[Salon] Ted Postol and the nuclear fireball



Not for the faint hearted, Ted Postol describes the effects of a single 800-kiloton nuclear detonation at a height of about one mile above an American city:

At ranges yet nearer to the detonation, heating effects will be so intense, that human flesh would burn explosively into carbon, and asphalt on the streets would melt and, in some cases, vaporize.

At that point, the resulting fires over an area of between 100 and 150 square miles on Earth would efficiently heat large volumes of air near and above the ground. The energy released by this mass fire would be 15 to 50 times greater than the energy produced by the nuclear detonation. The rising hot air would reach wind speeds of 300 miles per hour and be so intense they would knock airplanes above the fire zone from the sky.

This “chimney effect” would pull cool air from outside the fire zone towards the center of the fire at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. These superheated ground-winds of more than hurricane force would further intensify the fire....

More: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/nuclear-detonation-over-a-city/


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Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
Senior Advisor, Quincy Institute/Editorial Director, Responsible Statecraft 
703-470-3759
vlahos@quincyinst.org


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