Detonation Britain
Cód:
491_9781861711731
NUCLEAR WAR IN THE U.K. An exploration of how the United Kingdom would fare in a nuclear war. There are chapters on: nuclear politics • nukespeak and nuclear theology • atomic bomb tests and accidents • American bases in the U.K. • the superpowers military programmes and strategies • the cost of nuclear war • British civil defence • the Gulf War, infowar and smart technology • nuclear attack scenarios • and anti-war and peace initiatives. Jeremy Robinsons books include Blade Runner and the Films of Philip K. Dick, Rimbaud, Lawrence Durrell and Hayao Miyazaki. EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER TWO: HELL ON EARTH A NUCLEAR WAR ‘WORST CASE’ SCENARIO Here’s how you might die in a nuclear strike. Maximum capability is about one strategic warhead hitting a target every twenty seconds. Let’s take a one megaton air-burst scenario. At ground zero, all buildings would be destroyed. Winds of 1,000 mph. There may be an ‘echo’ of the blast wave (the ‘Mach’ effect), resulting in double the over-pressure. The fireball will rise at feet/ second, expanding to 6,000 feet diameter after ten seconds. The radioactive cloud would be 3 miles high in 30 seconds. All combustible stuff would ignite, some up to 8 miles away. Air heat rises to 10,000,000° C. Heat travels outwards at 186,000 miles per second. Flesh would melt. People would die in the suffocation from the firestorm. At 1.5 miles from ground zero over-pressure is 30 times than normal atmospheric pressure. From two to five miles away, most buildings would be flattened, within 15 or so seconds. Winds of 130 mph. Clothing would ignite. Radiation sickness is inevitable. At three miles away you’ll feel a flash of light (christened the pika-don at Hiroshima); then intense heat which chars to the bone (full-thickness burns); fifteen seconds later the windows would be blown in by the blast wave; and you’d be thrown about by the wind. First degree burns as far as 20 miles from detonation. The EMP (electromagnetic pul
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