Approximately 85 percent of the explosive energy produces air blast (and shock) and thermal radiation (heat). A great piece of history as well. Effects of Nuclear Weapons. A 15 kiloton weapon creates pressure created in excess of 10 Psi (pounds per square inch) with wind speeds in excess of 800 km per hour up to about a 1.2 km radius. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear power explosion and fire in the Ukraine in 1986, radioactive rain fell over the next few days in a wide arc across Northern Europe, from Scandinavia to Scotland, Cumbria and Wales, a distance of over 1,700 miles from Chernobyl. The sheer scale of the casualties would overwhelm any country’s medical resources. Acute effects from the bombs may have contributed to the deaths of over 250,000 additional people in the following decades. Radiation-induced cancers will affect many, often over twenty years later. Thermal radiation and blast are inevitable consequences of the near instantaneous release of an immense amount of energy in a very small volume, and are thus characteristic to all nuclear weapons regardless of type or design details. Nuclear Weapon Tests USA Russia U.K. France China Atmo-spheric 1945-63 1949-62 1952-58 1960-74 1964-80 215 219 21 … Nuclear weapons are the most terrifying weapon ever invented: no weapon is more destructive; no weapon causes such unspeakable human suffering; and there is no way to control how far the radioactive fallout will spread or how long the effects will last. The book describes the effects of Nuclear Weapons and gives you a little compass type thing that allows you to determine basically, the size of the hole in the ground where you are standing. The impacts of a nuclear explosion depend on many factors, including the design of the weapon (fission or fusion) and its yield; whether the detonation takes place in the air (and at what altitude), on the surface, underground, or underwater; the meteorological and environmental conditions; and whether the target is urban, rural, or military. A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction.The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion-based weapons have used a fission device to initiate fusion, and a pure fusion weapon remains a hypothetical device. Each one of these forms causes devastation on a scale that is unimaginable. Nuclear weapons are fundamentally different from conventional weapons because of the vast amounts of explosive energy they can release and the kinds of effects they produce, such as high temperatures and radiation. Divisions in the province will be reduced to 20% or less of their strength and organization 2. Examining the climate effects of a regional nuclear weapons exchange using a multiscale atmospheric modeling approach, Journal … © Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales no.