Nuclear fallout is one of the most destructive and dangerous phenomena in the world. It is the result of a nuclear explosion, which releases a massive amount of radiation into the atmosphere. This radiation can have devastating effects on the environment, health, and climate. When a nuclear weapon is detonated, particles are released from the stem and cascade down the outside of the fireball in a downward current.
This causes rain to reach near ground zero within an hour. In 24 hours, more than half of the total debris from the bomb will have fallen to the ground as local rain. This precipitation can have serious consequences for both the environment and human health. In extreme cases, it can even affect the climate.
The exact distribution of precipitation depends on the speed and direction of the wind. In some conditions, lethal rain can extend several hundred miles downwind of an explosion. If a nuclear weapon is detonated at a high altitude, it does not produce any of the explosion or local rain effects described above. The debate about the national and global effects of nuclear war continues, and it is unlikely that issues will be conclusively decided without the unfortunate experiment of real nuclear war.
The destructive effects of explosions extend miles from the point of detonation of a typical nuclear weapon, and the lethal consequences can cover communities hundreds of miles downwind of a single nuclear explosion. Using updated models of Cold War nuclear explosions, we can roughly predict the number of casualties and injuries from a nuclear bomb in a given location, large or small. The highest levels of outdoor rain radiation occur immediately after the arrival of rain and then decrease over time. A limited form of nuclear warfare would be like conventional conflict on the battlefield, but using low-performance tactical nuclear weapons. Retaliatory nuclear forces (a virtual impossibility, given nuclear missile submarines) are also considered with lethal seriousness by nuclear planners. A nuclear war would produce enormous quantities of ozone-consuming chemicals, and studies suggest that even modest nuclear exchange would lead to unprecedented increases in ultraviolet exposure. This was counterproductive, as Sagan was ridiculed by aggressive physicists such as Edward Teller, who had an interest in perpetuating the myth that nuclear war could be won and that a missile defense system could protect the United States from nuclear attack. This web page provides information on the radioactive consequences of nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere conducted during the 1940s and 1950s.
Nuclear Winter is a substantial reduction in global temperature that could result from the injection of soot into the atmosphere during a nuclear war. Can we eliminate nuclear weapons? Should we? What risks could such removal entail? Those are some of the real issues in ongoing debates on the future of nuclear weapons.
