if one atomic bomb was dropped on the uk how much damage would it do? would it take out all of the uk,?

Question

from city to city, coast to coast, totally destroy, and roast everything into non existance? or would it just destroy a small percentage of the uk, like say a couple of cities?

does anyone have any theories about this?

Answer 1

Here check this out it shows how much damage different size bombs cause. It just shows American cities though.

http://www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=297&contentId=367

Answer 2

It entirely depends on whether it's a fusion (Hydrogen Bomb) or fission bomb (Atom Bomb). It's a lengthy subject so lets use hiroshima as an example (and thats a small bomb) which is a fission type bomb.

Firstly, in basic terms, the effective blast radius was about 1.5 miles. But it's not a blast radius like in a conventional bomb.

Firstly, the explosion generates a huge force which literally blows outwards at around 150mph with an intense heat.

Once the nominal reaction has been reached, the explosion comes to a halt, an the second stage begins.

The outward pressure will have removed all oxygen from the area within the blast zone, so the pressure of the atmosphere begins to balance itself, and forces atmospheric air back into the core area of the blast.

This creates, in effect, wind, which rushes to the centre of the explosion, and provides oxygen (i.e. fuel) for any fires that are burning (which will be numerous). What you get in effect is a firestorm that blows to the centre of the explosion, and it's this inward rush of atmospheric pressure that generates the mushroom cloud.

Finally, and perhaps most horrifically, is the fallout of the depleted uranium in the atmosphere, which (in Hiroshima at least) killed twice as many people as the actual explosion in the first place, but did it though cancer, radiation poisening and genetic problems.

Now, that bomb had a power ectimated between 12 and 16,000 megatons (i.e. between 12,000,000,000 to 16,000,000,000 tonnes of TNT). Pretty alarming statistic that.

But thats peanuts. The current estimated destructive power of the largest Nuclear bomb stands at 16 teratonnes (16,000,000,000,000 tonnes of TNT), 1000 thousand times more than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Enough to wipe out the UK in it's entirety and create fallout that would poison 28% of the earths land mass with acid rain.

Such devices exist but the reality is that they would never get anywhere near use. Air delivered bombs or ICBM's would be shot out the sky before they hit, and it's actually perfectly safe to shoot a nuke down with a conevtional incendary weapon (nukes need a controlled run process to work).

A country is known to have nuclear weapons becuase there is a fluid called heavy water that is required for the process, and it's so hard to make and is monitored so closely that it's a 99.0% certainty that if a country is found with heavy water, it'll be making nuclear weapons.

Thats why the US are crawling all over iraq, because they KNOW they're there (although they're having bugger all luck finding them!)

Answer 3

There is no single atomic (fission or fusion) bomb on Earth that is powerful enough to wipe out all of the UK.
The most powerful atomic explosive devices could destroy a city the size of, say, Manchester, Glasgow, or most of London. In the long term, nuclear fallout might pose more of a danger to life because the UK is relatively densely populated.

Answer 4

With what I know about the bomb, if one was used on the island it would probably take out all of the UK. What would not be kill outright will die from radiation. When there were lots missiles in Missouri, I said if a war started I would sit down and light up a cigarette to watch the show. I have quit smoking but if it hit today sit down and drank a beer. Now if it happens just kiss your butt goodbye.

Answer 5

No of course not- the UK is several hundred miles in length and girth; small, perhaps, compared to the USA or much or mainland Europe, but still large enough not to be completely destroyed by a nuke!

Answer 6

An atomic bomb would probably take out a large city. Thermo nuclear devices would reek a lot of damage taking out outlaying suburbs as well. as for radiation and EM shock wave i do not know

Answer 7

Uh.. well it may take out one whole part such as if it was dropped on Scotland... bye bye. England... may have a chance but that is remote. Wales... only the north. But when I say take out I mean only the cities. One nuke couldn't destroy a whole country unless it was the british virgin islands or Hawaii

Answer 8

Nukes depending on size will do about 10 miles depending on size its not the explosive damage its going to be the fallout which would do a ton of damage to anyone within 200 miles

Answer 9

depends what size bomb you are talking about.
correctly someone else has said that at the moment there isnt one big enough - but we are talking about air delivered / dropped munitions - but technically one could be made, but land based.
however it would be so big and cause such devastation what would be the point ? [it would also be much more likely to be discovered as well]

it is far more likely, biological, chemical or FAE will be used in the next global, general or limited war

Answer 10

That depends on the size of the bomb.I think the fall out will cause the biggest damage.