/negsec
-http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=19504
-http://gizmodo.com/5899569/how-many-nukes-would-it-take-to-blow-up-the-entire-planet
-http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/nuclearweapons/nukestatus.html
-www.3ammagazine.com/magazine/issue_4/articles/nuclear_bomb_effects.html
-http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/06/21/castle-bravo-revisited/
By Grad Schoolhub
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
