Global Consequences of Nuclear Weaponry

Mark, John

doi:10.1146/annurev.ns.26.120176.000411

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Per unit explosive power, a hydrogen bomb of 100 Kt costs only one hundredth as much as a chemical bomb. (Mark, 1976.) A bomb of 100 megatons (Mt) -of 100 million tons TNT equivalent -costs only twice as much as a bomb of 100 Kt.…”

Section: Hydrogen Weaponsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Strategic Nuclear Weapons

Broda

1979

Bulletin of Peace Proposals

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On August 6th, 1945, a bomb containing 60 kg of uranium 235 was dropped, without previous warning, on Hiroshima. Three days later, Nagasaki was destroyed by a bomb containing 8 kg of plutonium 239. (Barnaby, 1975.) Here the number of victims was somewhat smaller, as the town is situated in hilly country and had fewer inhabitants. According to the latest Japanese estimates, the number of dead in the two towns taken together may have been 250,000. In Hiroshima alone it was 140,000 out of a population of 360,000: nearly 40%. (New Scientist, 15.4.76.) Uncertainty is great as there had been, in the chaotic conditions in the Japan of 1945, an uncontrolled mass influx of people into towns previously intact.The effect of the uranium and plutonium bombs is mainly due to the fact that in nuclear fission 17 million times more energy, per unit weight, is released than in the explosion of the strongest chemical explosives. One of these is trinitrotoluene (TNT, trotyl), which was widely used in World Wars I and II. Nuclear fissions are induced as a chain reaction that requires less than one millionth of a second (microsecond.) (York, 1962, p. 27.) The reaction is transmitted from nucleus to nucleus by the neutrons released in fission with speeds of some 10,000 km/second. Whereas the heaviest chemical bombs of WW II contained about 10 tons of TNT, the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb corresponded to that of 14,000 tons (= 14 kilotons, Kt) of TNT; the power of the Nagasaki bomb to 20 Kt Bamaby, 1975). Thus the power exceeded that of the strongest bombs used previously by more than a thousandfold. About twothirds of the energy released appeared as mechanical energy of the pressure wave, onethird as thermal energy of the heat radiation, and 6% as energy of the 'ionizing' radiation, i.e. of radiation as produced by radioactive substances and X-ray tubes. The particles of such radiation, including particles of electromagnetic radiation ('photons'), carry enough energy to 'ionize' atoms, i.e. to deprive them of electrons. The number of dead was distributed over these effects in a ratio of about 20 : 60 : 20. Thus heat radiation was most effective; however, because of overlapping a clear-cut distinction is not possible.In Hiroshima, the explosion was triggered by an automatic mechanism 600 m above the 'hypocentre' ('ground zero'). This height had been chosen to maximise the action of blast and heat. At the centre of the explosion, initial pressure must have amounted to millions of atmospheres. Concrete buildings were destroyed up to I km, solid brick buildings collapsed up to 1.5 km, and glass broke up to 13 km from the hypocentre.During the explosion the material of the bomb reached a temperature of many million degrees, similar to that of the interior of the Sun. The energy of the heat was at first given off mainly as soft (long-wave) X-radiation, i.e. as ionizing photons. The X-rays were absorbed easily by air near the place of the explosion, and the air was thereby heated up to a 'fireball' . The temperature at the surfa...

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Section: Hydrogen Weaponsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This may endanger humans directly. These areas cannot be used for farming (Mark, 1976), and there is the further problem of how the starving population can be prevented from eating contaminated food. The degree of danger from fallout will vary greatly, and irregularly, from place to place.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Strategic Nuclear Weapons

Broda

1979

Bulletin of Peace Proposals

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Nuclear Chemistry of the Environment

Bailey

Clark

Ferris

et al. 1978

Chemistry of the Environment

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Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions

Turco

Toon

Ackerman

et al. 1983

Science

712

284

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The potential global atmospheric and climatic consequences of nuclear war are investigated using models previously developed to study the effects of volcanic eruptions. Although the results are necessarily imprecise due to wide range of possible scenaros and uncertainty in physical parameters, the most probable first-order effects are serious. Significant hemispherical attenuation of the solar radiation flux and subfreezing land temperatures may be caused by fine dust raised in high-yield nuclear surface bursts and by smoke from city and forest fires ignited by airbursts of all yields. For many simulated exchanges of several thousand megatons, in which dust and smoke are generated and encircle the earth within 1 to 2 weeks, average light levels can be reduced to a few percent of ambient and land temperatures can reach -15 degrees to -25 degrees C. The yield threshold for major optical and climatic consequences may be very low: only about 100 megatons detonated over major urban centers can create average hemispheric smoke optical depths greater than 2 for weeks and, even in summer, subfreezing land temperatures for months. In a 5000-megaton war, at northern mid-latitude sites remote from targets, radioactive fallout on time scales of days to weeks can lead to chronic mean doses of up to 50 rads from external whole-body gamma-ray exposure, with a likely equal or greater internal dose from biologically active radionuclides. Large horizontal and vertical temperature gradients caused by absorption of sunlight in smoke and dust clouds may greatly accelerate transport of particles and radioactivity from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere. When combined with the prompt destruction from nuclear blast, fires, and fallout and the later enhancement of solar ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion, long-term exposure to cold, dark, and radioactivity could pose a serious threat to human survivors and to other species.

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Global Consequences of Nuclear Weaponry

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Effects of Strategic Nuclear Weapons

Effects of Strategic Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Chemistry of the Environment

Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions

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