Question about nuclear bombs?

Question

How much more powerful are today's nuclear bomb compared to the ones back in the 50s. I have heard that if one hit D.C it would destroy half the east coast. Is this true?

Answer 1

You can make them either way - a smaller tactical nuke to use against an enemy on the battlefield or a 50 megaton brute delivered via ICBM from the other side of the world. I was told once that the minimum to survive a big one was to be 100 miles out and 100 feet down.
Global Thermonuclear War - the only way to win is not to play!

Answer 2

It depends upon the power that the missile or bomb was designed for. The weakest can obliterate no less than a mile-wide radius, while the strongest could potentially wipe out all of New York City and its boroughs. The explosion is far from the most dangerous part, however. Radiation from a nuclear explosion is catastrophically deadly, and can make countless small cities into countless statistics. Since weather moves west, the contamination moving with the wind could irradiate most of the midwest, assuming a nuclear weapon detonated somewhere along the east coast.

Luckily, North Korea, the current nuclear threat, can't aim their IRBMs to save their lives.

Answer 3

No, it is not true.

Early A-bombs (fission bombs), where the explosive energy was expressed in kilotons (thousands of tons) of TNT, were the first discovered, made, and the only type used in warfare (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Those bombs typically had a fireball measured in the meters, and destroyed most structures out to about a mile or two from ground zero.

H-bombs (fusion bombs) came later. They are much more powerful than A-bombs because there is far more energy (usually measured in megatons -- millions of tons of TNT)available from the fusion reaction than from the fission reaction. In fact, many H-bombs use a fission reaction to initiate the fusion bomb. Blasts from these types of bombs might destroy buildings out to about ten miles from ground zero.

The is no bomb in existence that is so large that the explosion would "destroy half the east coast" -- that would require a fireball measured in the hundreds of kilometers in diameter, which would require a blast measured in the tera-tons (quadrillions of tons) of TNT. There isn't enough explosive power to do that on earth.

However, an H-bomb set off in the right place, under the right weather conditions, could wipe out a major city, and the fallout could render large areas hazardous to your health -- perhaps that is what you are thinking of?

Answer 4

HALF THE EAST COAST?!?!

thats not a bit of an exageration... thats an EXTREME exageration even for the most powerful of Thermonuclear Weapons.

Granted Nuclear Weapons are the most powerful weapon known to man but people tend to overestimate exactly what they can do
the average yield of todays nukes are about 300 to 500 Kilotons.
but lets go with the biggest in todays inventory. 20 MEGAtons

The Initial fireball will last about 17.3 seconds

The thermal radiation pulse (heat) will create third degree burns out to a radius of 24.7 Miles

The size of the fireball will depend on where it explodes.
Ground: .86 of a Mile
Ground contact Airburst:1.4 Miles
Airburst:1.1 Miles
A ground-contact airburst creates a larger fireball because some of the energy is reflected back up from the surface.

Ionizing Radiation at 500 rem (50 to 90% fatalities): 3.4 Miles

Airblast radius for near total destruction and fatalities (20psi): 4.6 Miles

Airblast radius (widespread destruction):12 Miles
This air blast is 4.6psi overpressure, which is sufficient to collapse most residential and industrial structures. Note that exposed humans can actually survive such a blast, about 1/3 bar above standard. However, that much pressure exerted against the face of a building exerts very high force (a 40 foot tall, 50 foot wide structure would be hit with more than 600 tons-force).

As you can see this will more than take out an entire city. and fallout downwind will affect an even greater area.

but hardly half the east coast of the US.

The energy of a nuclear explosion is transferred to the surrounding medium in three distinct forms: blast; thermal radiation; and nuclear radiation. The distribution of energy among these three forms will depend on the yield of the weapon, the location of the burst, and the characteristics of the environment. For a low altitude atmospheric detonation of a moderate sized weapon in the kiloton range, the energy is distributed roughly as follows:


50% as blast;

35% as thermal radiation; made up of a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum, including infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light and some soft x-ray emitted at the time of the explosion; and

15% as nuclear radiation; including 5% as initial ionizing radiation consisting chiefly of neutrons and gamma rays emitted within the first minute after detonation, and 10% as residual nuclear radiation. Residual nuclear radiation is the hazard in fallout.

Answer 5

YES!!! The nuclear bombs that we have now would destroy half of the East Coast.

Answer 6

Today's nuclear weapons have variable yields from 1 megaton to 500 kilotons (US, Russia), and lower yields (Israel, India, France, Pakistan, England and China as well as the US and Russia).

Back in the 50s there were bigger bombs such as the Soviet Tzar Bomba (50+ Megatons)...but these were mostly experimental models which never were deployed because they were too expensive or unnecessary for the military strategic needs.

Answer 7

NO, 25 MT stops killing from the blast at about 30 miles.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/sfeature/mapablast.html
the biggest is 50 MT I think. most of the big ones where made to prove it could be done, so the other side would have to spend money to make bigger ones.
Radiation is a different monster, beyond the blast area it is a matter of weather. the radiation from a nuke in DC may not touch people in WV, but could drift and kill in Bermuda.
It seams to me that many of the people who are answering don't know the difference between mega and kilo, nor do they understand radial dispensation of energy. eg if 1 kt does x raids damage 2 kt dose not do 2x raids, buy more like 2x area.
This search you could have done your self, but thanks for the 5 Pt's.

Answer 8

depends on the mega tonnage of the bomb, whether it was a air burst, ground burst or a underground burst. the city of d.c. would be destroyed and radiation would severally hurt people in the surrounding areas. some radiation will make it up and down the east coast making in uninhabitable for decades. our economy would be destroyed.

Answer 9

Nuclear bombs have been getting steadily deadlier. The original A-bomb (the ones dropped on Japan) are a joke compared to the tech we have now. I wouldn't be able to tell you what the exact specs are (classfied) but what you heard might be a bit of an exaggeration... but not much

Answer 10

that's exaggerated. the bomb itself wouldn't flatten all of that, but it would shatter the east coast economy and the (remaining) hospitals would be swamped with radiation related injuries, something most of them cant treat. but they wouldn't fire just 1. they would try to let out a 5 or 10 missile salvo. that would obliterate the east coast, if the bombs hit their targets, and if our new missile shooting system missed all their targets. and if that happens, i guarantee someones losing their job :P