The following documentary produced in 1982 provides an in depth view of the effects of a one megaton nuclear war head detonated in London.
For the prepper-minded individual this short documentary may provide some insights into preparing for and surviving the three major effects of a nuclear detonation:
- Heat
- Blast
- Fall Out (Radiation)
Among other things, the documentary covers preventing direct exposure to heat rays, construction of emergency shelters, and surviving fall out.
Our view is and always has been that we will see a nuclear detonation in a major city during our lifetimes. For those who lived during World War II this already happened. This is, in our opinion, a high probability event over the course of the next several decades. With tens of thousands of nuclear weapons already produced, the chances that one of these will get into the hands of the wrong person or people are higher now than ever before, especially with “rogue” states entering the nuclear production fray.
It’s hard to believe that nuclear weapons were produced as only a deterrent. We, meaning our respective governments, did not produce these weapons just so that we could look at them and admire their designs. At some point, they will be used on the populations of the globe – for whatever reasons the-powers-that-be determine.
The documentary above discusses the heat, blast and radiation damage from a one kiloton nuclear weapon. Today, the US, China and Russia have weapons with multiple war heads of up to 100 Megatons.
Nuclear Detonation Mapping:
Enter your zip code or city in the search field. Choose your “weapon” below the map and click “Nuke It” to map effects. Click here if application does not load
Resources:
Click here to learn more about pressure damage and fall out from 1 Megaton and 25 Megaton nuclear weapons.
For some basic survival and prepping info, we suggest reading Survive Anything: Nuclear Attack.
I think a more damaging nuclear threat would come in the form of an EMP strike over large population centers. The effects would be devastating for any industrialized country.
A nuclear induced EMP is a myth. While there are rumors that it happened during nuclear testing in the Bikini Islands, there is no real credible evidence that the pulse would be enough to do much of anything. I believe that most people that wring their hands about an EMP are simply doomers. There are much more tried and true ways to wreck a country. Certainly the theory of a pulse is a sound one, but, as most theories, the actual details are often vastly different than the theory.
People think an EMP is an EMP. Well, it might take down the grid but many people act like it would blow the electronics in your car. That would be very difficult. All are well shielded. The grid and the communications network would be dead, maybe. The actual household devices would probably not be harmed.
Mac – Thanks for setting up the map with washington as the target. Perfect first strike!
NetRanger, you’re right, it’s a myth that it’d have a big impact on cars – have you read this?
http://www.amazon.com/Report-Commission-Assess-Threat-Electromagnetic/dp/B002AD9AP6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283470142&sr=1-1
It doesn’t need to destroy car electronics to cause widespread havoc, though. Destroying the grid for a long period of time over a large geographic location would do it.
LOL Bill — that wasn’t me! It’s system generated. Mine just pulled up with Hiroshima as the target.
Ranger Man @ SHTF blog, thanks for that link. Turns out that since it is a publication put together for Congress, it is available for free at:
http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf [7MB PDF file]
This thing is full of great info running at around 200 pages. I think I’ll put together a post on it eventually after I get through all that…
NetRanger, in regards to cars, I have heard both sides of the EMP debate, so I am not exactly sure…. Here is what the afforementioned Commission report from above says:
As I have not spent time reading the entire report, I am not sure of the required field levels to disable vehicles or exactly how many of the 220 million vehicles would be disabled.. I guess it depends on the specific EMP field:
Both excerpts are available on page 113 of the report.
In any case, the question is how big will the nuke have to be, and at what distance, to send out a pulse strong enough to start disabling vehicles… Hopefully the report will cover this in more detail.
Based on the few minutes I spent browsing, it looks like things could get really, really bad… ‘One Second After’ was probably right on in terms of the power-grid, food supplies, etc…
Interesting stuff!
Great comments all.
Mac
This is certainly an area of disagreement. Nevertheless, I traded my modern sports car for a 1980s diesel pickup in hopes being manually aspirated it will run. I was also able to convert it to run on recycled vegetable or motor oil which makes every stranded auto a fuel source.
If neither the truck nor the old dual sport motorcycle I keep in the Faraday shed will run, I suppose I will have to walk like everyone else.
For me this falls under the category of “Shit I really haven’t thought about this but it’s really unlikely compared to other cataclysmic events like economic collapse, death of the dollar, etc.)”. I would therefore spend up to 5% at most of my prepping for such an event, most of which actions would already be covered under other scenarios. If a nuke falls near your house all the prepping in the world isn’t going to do anything, and of course global nuclear war isn’t much better. But an isolated nuke in some big city – chances are you won’t be affected. Much.
I have a hunch that our nutty Zionist “allies” are very desperate to get us to destroy the biggest enemy of Israel, Iran, but we are dragging our feet for very good reasons, so if there is a suitcase nuke detonated in some city,I will bet that it was done by Israel(remember that the Israeli embassy registered a nuclear hot spot when sensors were flown over it in NYC).
Sound crazy? don’t forget that the motto written on the mossad shield says “by way of deception thou shalt make war”
With a motto like that, one cannot be called paranoid.
Dave, why do you think there is this push to lock in the Peace process right now with their nearest neighbors and/or closest enemies? Its a tatic to try and limit the war that is coming, or, to give the Palestinians a chance to get on board or get blow away when the SHTF soon enough.
