It's official: Nuke attack would devastate U.S. cities, page 1

www.scienceblog.com...



A new study by researchers at the Center for Mass Destruction Defense (CMADD) at the University of Georgia details the catastrophic impact a nuclear attack would have on American cities.

The study, which the authors said was the most advanced and detailed simulation published in open scientific literature, highlights the inability of the nation’s current medical system to handle casualties from a nuclear attack. It also suggests what the authors said are much needed yet relatively simple interventions that could save tens of thousands of lives.

“The likelihood of a nuclear weapon attack in an American city is steadily increasing, and the consequences will be overwhelming” said Cham Dallas, CMADD director and professor in the UGA College of Pharmacy. “So we need to substantially increase our preparation.”

Dallas and co-author William Bell, CMADD senior research scientist and faculty member of the UGA College of Public Health, examined four high-profile American cities – New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta – and modeled the effects of a 20 kiloton nuclear detonation and a 550 kiloton detonation. (For comparison, the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were in the 12 to 20 kiloton range). Bell explained that a 20 kiloton weapon could be manufactured by terrorists and fledgling nuclear countries such as North Korea and Iran, while a 550 kiloton device is commonly found in the arsenal of the former Soviet Union and therefore is the most likely to be stolen by terrorists.

The study, which took three years to complete and appears in the current issue of the International Journal of Health Geographics, combines data on the impact of the devices, prevailing weather patterns and block-level population data from the U.S. Census Bureau to provide a level of detail previously unavailable.

Among the study’s findings:

* A 20-kiloton detonation would leave debris tens of feet thick in downtown areas with buildings 10-stories or higher. Roughly half of the population in downtown areas would be killed, mainly from collapsing buildings. Most of those surviving the initial blast in downtown areas would be exposed to a fatal dose of radiation.
* While the main effects from a 20-kiloton explosion would be from the blast and the radiation it releases, a 550-kiloton explosion would create additional and substantial casualties from burns. Such an explosion would superheat the blast zone, causing buildings to spontaneously combust. Mass fires would consume cities, reaching out nearly four miles (6.3 km) in all directions from the detonation site.
* A 550 kiloton detonation in New York would result in a fallout plume extending the length of Long Island, resulting in more than 5 million deaths.
* A 550 kiloton detonation in Washington, D.C. would destroy hospitals in the District, but its fallout plume would also incapacitate hospitals in Baltimore, nearly 40 miles away.

The researchers note that in all four cities studied, hospitals are concentrated in the area most likely to be destroyed. Another weak link is the inability of the nation’s hospital system to treat the burn victims a 550-kiloton detonation would create. A 550-kiloton detonation in Atlanta, the least densely populated of the four cities studied, would result in nearly 300,000 serious burn victims.

“The hospital system has about 1,500 burn beds in the whole country, and of these maybe 80 or 90 percent are full at any given time,” Bell said. “There’s no way of treating the burn victims from a nuclear attack with the existing medical system.”

I'm Just posting this up for information.


[edit on 13-9-2009 by ^anubis^]

[edit on 13-9-2009 by ^anubis^]

reply to post by ^anubis^

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Quit fear mongering... do you know how much material you would need to yield a 550 kiloton weapon? A Dirty Bomb I could see happening , If A Nuke goes off in this country I'll bet everything I own that our government did it.

reply to post by Seeker Mom

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LMAO!!! well yea i know, i dont know why they would put that title for the article

reply to post by jerico65

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I think they had a little bit of our tax money left and they were bored.

i think this explained everything....



what we learn about this video is. though the devastation of a nuclear blast would be huge! we could easily survive it if we just jump into a fridge!

reply to post by ^anubis^

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I am a little confused...

Does this report attempt to state that a "small" nuclear incident would not affect the US?

I mean let's face it. Any nuke is a nuke and would cause un imaginable destruction and despair all over the US.

I certainly hope nothing like this comes to pass, however I think this is more fear mongering with the same old tone of "The terrorists are out to get us, be fearful."

Considering we are only days passed the anniversary of 9/11, I see alot of these sorts of "reports" that come out this time of year.

It's nice to be prepared and all, but I am sure they didn't just decide yesterday to study the possible outcome of such attack. This is common sense knowledge.

~Keeper

OMFG!

REALLY?

You mean to say it has now been PROVED? that dropping a nuclear bomb on a City would destroy it, and leave the local emergency and care services crippled and unable to cope?

But I thought if we all whitewashed our windows and hid under the stairs the nice men in space suits would come and save us and feed us and wash us a coiuple of hours later?

Mass destruction from a weapon of Mass destruction?

Civil and Social collapse from hundreds of thousands dead and huge areas of Radioactive poisinging?

Well this is news to me, I am really suprised no one has worked this out already?


Thank god for this new Study, with no previous evidense to back it up eh?

Well at least I am sure we can all rest assured now that the huge 10% of GDP since the 1940's ad infinitum in the design, storage and disposal of nuclear weapons has not been to waste eh?

Wait stop press there is a more even shocking science study come out just now!!!

BREAKING the same group working in collaboration with Dr Fisher in the University of Bristol has just done another equally usefull study look at this:

The average pore diameter in a biscuit is equal to four times the viscosity of the tea

And finding that then !!!!

multiplied by the height the liquid rises squared, divided by the surface tension of the tea

Wow

multiplied by the length of time the biscuit is dunked.

Infact this group has now not only found out that nuclear bombs devastate cities, governments and countries but also now scientists have discovered the above amazing thing

The Perfect Way to Dunk Biscuits!!!!

How startling are both studies eh, who would have thought?

But if like me you were suprised to find that the length of time you dip, and what type of biscuit you use and taking into account if its a vending machine or grandmother made cuppa affects the dunking experience and sensory experience therafter......

And also like me astonished that huge explosions with tempratures hotter then the surface of the sun with a fireball sometimes 1/2 a mile wide totally obliterate human life, dwellings, medical and social care structures, do not be alarmed Dr Fisher is going to help explain this

Aware that some people may have problems with their maths, Dr Fisher plans to give people more user-friendly information.

BBC

Thank you the experience of Dunking since first drinking tea and coffee has not been user friendly enough to date for me to understand your study, and the pictures and images such as below led me in no way to believe such devastion is possible from little nuclear bombs:




Thank god for the Scientists and their studies eh otherwise we I am sure would all be doomed!

Kind regards,

Elf.

please accept the sarcasm, and I need to add it not directed at the OP and there is no link between Dr Fisher and the OP scientist in reality Elf

[edit on 13-9-2009 by MischeviousElf]

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