What kind of damage could a nuclear bomb do, if different from an atomic bomb?

Question

N. Korea has me worried!
They suck!

Answer 1

The difference between say the Atom bomb that was dropped on Japan in WWII was a tenth or less the size of the weapons today.

Modern Nuclear weapons could devistate most major cities in the world with just one bomb. 5 strategically placed missiles could completely wipe out the US. The only survivers being people in the distant wilderness or in mountain regions . But they would probable die of radiation poisoning or starvation.

By the way Scooby Chernoble was a nuclear melt down at a power plant not a bomb...
And North Koreas test was confirmed.
Also the Us and other World leading nations can monitor everything that countries with weapons of mass destruction do with them. And in theory should be able to sto pthem before they can hit anyone with one.
However it is all up to whether or not the world leaders ie; GWB want to stop it. Remember certain world leaders base their term in power on war and with out it they have no buget or a reason for their citizens to keep them in power.

Answer 2

The people who said they are the same don't know jack.
A nuclear bomb makes an atomic bomb look like a firecracker.
One nuke dropped on New York would kill every man, woman, and child in the city, and destroy most, if not all of the buildings.
The good news is that N. Korea does not have a way to deliver a bomb to us. The bad news is that they could attack Japan, China, or South Korea.

Answer 3

From what I've read the bomb the N Koreans have is less than a kiloton or a thousand tons of TNT. The US arsenal is primarily thermonuclear with an explosive capacity in the 10-20 MEGAton range, a megaton being a million tons of TNT.
To further put it in perspective, the bomb that fell on Hiroshima was 13-15 kilotons.

Answer 4

There are two types of weapons called "nuclear" bombs. One works by splitting (fission) the atom of a large element (Uranium 235 or Plutonium) and the other works by fusing atoms of Hydrogent into an atom of Helium. The latter process is how the sun burns its fuel and create heat.

Generally, "atomic" is used to refer to fission bombs and "nuclear" is used to refer to fusion (or Hydrogen or "H-Bombs")

An H bomb requires the temperatures and pressures of a fission bomb in order to be successful.

Our bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were FISSION bombs (one each with Uranium and Plutonium).

Our current nuclear stockpile is almost (if not 100%) composed of fusion weapons. They are much more efficienct and powerful

Answer 5

I'm assuming you are trying to differentiate between the bombs of today and the bombs from WW2. Although all of these are considered "Atom bombs", the bombs in WW2 were much weaker than those of today. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a Uranium gun type bomb, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki was a Plutonium implosion type bomb. The yield of each of these was equal to about 100,000 tons of TNT, and the death total was estimated between 100,000- 200,000 people. The bombs of today are "thermonuclear" Hydrogen bombs. Their yeild is equal to 50 million tons of TNT, and god only knows how many people that would kill.

Answer 6

A nuclear bomb and an atomic bomb are the same thing.

However, there is no need to be worried. We have monitored their test, and their underground nuclear test was a failure.

In addition, their missle test was also a failure. So even though it is likely they will have a nuclear bomb soon, they won't have the ability to get it to the US.

Answer 7

Nuclear bomb is 10 times stronger than nuclear

Answer 8

Nukes come in varying sizes. We have the capability of shooting them from a cannon, or mounting them on a ships missile. They can be dropped by aircraft with precision accuracy, they can be launched from submarines, and they can be mounted on intercontinental ballistic missiles. So far, I'm not aware of our capability of firing a low grade nuke from a snipers rifle, but I wouldn't argue with anyone who said we have just such a weapon.
A low yield nuclear bomb can be designed to take out a small town, a large one, a large town. A radiation bomb can do virtually no property damage, but kill population with radiation poisoning.

Many applications have been designed into this weapon, but mainly by large country's who have had years to develop such application.

Answer 9

they are the same thing and I think you aren't the only one worried. Hasn't Chernobyl been enough to prove that these things could wipe us all from the face of the earth?
The problem is not the bomb itself but the aftermath.
There are radioactive clouds that travel great distances. For instance after Chernobyl the radioactive cloud traveled as far as France. It depends on the winds direction and speed.

Answer 10

NUCLEAR IS AN UMBRELLA TERM THAT ENCOMPASSES THE ATOMIC ( THE A BOMB ) AND HYDROGEN ( THE H BOMB ). WHEN YOU SAY NUCLEAR YOU AR SPEAKING OF AN ATOMIC REACTION ON THE NUCLEAR LEVER.
READ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-bomb