Comments…..Errrr
You have neglected the nuclear mine. At sea. Two miles down. The gases and steam produced will cause a massive tsunami.
Especially if there is a lot of rotted material down there. Megatons of rubbish that is in the form of crystalline methane. Megatons added to a small initiator blast. Five or six on each coast. Bye bye!
Burma recently moved its capital inland and Brazil moved from Rio, by the sea, to Brasilia decades ago, just after the classified explosion under the sea off Alaska by the USA!
Think Aceh! Have paranoid day!
Nuclear war senarios was one of the first things I learnt about when I awoke from the matrix and were IMO the origonal concern behind most all bugout plans from the 1950’s onward.
They are also one of the easiest to prpare for since all you need do is have a rudimentry fallout shelter at you retreat and a good supply of iodine in addition to the other preps already on hand.
Thanks for the reminder though Mac, I originally kept a weather eye on websites with a global military bent, having a weekly scan for strategic threats, but with all he kufuffel over the financial mess I let that slip. I will resume it now.
I learnt that we should look out for long term trends, strategic, and short term, tactical, threats. As a current city dweller I’ll tell you one thing though, if anyone anywhere “drops one” I’ll be in the BOV and gone and I won’t be coming back from the bush anytime soon.
DURANGO KID,
There is no push for peace talks by Israel,any idea about peacetalks is by the US which will promptly be undermined by Israel.
Israel doesn’t want peace,they want land and proof of that theory rests in the fact that Israel refuses to establish their own borders.
Try finding an Israeli map that clearly shows Israel’s borders.
Isarel is far from an ally to the US,they are a very expensive,dangerous parasite that masquerades as an ally.
Dave, I’m not here to defend Israel, what I am saying, is that war with Iran is emminent, and if with Iran; then also with Hezbollah, and Hamas. By giving Hamas a “chance” for peace that will be declined by any referendum in Gaza, Israel has justified eliminating Hamas at the same time they take out Hezbollah and Iran. See SHTF America: The Next War Is Now, excerpted here a couple weeks ago.
In for a penny, in for a pound: see?
It would take a major nuclear power like Russian or China to destroy the U.S. with nukes. Iran cannot do it. They could sneak in a small nuke and set it off but that would hardly be a doomsday scenario. If Russia were to attack us with nukes they could destroy most cities and most of our infrastructure but many people would survive. Surviving a nuke is almost pure luck. You won’t get enough warning (probably zero warning) to protect yourself so it will be a simple matter of where you are when it hits. Surviving the next few weeks will depend agan on where you are and your ability to get under deep cover for a couple of months to let the worst of the fallout dissipate. After that it will be up to you and your family/group. If you do the right things and with a little luck you will probably live. Make some serious mistakes or have bad luck and you may well die. Even in a massive attack it is likely that half the population will survive and there will be a considerable amount of infrastructure that will survive as well. Not in NY City perhaps but certainly in many small towns and whole areas of the West and midwest. As bad as this scenario is many/most will survive. Our best hope is that our defense works and we also destroy the attackers so that the attack is not followed by an invasion.Â
The event of an EMP is less likely due to a nuclear detonation than it is by the most powerful energy generator in our solar system, The SUN. Most likely the most powerful generator in our universe…
A major sunspot of previously unseen magnitudes could produce an EM pulse many times of magnitude more powerful than that of a high altitude nuclear detonation.Â
This is detailed through a purported NASA contractor whistle-blower type that has come clean. This report is available at this url:    Please note that this is an extremely long read due to the NASA citations which someone has gone to great lengths to document. Skip by those as you can to get to the bifurcated conclusions.
<<Snip from urbansurvival.com>>Â “”there’s this interesting document floating around the ‘net titled “The coming: A Boeing Whistleblower’s Warning: Will a Massive Celectial System Change Our Solar System“.
Â
The gist of the (97 pges worth of .PDF) document is that not only has NASA already preannounced that there’s been a “Giant Breach in Earth’s Magnetic Filed Found“Â (this was in late 2008) but more recently a “Giant Ribbon Discovered at the end of the Solar System” (October 2009).
Â
But the really scary stuff is that attending this “giant ribbon” thingy is this material referred to as ‘local fluff’ has now been explained…at least sort of.
Â
This whole region of space we’re into (and getting deeper if I follow it), has the name “Local Interstellar Cloud” (and a Wikipedia entry here) seems not to be too big a threat until….
Â
You start to line up the rest of what’s going on which includes the August 1 Sunquake and all the research that folks like Patrick Geryl have done.
<<END Snip>>
The end result (and in a nutshell) seems to be that NASA and other agencies are worried but inconclusive to what actual effects this interstellar fluff will cause.
I don’t know that anything will happen but reading through these documents has raised my level of concern from probably not to another event I need to protect against.
I don’t think the probability of a rouge state, nation or entity will detonate a device high over orur heads. The sun however, brings a new, very possible dynamic to the discussion and the outcome.
Thanks for reading my drivel, which is nutty but is there…
we are all in a severe amount of shit…. this cannot turn out well.
That’s not too bad. If it’s a military target then it’s o.k.