What is the radius of a modern nuclear weapon?

Within a 6-km (3.7-mile) radius of a 1-megaton bomb, blast waves will produce 180 tonnes of force on the walls of all two-storey buildings, and wind speeds of 255 km/h (158 mph). In a 1-km (0.6-mile) radius, the peak pressure is four times that amount, and wind speeds can reach 756 km/h (470 mph).

What is a safe distance from a nuke?

This will help provide protection from the blast, heat, and radiation of the detonation. When you have reached a safe place, try to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who are not part of your household.

What was the potential for nuclear war?

Besides the immediate destruction of cities by nuclear blasts, the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms, a nuclear winter, widespread radiation sickness from fallout, and/or the temporary (if not permanent) loss of much modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses.

What’s the maximum yield of a nuclear weapon?

According to nuclear-weapons designer Ted Taylor, the practical maximum yield-to-mass ratio for fusion weapons is about 6 megatons of TNT per metric ton (25 TJ/kg). The “Taylor limit” is not derived from first principles, and weapons with yields as high as 9.5 megatons per metric ton have been theorized.

How big is the blast radius of a nuclear bomb?

The blast radius of a nuclear bomb is variable. According to the National Terror Alert Center, the contributors to the blast radius of a nuclear bomb include the yield, fuel, weather, geography, whether the explosion was in the air or at the surface and even time of day. The blast radius of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about 1.7 miles.

What are the number of nuclear weapons in the world?

The number of states with confirmed nuclear capabilities now includes the US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. 2 This chart shows that the total number of nuclear weapons in the world peaked in 1986.

Is there a limit to the yield of a fission bomb?

Fusion boosting could likely raise the efficiency of such a weapon significantly, but eventually all fission-based weapons have an upper yield limit due to the difficulties of dealing with large critical masses. (The UK’s Orange Herald was a very large boosted fission bomb, with a yield of 750 kilotons.)