Mythical Weapons?

 

In Quora, someone destroys the myth: nuclear weapons are just big incendiary bombs. Nothing to fear.

"The power of nuclear weapons has been used as a boogeyman for so long that the actual power of a nuclear detonation has almost no relation to their actual destructive power. No nuclear power can afford to actually use one in combat because it would expose the mythical nature of nuclear weapons.

Well then, how dangerous are nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons, if they weren't their own category, would be classified as incendiary weapons. They set stuff on fire. They set a lot of stuff on fire. In fact, they can set things on fire as far as two miles away from the actual detonation. Besides this, nuclear detonations are very bright, and capable of blinding people 20–30 miles away. This is only constrained by the curvature of the earth. They also create hurricane-force winds as the air around the detonation expands and contracts. If you are outside and unshielded and within a mile of a nuclear detonation, you are going to die.

Which brings us to our next point. Modern cities are just not that vulnerable to incendiaries. Modern city centers and industrial areas are made of concrete and steel. Most of the damage in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was done because almost all the buildings were made of wood and paper. The initial blast set the city centers on fire which spread and ended up burning down most of the city.

 This leads to the most surprising revelation about nuclear detonations: If you are not outside, you stand a good chance of surviving even within the blast zone. Nuclear blasts are mainly line-of-sight killers. The vast majority of “radiation” created by a nuclear detonation is infrared radiation, or heat the same as a gas stove or fireplace makes. Unless the building you are in is collapsed by the wind or you fail to leave if it catches on fire or you happen to be in front of a window with a direct line of sight to the detonation, you are probably going to be fine.

Most of the radiation is Thermal or visible; AKA heat and light. This radiation goes out in straight lines (line of sight) for a fraction of a second. This is relevant because this radiation is only there for a fraction of a second and then is gone leaving only its effects. A small amount of alpha and beta particles (hard radiation) are also produced. This radiation is also absorbed by the first solid object it runs into. The amount of energy transferred depends on the distance from the explosion by the inverse cube law. Radiation follows the inverse cube law, which means that the effects drop off very quickly.

the nuclear wasteland around Chernobyl never happened, much less lasted for thousands of years. Some plants and animals did die from the fallout, but not all of them or even most of them. The exclusion zone around Chernobyl has become a de facto nature preserve. The forest is lush and the wildlife is thriving. A few people who owned property in the exclusion zone have moved back in and seem to be doing just fine."

I conclude that our MAMADIM are efficient against nuclear weapons. I am sitting in one. A final comment: nuclear bombs need maintenance, and after a few years, will not explode.  Pic: Aftermath of the Nagasaki attack. Lesson: Avoid building houses of wood and paper. Concrete structures such as the chimneys survived undamaged by the bomb.