What are the immediate effects of nuclear explosions?
A nuclear explosion releases vast amounts of energy in the form of blast, heat and radiation. An enormous shockwave reaches speeds of many hundreds of kilometres an hour. The blast kills people close to ground zero, and causes lung injuries, ear damage and internal bleeding further away.
How much damage does a nuclear bomb cause?
Summary of the effects
| Effects | Explosive yield / height of burst | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 kt / 200 m | 20 Mt / 5.4 km | |
| Urban areas completely levelled (20 psi or 140 kPa) | 0.2 | 6.4 |
| Destruction of most civilian buildings (5 psi or 34 kPa) | 0.6 | 17 |
| Moderate damage to civilian buildings (1 psi or 6.9 kPa) | 1.7 | 47 |
How many nukes does it take to destroy the world?
It would take just three nuclear warheads to destroy one of the 4,500 cities on Earth, meaning 13,500 bombs in total, which would leave 1,500 left. 15,000 warheads are the equivalent of 3 billions tons of TNT and 15x the energy of the Krakatoa volcano, the most powerful volcanic eruption ever.
Blast damage from a nuclear weapon comes from the overpressure in the air and from winds which result from the pressures. For a 10 kiloton blast at the height where it would produce the most damage, severe damage to frame houses would occur out to 1.6 km and moderate damage to 2.4 km.
What are the effects of a Nuclear Blast?
The effects on a person from a nuclear blast will depend on the size of the bomb and the distance the person is from the explosion. However, a nuclear blast would likely cause great destruction, death, and injury, and have a wide area of impact.
What are the negative effects of nuclear weapons?
Harmful effects of Nuclear Weapons. The nuclear explosions produce both the immediate and delayed destructive effects , The blast , the thermal radiation and the prompt ionizing radiation cause the significant destruction within seconds or minutes of the nuclear detonation .
What is the impact of the nuclear bomb?
The silent killer. The bomb’s immediate effects would be followed by a slow,lingering killer: radioactive fallout.