Learn from your past to avoid repeating history, or so the saying dictates. With this in mind, and to avoid another nuclear disaster like the one that happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, researchers from different fields of study have investigated the impacts in today’s society if a nuclear bomb is detonated.
You might wonder? If we as humanity want to avoid another catastrophic event like those that happened during World War II, why are we still worrying about nuclear bombs? Well, nuclear research and power have been explored in many ways and one of them shows the worst of humans: weapons.
How many nuclear bombs are there?
Although to this day the exact numbers of how many nuclear warheads are worldwide, the Federation of American Scientists estimates there are around 19,000, most of them (95%) of Russian and American property. The rest of the recognized nuclear bombs are distributed in countries like France, the United Kingdom, and China, according to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; while countries like North Korea, India, and Pakistan claim to have one.
How strong is a nuclear bomb?
It all depends on its capacity. According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICANW), modern nuclear arsenals belonging to Russia and the U.S. are “thermonuclear weapons and have explosive yields of the equivalent at least 100 kilotons of dynamite – and some are much higher”.
The ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had an explosive yield of about 15 kilotons, which is nowadays considered low.
According to NukeMap, if a nuclear weapon was to be dropped on New York City, it will cause over 500,000 fatalities.
What would happen if a nuclear bomb went off?
After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other organizations began documenting and researching the impacts of such a terrific event and how it impacted not only the health of civilians but as well as the environment and even the medical infrastructure.
Since then, a committee gathers constantly to assess the risks of nuclear bombing. In 2013 and 2014, international conferences were organized by the governments of Norway, Mexico, and Austria to comprehensively assess existing knowledge of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and they came up with some scary hypotheses and conclusions.
Because of all the consequences, a nuclear bomb detonation will bring to society worldwide, the ICRC claims that even in modern days, “the risk of nuclear weapons being used is unacceptable”.
