Nuclear war.
It’s a term that’s associated with annihilation,
devastation, and perhaps the end of life on
earth.
Modern humankind had never heard about or
experienced the horrific aftermath of a nuclear
explosion until the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
Now, 70 years later, the world has a combined
arsenal of 15,000 nuclear weapons across 9
countries.
The true horror of nuclear explosions is not
solely in the instantaneous, or short-term
devastation that it causes, but in the longevity
of its impact, which can cause deadly harm
for generations following the blast.
The consequences of a nuclear explosion include
radioactive fallout and other environmental
effects; inflicting damage on all life that
lasts from milliseconds to decades.
The effects are calculated from the point
of explosion, also known as “ground zero”.
There is a difference between reactor accidents
and a detonation of a nuclear weapon explosion;
nuclear weapons have high concentrations of
uranium or plutonium isotopes while nuclear
reactor power plants have very little or none.
At first, the pressure wave, or overpressure,
from the explosion radiates outward which
produces sudden changes in the air pressure
so strong that it could crush or knock down
objects, and even destroy large buildings.
The intensity of the explosion depends on
the height of the burst above ground level.
It has a similar effect to a two-second flash
from a huge sunlamp.
Since the thermal radiation travels similarly
to the speed of light, the visible light produces
“flash blindness”.
With a 1 Megaton bomb people as far away as
24km will be affected (on a clear sunny day).
Flash blindness usually only lasts a few minutes,
but When the flash is focused through the
lens of the eye, it will result in permanent
retinal damage.
Within minutes of the nuclear explosion.
90% of the fatality will be due to burns from
thermal radiation and 10% due to super-lethal
radiation exposure from ionizing radiation.
People can suffer from third-degree burns
as far as 8km from the point of explosion!
When 24 percent of the body suffers from a
third-degree burn or, when 30 percent of the
body suffers from a second-degree burn, it
is possible to suffer from serious shock which
could be fatal without immediate specialized
medical assistance.
According to data, a single nuclear weapon
explosion could produce more than 10,000 burn
patients.
In the days and weeks following the blast,
radiation poisoning will be the most potent
killer.
There are numerous lethal radiation syndromes,
including bone marrow death, central nervous
system death, and gastrointestinal death.
Areas of the body particularly susceptible
to radiation are Skin (which can experience
blistering, flaking, hair loss), Lungs(which
can suffer from occlusion, edema, inflammation
and lead to pulmonary insufficiency and death),
ass well as male and female Reproductive organs
(potentially leading to permanent sterility)
Long after the acute effects of radiation
have subsided, radiation damage continues
to produce a wide range of complications,
depending on the amount of radiation the person
was exposed to.
These effects appear two, three, even ten
years later.
According to Japanese data, there was an increase
in anemia among persons exposed to the bomb.
In some cases, the decrease in white and red
blood cells lasted for up to ten years after
the bombing.
Ionizing radiation above a dose of around
50-100 Millisievert exposure has been shown
to significantly increase the likelihood of
dying of cancer due to its mutating effect
on DNA.
A significant correlation between exposure
level and degree of incidence has been reported
for leukemia, thyroid cancer, breast cancer,
lung cancer, and cancer of the salivary gland.
Often years pass before radiation-caused malignancies
appear, like 2 years on average for leukemia
and 10 years for skin and lung cancers.
Beginning in early 1946, scar tissue covering
healed burns began to swell and grow abnormally.
Mounds of raised and twisted flesh, called
keloids, were found in 50 to 60 percent of
those burned by direct exposure to the heat
rays within 1.2 miles of the hypocenter.
There was also an increase in cataract in
the survivors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even
those who were who were partially shielded.
A single nuclear explosion can also harm the
population decades into the future!
Exposure to radiation in the first trimester
can cause the lifetime risk of fatal cancer
in the child to increase from 25% to 100%!
In 1995, research conducted by Nagasaki doctors
found that 7000 of the survivors had a high
incidence of depression or PTSD, 50 years
after the bombings.
Scientists estimate that if 100-Hiroshima
sized nuclear bombs exploded, tens of millions
of people would die from climate changes alone.
The soot rising into the atmosphere would
block out any sunlight for years, leading
us into a nuclear winter where another study
estimated would lead to as many as 2 BILLION
people dying of famine.
So there you go.
Those effects came from what humans were capable
more than 70 years ago.
Now, with more and more powerful and devastating
weapons being constructed and tensions running
high, humankind may be closer than ever to
the brink of self-destruction and extinction.
