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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: TimF who wrote (132637)2/13/2001 1:45:34 PM
From: pgerassi  Read Replies (1) of 1571003
 
Dear Tim:

The most damage by any large explosive like a nuclear bomb is damage due to the shockwave created by the explosion. The impact of the shockwave decreases as the wave radiates outward. The impact thus, is proportional to the inverse of the square of the distance to the initial detonation. Thus to double the distance with the same impact requires 4 times the energy (actually somewhat more due to friction and other such damping effects).

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were somewhat less than 20KT each and had a kill radius of about 2 miles (number pulled from a recent documentary). MIRV warheads are generally between 50 and 500KT or have kill radiuses of 3 and 10 miles. There exist nuclear warheads to 3MT or a kill radius of 24 miles. Thermonuclear ((D)ueterium-(T)ritium (isotopes of Hydrogen)) bombs exist to 100MT with 60MT being a typical size (largest ever exploded was a 57MT by the USSR). Thus, the 100MT DT bomb has a kill radius of about 140 miles.

The largest designed is a 2GT bomb with a cobalt casing which was never built. This would have a kill radius of 630 miles but, the cobalt casing would turn into a highly radioactive isotope of Cobalt-60 with a half-life of 5 years and blow it evenly over the entire world. This would probably cause all unprotected people in the world to die of radiation poisoning (Cobalt is taken up into the body for use in bones, etc.). There probably is some order never to build it for the above reason.

Most bombs in the inventories of all countries is in the MIRV sizes as they are highly reliable and low maintenance. The DT bombs have a high maintenance due to the short half life of Tritium (around 1 year IIRC).

Pete
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