![[JUST IN] FULL LIST:10 ministers seeking elective positions resign, Buhari bids them farewell](https://cdn.newspeakonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/13133823/Buhari-and-the-ministers-75x75.webp)
By Femi Olayiwola
Russian President Vladimir Putin has alarmed the world by instructing his country’s military to put its nuclear forces on “special alert” – a move that he says was in response to what he calls aggressive statements from the West, and international condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
What is a Nuclear Weapon?
A nuclear weapon is a bomb that uses nuclear reactions to produce heat, light, and tremendous amounts of energy. Nuclear weapons have been around for decades, but the use of them has only increased in recent years.
Nuclear weapons typically come in three forms: bombs, bullets, and mines. Bombs are the most common form of nuclear weapons because they are easy to make and don’t require extensive set-up or materials. They often contain radioactive material which makes them incredibly dangerous when used as weapons in populated areas.
How many nuclear weapons does Russia have?
Russia has a nuclear stockpile of 4,477 warheads, according to figures compiled by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in its annual Nuclear Notebook in January 2022. The country, which is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), has greatly reduced its nuclear arsenal from a high of around 40,000 warheads in the 1980s, just as its Cold War foe, the United States, has reduced its stockpile from around 30,000 in the 1960s to just under 4,000 today.
While the overall number of nuclear weapons in existence has decreased, their destructive power has increased dramatically since the atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII, killing over 200,000 people by the end of 1945 and many more after that. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Russia’s current nuclear warheads are mostly between 100 and 800 kilotons in strength, whereas these bombs had a strength of around 15 and 20 kilotons, respectively.
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Russia’s current nuclear warheads are mostly between 100 and 800 kilotons in size. The US’ range from 100 to 1,200 kilotons, while the other two NPT-recognized nuclear states in NATO, the United Kingdom and France, have weapons in the low hundreds of kilotons.
Drozdenko warns that “modern weapons are 20 to 30 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” “It could potentially be a civilization-ending event if the US and Russia launch everything they have.” The death toll could be “measured in the millions rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands,” according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, even if only a single nuclear weapon were dropped on a large city today (ICAN). One nuclear bomb, according to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, “can destroy an entire city, potentially killing millions of people, and endangering the natural environment and the lives of future generations through its long-term catastrophic effects.”
What happens when one is dropped on a city?
A nuclear weapon can be donated on the surface or in the air; the latter impacts a larger geographical area and is how the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs were used.
1. Fireball vaporizes everything in its wake
A 300-kiloton nuclear bomb detonated in the air, according to a simulator created by the Outrider Foundation, a US-based organization that campaigns against nuclear weapons and climate change, would create a fireball measuring just over one square kilometer within a fraction of a second of detonation. This fireball would heat up to a temperature greater than that of the sun, vaporizing everything inside it in an instant.
2. Heat burns everything in a far wider area
The intense heat generated by the explosion would leave people with “severe or fatal third-degree burns,” according to the Outrider Foundation, and everything made of materials like plastic, wood, and fabric would catch fire over a much wider radius than the fireball – a little over 160 square kilometers. People outside of this radius are still at risk of first- or second-degree burns. Furthermore, anyone looking in the direction of the explosion at the time of detonation would be temporarily blinded by the flash.
3. Shockwave adds to destruction
The rapid expansion of the fireball would cause a shockwave of around 70 square kilometers by pushing back the surrounding air. Buildings without steel-reinforced concrete would be demolished by hurricane-force winds, and people in the area would be injured or killed by collapsing structures and debris carried by the high winds. To make matters worse, because of the damage to healthcare workers and infrastructure, those injured by the explosion are unlikely to receive prompt medical attention.
4. Radioactive fallout
The Outrider Foundation estimates that 50 percent to 90 percent of those who survive the heat and shockwave will die of radiation poisoning “within a few hours to a few weeks” as a result of the nuclear blast’s extremely high levels of radiation.
Furthermore, the explosion’s mushroom cloud would carry radioactive debris high into the air and over long distances. Radioactive particles would contaminate the environment for years; for example, they would be absorbed by crops and work their way into our food chain as a result. Many people exposed to radiation died of cancers like leukemia in the years following the blast.
This has been observed in survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. According to figures published by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2015, cancer was responsible for nearly two-thirds of all deaths among Hiroshima survivors in the preceding 12 months; it was just over half in the case of the Nagasaki atomic bomb. Children under the age of ten who were exposed to atomic radiation in 1945 were four times more likely than the general population to be diagnosed with leukemia, according to the ICRC.
What are the risks associated with nuclear weapons?
Nuclear weapons are an incredible force of destruction. If a nuclear weapon exploded in a city, it would create a massive blast radius. The effects would be felt for blocks outwards and the amount of collateral damage would be devastating. People who are not killed by the initial blast could still die from burns or radiation sickness days later.
The risks associated with nuclear weapons are immense and even if you’re not in a city where one is dropped, there’s always the chance that one could explode nearby. That’s why it’s important to know what these weapons do and how they work so you can be prepared for anything.
-Paraphrased
Source: https://as.com/
