However, to find out more about the current state of nuclear weaponry in the world, including the scale of the bombs, you can visit the Nuclear Notebook at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.Ī version of this article was originally published in January 2017. We also know that radioactive particles can travel remarkably far a recent study found that remnants of radioactive carbon from Cold War nuclear bomb tests have been found all the way down in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the world's oceans.Īgain, all of this is hypothetical – there are international treaties in place to stop the spread and use of nuclear weapons, so we hope you never need to know any of this information for real. AsapSCIENCE touches on this in the video above, but the ongoing effects on the planet are longer-lasting than you might expect.įor example, a simulation study published in 2019 found that a nuclear war between the United States and Russia would plunge Earth into a nuclear winter within days, due to the levels of smoke and soot released into the atmosphere. The Effects of Nuclear Radiation on Different Areas of a Human Body Those who are exposed to 200 rems or more of radiation may have nuclear radiation effects such as the loss of hair or hair that clumps together. There are times when the brain can be damaged but this happens only at an exposure that is higher than 5000 rems.
If you somehow survive all of that, there's still the radiation poisoning to deal with – and the nuclear fallout. Many children and adolescents in the area in 1986 drank milk contaminated with radioactive iodine, which delivered substantial doses to their thyroid glands. The Effects of Nuclear Radiation on Different Areas of a Human Body Those who are exposed to 200 rems or more of radiation may have nuclear radiation effects such as the loss of hair or hair that clumps together. Technically, humans can withstand that much pressure, but most people would be killed by falling buildings. 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). Within a 6-km (3.7-mile) radius of a 1-megaton bomb, blast waves would produce 180 metric tons of force on the walls of all two-story buildings, and wind speeds of 255 km/h (158 mph). The blast of a nuclear explosion also drives air away from the site of the explosion, creating sudden changes in air pressure that can crush objects and knock down buildings. The temperatures near the site of the bomb blast during the Hiroshima explosion were estimated to be 300,000 degrees Celsius (540,000 degrees Fahrenheit) – which is roughly 300 times hotter than the temperature bodies are cremated at, so humans were almost instantly reduced to the most basic elements, like carbon.īut for those slightly farther away from the center of the blast, there are other effects to consider aside from heat.
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