So I’m not an expert in nuclear weaponry. However, more modern warheads don’t somehow magically vaporize everything within a certain radius and then not cause effects outside that radius - that’s not how things work. They may have a larger fireball, which is the area within which things (and people) are going to be vaporized, but they still have very large areas where people will receive burns decreasing in severity depending on distance, and (if the warhead is detonated at ground level) radiation doses that will kill within 5 days to 1 month. Check out Nukemap to see those areas in different scenarios. Here’s one that I did for a ground burst of a 800 kt Topol warhead. You can see that the areas for radiation are larger than the fireball itself, and the areas for 2nd and 3rd degree burns are quite large. Setting one of these off anywhere populated would cause an immense amount of human suffering even if the folks in the ~220m fireball never saw it coming.
I’m aware of that.
It’s mostly to point out that the bombs used on Hiroshima & Nagasaki are basically dirtybombs by comparison with the modern variants.
But at the end of the day, I guess it’s a matter of personal opinion.
Death isn’t pleasant. And I’m personally less scared of atomic bombs than soldiers. Humans capacity for cruelty is only limited by their imagination.
Those where the first generation of nukes. Very inefficient. Like comparing muskets to artillery.
So I’m not an expert in nuclear weaponry. However, more modern warheads don’t somehow magically vaporize everything within a certain radius and then not cause effects outside that radius - that’s not how things work. They may have a larger fireball, which is the area within which things (and people) are going to be vaporized, but they still have very large areas where people will receive burns decreasing in severity depending on distance, and (if the warhead is detonated at ground level) radiation doses that will kill within 5 days to 1 month. Check out Nukemap to see those areas in different scenarios. Here’s one that I did for a ground burst of a 800 kt Topol warhead. You can see that the areas for radiation are larger than the fireball itself, and the areas for 2nd and 3rd degree burns are quite large. Setting one of these off anywhere populated would cause an immense amount of human suffering even if the folks in the ~220m fireball never saw it coming.
I’m aware of that. It’s mostly to point out that the bombs used on Hiroshima & Nagasaki are basically dirtybombs by comparison with the modern variants.
But at the end of the day, I guess it’s a matter of personal opinion.
Death isn’t pleasant. And I’m personally less scared of atomic bombs than soldiers. Humans capacity for cruelty is only limited by their imagination.