Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who played a key role in the Manhattan Project, what instrument he would use to detect a nuclear bomb smuggled into the United States. Once the container ship reached a port like Newark, terrorists would have no trouble loading the concealed bomb into the back of an unassuming white van and driving it through the Lincoln Tunnel directly into Times Square.
One of the greatest misconceptions about nuclear bombs is that they annihilate everything in sight, leaving nothing but a barren flatland devoid of shape and life. In truth, the physical destruction inflicted by a nuclear explosion resembles that of a combined hurricane and firestorm of unprecedented proportion.
Consider one example: A ten-kiloton nuclear bomb detonated on the ground in Times Square would explode with a white flash brighter than the sun. It would be seen for hundreds of miles, briefly blinding people as far away as Queens and Newark. In the same moment, a wave of searing heat would radiate outward from the explosion, followed by a massive fireball, the core of which would reach tens of millions of degrees, as hot as the center of the sun. When such a bomb explodes, everyone within 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. The heat of the nuclear explosion bleaches or darkens the background surface, except for the spot blocked by the person, leaving a corresponding outline.
Near the center of the blast, the suffering and devastation most closely conform to the fictional apocalypse of our imaginations. This is what it would look like within a half-mile of Times Square: Few buildings would remain standing.
Mountains of rubble would soar as high as 30 feet. As fires raged, smoke and ash would loft into the air. Rockefeller Center would be an unrecognizable snarl of steel and concrete, its titanic statue of Prometheus — eight tons of bronze and plaster clad in gold — completely incinerated.
Within a half-mile radius of the blast, there would be few survivors. Those closest to the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have described the horrors they witnessed: People with ripped sheets of skin hanging from their bodies; people whose brains were visible through their shattered skulls; people with holes for eyes.
As the fireball travels outward from the blast, people, buildings, and trees within a one-mile radius would be severely burned or charred. Metal, fabric, plastic, and clay would ignite, melt, or blister. The intense heat would set gas lines, fuel tanks, and power lines on fire, and an electromagnetic pulse created by the explosion would knock out most computers, cell phones, and communication towers within several miles. Traveling much farther than the fireball, a colossal pressure wave would hurtle forth faster than the speed of sound, generating winds up to miles per hour.
The shock wave would demolish the flimsiest buildings and strip the walls and roofs off stronger structures, leaving only their naked and warped scaffolding.
It would snap utility poles like toothpicks and rip through trees, fling people through the air, and turn brick, glass, wood, and metal into deadly projectiles. A blast in Times Square, combined with the fireball, would carve a crater 50 feet deep at the center of the explosion.
The shock wave would reach a diameter of nearly 3. All this would happen within a few seconds. Five different nukes, and what they would do if unleashed on Times Square. Puny by current standards, a ten-kiloton terrorist bomb detonated on the ground in Times Square would deliver a blast nearly as destructive as the nukes dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Estimated injured and killed in blast: , This is the nuke that North Korea is believed to have tested last year.
Though smaller than many warheads, a kiloton bomb, detonated in the air, would create a larger shock wave and fireball than a ground explosion. Estimated injured and killed in blast: 2. A single warhead would destroy most buildings in Manhattan and expose people from Park Slope to Secaucus to thermal radiation. Estimated injured and killed in blast: 4. Estimated injured and killed in blast: 7. Estimated injured and killed in blast: The moment a nuclear bomb detonates, several forms of nuclear radiation instantly permeate the environment.
As this pulse of radiation surges through the bodies of everyone who is outside, or in weakly insulated buildings, it wreaks biological havoc at the molecular level. By altering the structure of key cellular machinery and injuring DNA, the radiation impairs the ability of cells to replicate and repair themselves. Within minutes to hours, most people exposed in these areas would begin to show signs of acute radiation syndrome: nausea, headache, dizziness, and vomiting.
After several days to two weeks, new symptoms would emerge: diarrhea, hair loss, fever, seizures, and bleeding in the mouth and under the skin, which sometimes creates purple blotches on the body. In the most severe cases, people would become emaciated, delirious, and incapacitated. Most people with radiation sickness will die for one of two reasons: because they no longer have enough immune cells to fight off microbial infections, or because their digestive system is too damaged to function properly.
The radiation released instantaneously by an explosion is only a prelude to a much more insidious and long-lived threat.
Immediately after the blast, a huge fireball would rise swiftly through the air and begin to condense into a mushroom cloud, tinted red at first, then white.
A strong updraft and inflowing winds would suck soil and debris, already bonded with radioactive particles released by the explosion, into the cloud. Within 15 minutes, a portion of this radioactive dust — mostly grains the size of salt or sand — would begin to fall directly on the city. Within a day, some survivors exposed to the dust would begin to experience itching and burning sensations; within two to three weeks, lesions would begin to appear. Fallout that is inhaled or swallowed, or that enters the body through a wound, would be even more dangerous: It exposes internal organs to a continuous source of nuclear radiation, damaging tissue in the same way as the initial pulse of radiation from the explosion itself.
What would happen if a ten-kiloton terrorist bomb were detonated in Times Square. Following a flash brighter than the sun, a massive fireball would blast a crater 50 feet deep and cremate almost everything — and everyone — between Sixth and Eighth Avenues. Those taking the subway would be killed when the entire station collapses.
Simulations show how each of the cities would be affected by a kiloton blast — the kind detonated over Hiroshima. New York City would have the most fatalities. San Francisco would have the least. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Wellerstein's NukeMap tool lets you detonate a hypothetical nuclear bomb over any major city in the world. In the event of a kiloton blast, 64, people in San Francisco could die — but that's the smallest number of any city on this list.
If Houston were attacked, 90, people could die. The Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston would both be safe from damage if the bomb were detonated near the city's downtown. In Los Angeles, , people would be killed. In the simulation below, LA's historic center is directly within the fireball, so everyone there would likely be killed. A kiloton explosion could cause , deaths in Washington, DC.
The Pentagon and Ronald Reagan Airport might escape thermal radiation if a bomb were detonated over the National Mall. In Chicago, a nuclear bomb could kill , people — almost as many as Houston's and San Francisco's death counts combined. People at the University of Chicago and Willis Tower would be exposed to severe doses of radiation under this simulation, according to an explosion simulation above the South Loop neighborhood.
A nuclear bomb dropped on New York City could kill , people — the most of any city on this list. If the blast were to strike lower Manhattan, most of Brooklyn and Queens would be safe, but some windows there might still shatter. Loading Something is loading. Email address. Deal icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. It even provides a tally of the fatalities and injuries likely to result based on how many people live in the area.
By default, the bomb blast is set to New York City, which would endure over 7. The group wants to bring the conversation regarding nuclear weapons to the forefront, with the ultimate goal of disarmament. April 3, pm. Share This Article.
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