De Facto countries count as a country for the purposes of this question, including unrecognized ones.

  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    I suggest to read about Hiroshima, and what really happened there, and afterwards.

    Here’s a good book: Hibakusha: Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki https://a.co/d/8KS4RXC

    One bomb kills people in a circle of 10 or 50 km (I forgot), and injures people maybe 100km around. Then it does damage to nature maybe even 1000 km around. I live 2000km from Chernobyl, and we had some warnings regarding vegetables for a year or so.

    But the planet has a circumference of 40.000 km. Now let your thoughts run around the planet.

    • Waryle@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      I live 2000km from Chernobyl

      Chernobyl is not comparable to a nuclear bomb. Chernobyl is a reactor, made to release a steadily amount of radiations for years to make electricity.

      Chernobyl irradiated a large area because the graphite that was located in the reactor core has burned, and the fumes have been carried by the wind, taking a lot of high-level activity nuclear waste hundred or thousands of kilometers away.

      A bomb is way smaller than a reactor, and is designed to release most of its energy instantly to make the biggest explosion possible. That means a short burst of radioactivity very high level of radioactivity, with a very small half-life.

      A few days after a bomb explodes, most of the radiations would have depleted.

      • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        16 hours ago

        a few days after a bomb explodes, most of the radiation would have depleted.

        I know this is a settled fact, and supported by the fact that Japan had rebuilt both cities in under 6 years. But I wanted hard facts on this. Which, as it turns out, is really hard to find. I see a lot of reports basically echo what you said but nobody seems to have actually really measured this.

        The best sources I found was this document from the which claims that soil radiation fell from 4.31 micro Curries per cm3 in hour 3, to just 0.23 half a day later, and 3.1x10(-5) 45 days later.

        This site from the Japanese government claims that 24hrs after detonation the radiation at ground zero was 1/1000th of what it was immediately after.

    • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Well, my point was really that, nowadays, a launch by anyone would likely result in other launches, leading to all out war and global catastrophe. I wasn’t getting into the literal size of bomb impact areas vs global surface area.

      • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        leading to all out war and global catastrophe.

        I doubt it.

        Unlike your typical nice bar brawl, not everybody is actually that eager to get involved in an exchange of nukes, and alliances get sometimes weaker when the risks get higher.

        I wasn’t getting into the literal size of bomb impact areas vs global surface area.

        Of course you are free to build your opinion on whatever speculation you like the most.

        Did you know that a good share of all American nukes are mounted on short range missiles that can travel only 100 km or so? Some people were considering funny scenarios there…

      • Thavron@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Also, the bomb at Hiroshima was a relatively small one compared to what’s available now I believe.