Chilling nuclear map shows devastating impact of WW3 on 75% of US population
The consequences of a large-scale nuclear conflict were laid bare by a group of scientists who concluded that more than three-quarters of the US population would perish in the aftermath of an attack
A chilling Cold War-era map paints a dire scenario for the United States following a nuclear conflict, warning that some regions could see up to 75% mortality rates. Nuclear powers include established states such as the US, UK, France, Russia, China, Pakistan, India, and North Korea.
Although Israel hasn't disclosed its nuclear capabilities, it is widely believed to be in possession of nuclear weapons. Simultaneously, Iran's uranium enrichment activities are proceeding unabated.
The dangerous implications of a nuclear disaster were meticulously studied in 1986 by Institute of Medicine researchers William Daugherty, Barbara Levi, and Frank Von Hippel.
Focusing on what would occur if America's land-based Minuteman missiles, originating from the 1950s, were targeted, they determined that resultant blasts would release a lethal wave of radiation throughout the US.
Their findings indicated that prevailing winds would carry radioactive particles from the west coast to the east, blanketing the country in fallout. They stated with concern: "We have made the usual assumption that each of the 1,116 US missile silos and missile launch-control centers would be struck by two 0.5-megaton warheads."
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At that time, according to reports from Express US, the Soviet Union was thought to hold approximately 3,000 such warheads. The research team outlined critical areas on the map where radiation levels were predicted to exceed 3,500 rads, marking them as high-risk for deadly exposure.
"Within this region... more than three-quarters of the population would die," concluded the scientist, pointing to the dire sections on their map while discussing potential consequences of a nuclear event. The experts shared a stark assessment of a nuclear calamity: "Nuclear explosions create a great deal of short-lived radioactivity - mostly associated with fission products. We have made the standard assumption in our calculations that one-half of the yield from the attacking weapons would be from fission."
The scientists then detailed the dreadful chain reaction that would ensue: "In the case of airbursts, the fireball would carry this radioactivity into the upper atmosphere, from which it would slowly filter down as a rather diffuse distribution called 'global fallout' over a period of months to years. In the case of an attack on so-called 'hard' targets such as missile silos, which can withstand high over-pressures, the nuclear weapons would have to be exploded so close to the ground that surface material would be sucked into the fireball, mixed with the vaporized bomb products, and carried by the buoyancy of the fireball into the upper atmosphere."
Princeton University scholars have revealed a chilling report on the grisly aftermath of a hypothetical nuclear barrage against the United States. The study, titled Casualties Due to the Blast, Heat, and Radioactive Fallout from Various Hypothetical Nuclear Attacks on the United States, explicitly details the horrendous impact such strikes would have.
The researchers elaborated: "There, much of the bomb material and surface material would condense into particles, a large fraction of which would descend to the surface again within 24 hours in an intense swath of 'local fallout' downwind from the target."
They concluded their study with an ominous caution: "It is our hope that national decision-makers will develop a better understanding of the 'collateral' consequences of hypothetical first strikes and of the enormous destructive capacity of the weapons that would survive.
"That understanding should make them less likely to seek counterforce capabilities or to fear such attacks from the other side."
