Posted on 06/13/2018 2:14:58 PM PDT by NRx
...But the current state of dread, while entirely understandable, has overshadowed two crucial realities about the threat of a nuclear calamity. First, a nuclear attack on the United States could well come not from the skies but from the streets. Experts warn that it would be relatively easy for terrorists to build an “improvised nuclear bomb” and smuggle it into America. Building a ten-kiloton bomb nearly as destructive as the one dropped on Hiroshima would require little more than some technical expertise and 46 kilograms of highly enriched uranium — a quantity about the size of a bowling ball. The second reality we have failed to understand is what a nuclear detonation and its aftermath would actually look like. In our imaginations, fueled by apocalyptic fictions like The Road and The Day After, the scale and speed of nuclear annihilation seem too vast and horrific to contemplate. If nuclear war is considered “unthinkable,” that is in no small part because of our refusal to think about it with any clarity or specificity. In the long run, the best deterrent to nuclear war may be to understand what a single nuclear bomb is capable of doing to, say, a city like New York — and to accept that the reality would be even worse than our fears.
...When such a bomb explodes, everyone within 100 feet of ground zero is instantaneously reduced to a spray of atoms. There are photos from Hiroshima and Nagasaki showing eerie silhouettes of people cast against a flat surface, such as a wall or floor. These are not, as is sometimes claimed, the remains of vaporized individuals, but rather a kind of morbid nuclear photograph.
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
A 100kt ground burst in NYC mid town would cause
Estimated fatalities:
409,610
Estimated injuries:
635,940
Per nukemap2
Not to worry too much, we’ve had 928 nuclear explosions here...
It will look like the scene from “The Day After Tomorrow” where a tsunami floods the city. Except the tsunami is caused by an underwater detonation instead of “climate change.”
What people don’t know so much is that a chemical or biological weapon the SAME size of the ‘suitcase’ bomb (damn heavy suitcase though) can contain enough highly/instantly poisonous material to kill and maim just as many people (and it wont set off any radiation meters authorities may have these days)
E coli spores and weaponized anthrax, Sarin nerve agent just need proper dispersal to kill huge numbers of people (small plane or even dumping by hand from the top of a tall building on a windy day).
A dirty bomb (no nuclear fission) spewing extremely radioactive isotopes (even just particle-ized plutonium) can do fatal/long term health damage to anyone inhaling them (and make the location area (say 50 city blocks) unlivable for 50 years).
Its one of the reasons the Bushes went after Saddam — HE was developing such things (ignore the lies the leftists spewed) and he need only turn some of his new goodies over to terrorists to use.
Come to think of it, a large sustained power grid failure (hacked) would have many of the recent generations of snowflakes here, when cut off from their internet addiction, curled up in fetal position soiling themselves till they died.
That is what many of us think of NYC all the time, except with ferals running amok.
“Tough reading when you live across the river from NYC.”
depends which way the wind blows
It’s a white van. Did Chief Moose ever find THE white van?
“I work in the Poconos, and after the Iran deal went through, I half expect to see a mushroom cloud over NYC one day.”
I live in the Poconos and I wouldn’t get in the way of a mushroom cloud.
My family east of there would be affected.
One conventional Hiroshima-style in Manhattan? Maybe 1-2M if the wind pushed the fallout right over LI or Jersey.
10M when Gotham is 8M distributed over 300 sq. mi? You'd have to have at least five Hiroshimas perfectly distributed with the right winds, or one Tsar Bomba - neither seem likely.
“A 10 KT bomb exploded at ground level in Greenwich Village in Manhattan is way, way too small to do much beyond about 2.5 km - and would produce about 103,000 deaths and about 213,000 injuries. “
This due to the blast itself.
How many would be exposed to radiation at levels causing radiation syndrome, which can cause death over a week or month time frame.
“A 100kt ground burst in NYC mid town would cause
Estimated fatalities:
409,610
Estimated injuries:
635,940
Per nukemap2”
How many cases of radiation syndrome due to exposure?
Detroit?
Ever see the Bronx?
I survived the recent nuclear strike on Hawaii.
If NYC is nuked then the game is over. The lucky people will be within 100 yards of the center.
I think an enriched uranium ball could add 30+ pins to my average. Although it would likely break the ball return.
It’s a decrepit white van. Surface streets are fraught with risk. Such a delivery defies common sense.
There’s a dozen ways to Sunday to get a nuke into a harbor city to circumvent security screening.
You only have to be “near” (not even close)...
But their article made great filler in the absence of anything bad to say about Trump :)
So does 2-ply.
Ground blasts would cause a $hitload of fallout.
Most military nukes are set to go off above the target which increases downward pressure and it reduces fallout.
You might be surprised at how survivable the post bomb is. Fallout can be avoided. Radiation around the site would be bad, but the death toll would take years, not weeks.
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