These are the effects that a nuclear bomb would produce: from maximum heat and pressure to lethal radiation

Europe, and practically the entire world, once again lives under a severe nuclear threat, which Putin has launched in recent hours after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the response in the form of a package of sanctions from the European Union. Nearly 80 years have passed since that threat first became a reality. Because in 1945, the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki they caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people in the short and long term.

It was that action, carried out by the United States and which led to the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II, the last time that the use of this type of weapon was made effective. Now, fear returns to haunt the lives of millions of people at Putin’s words. It is not surprising, because the situation is truly worrying; So much so that it is necessary to remember the work of the AsapSCIENCE team, a well-known educational and popularizing YouTube channel, which in 2017 came a little closer to this hypothetical scenario.

On ‘What If We Have A Nuclear War?‘ -What would happen if we suffered a nuclear war’-, Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown analyzed the operation of this nuclear threat and the possibilities of a territory facing situations of authentic catastrophe, such as the explosion of a nuclear bomb similar to that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before delving into this issue, they warn: there is no way to specify the effects of a nuclear impact like the one that humanity has already experienced, since it depends on various factors.

In any case, it is possible to make an approximation of the consequences of this nuclear threat finally becoming effective, as presented in the video displayed below these lines. Moffit and Brown point out that 35% of the energy of a nuclear explosion is released as thermal radiation. And since thermal radiation travels relatively close to the speed of light, the first thing you’d see after such an explosion it is a flash of blinding light and heat.

But they go further, giving as an example the explosion of a one megaton nuclear bomb, 80 times more powerful than the one detonated in Hiroshima but that in reality does not reach the capacity of modern nuclear bombs, much more powerful. With the impact of such bombs, the population within a radius of 21 kilometers would suffer sudden blindness on a clear day, and people up to 85 kilometers away would become temporarily blind on a clear night.

The heat would also be a serious problem depending on the proximity to the impact site: from first degree burns at a distance of 11 kilometers up to third degree burns, capable of destroying skin tissue, at a distance of eight kilometers, which would lead to the death of those affected without urgent medical attention shortly after experiencing the impact. But also in this case, the consequences are relative, because even the color of the shirt you will be wearing at that time influences.

In any case, the greatest blow would be suffered by those unlucky enough to be in the center of the explosion at the time of the events. In relation to the Hiroshima bomb, it was calculated that temperatures near the blast site were 300,000 degrees, nearly 300 times hotter than the temperature at which bodies are cremated. Without ignoring the problem of the air, since a nuclear explosion pushes it away aggressively, creating sudden changes in air pressure that can crush objects and knock down buildings.

In this regard, within a radius of six kilometers with a one-megaton bomb, shock waves they would produce 180 metric tons of force on the walls of all two-story buildings and wind speeds of 255 kilometers per hour. Within a radius of one kilometer, that maximum pressure would be four times greater in an area with winds that could exceed 750 kilometers per hour. And if for whatever reason a person were to survive it, they would still have an equally powerful enemy: radiation.