I'm feeling particularly tinfoil hat today so I decided to make this thread to show people how much trouble they'd be in if certain nuclear devices were detonated in or around their location.
Select a device from the below list and a location and I'll tell you what would happen if the device was detonated there, as well as if they're likely to be affected by an actual nuclear war (if they aren't a primary target, how they would be affected by fallout from other detonations).
"Davy Crockett" - smallest US bomb produced (20t)
Crude nuclear terrorist weapon (100t)
North Korean weapon, tested in 2013 (10kt)
"Little Boy" - Hiroshima bomb (15kt)
"Fat Man" - Nagasaki bomb (20kt)
W-76 (common in US & UK arsenal) (100kt)
TN 80/81 (largest current French warhead) (300kt)
Topol (SS-25) (currently in Russian arsenal) (800kt)
Also I would say Boston is not a primary target, but wind direction dictates that when NYC is struck (which is a prime target), fallout would carry over to Boston. The actual levels of radiation would depend on the type of bomb used.
The little green circle is radiation radius (500 rem radiation dose; without medical treatment, there can be expected between 50% and 90% mortality from acute effects alone. Dying takes between several hours and several weeks.)
The light orange circle is maximum size of the nuclear fireball; relevance to lived effects depends on height of detonation. If it touches the ground, the amount of radioactive fallout is significantly increased.
The red circle outlined in grey is the air blast radius at 20 psi overpressure, heavily built concrete buildings are severely damaged or demolished; fatalities approach 100%.
The grey circle is the air blast radius at 5 psi overpressure, most residential buildings collapse, injuries are universal, fatalities are widespread.
And the largest outer circle with the orange border is the thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns). Third degree burns extend throughout the layers of skin, and are often painless because they destroy the pain nerves. They can cause severe scarring or disablement, and can require amputation. 100% probability for 3rd degree burns at this yield is 13.9 cal/cm2.
Those are all for the circles, not the drifting northeasterly colours without a border. Those are the fallout contours, which show the radiation which will be carried by wind. In the middle of it, the darkest red colour shows the fallout contour for 1000 rads per hour, then the next colour is 100 rads per hour, then 10, then 1. A dose of under 100 rad will typically produce no immediate symptoms other than blood changes. 100 to 200 rad delivered to the entire body in less than a day may cause acute radiation syndrome, (ARS) but is usually not fatal. Doses of 200 to 1,000 rad delivered in a few hours will cause serious illness with poor outlook at the upper end of the range. Whole body doses of more than 1,000 rad are almost invariably fatal.
would it always go in that direction? or like is the little ring around where the bomb lands the damage that it would do where it landed and then branch out? also is boston a primary lmk or how would we be affected if we aren't lmk again thanks
