tardily last year , the government conducted a study to spot what find if DC is hit with a 10 - kiloton atomic warhead . Would it be good , or would it be bad ? Theresultsare in , and surprise ! It would be very , very bad .
The study—”National Capital Region : Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of atomic Terrorism”—simulates and prognosticates a nuclear strike at16th and K Streets , the spirit of business district DC and only a mates occlusion from the White House . The variety of office a terrorist would want to constitute a bomb calorimeter .
So what happens when said bomb calorimeter set off at the seat of politics ? As much as the cogitation put forward the obvious — a nuke will destroy an super large part of DC!—it paint a horrifying , incredibly elaborate radioactive portrayal , step by vaporizing pace . Unlike the Cold War - epoch turkey of yore , which were designed to erase entire uppercase , a “ smaller ” bomb like the one in question here would , hypothetically , leave survivor . What happen to us ?
Three Layers of Destruction
Like a bean dip , a nuclear blast let in three strata of obliteration :
The Severe Damage Zone ( half mi r ): Most building destroy , hazards and radiation ab initio prevents entranceway into the region ; grim survival likeliness .
The Moderate Damage Zone ( half to 1 nautical mile radius ): Significant edifice damage and rubble , downed service program poles , overturned automobiles , fires , and many serious accidental injury . Early aesculapian assistance can significantly improve the number of survivors .
Light Damage Zone ( 1 to 3 miles radius ): Windows broken , mostly minor injuries that are highly survavable even without prompt aesculapian care .
Most of the Union government ’s physical mien would be blot out . The White House , Treasury Department , Old Executive Office Building , vaporized immediately . The Capitol in ruins . The National Mall , scorched . And of row , many square miles of residential blocks exposed to shockwaves and flying rubble .
All of these are somewhat bad — the first “ zona ” is a death sentence , the third still tremendous . And this is only include the destructive power of fire , fireballs , and shockwaves . What about fallout ?
Fallout
The study notes fallout patterns would vary wildly with the time of class — in April , Washington ’s affluent Bethesda suburban area is hit with an tremendous pillar of radioactive dust , while through much of the sleep of the twelvemonth , the city ’s miserable lower quadrants and Northern Virginia are let out to aerial toxicant .
Despite the ( again , comparatively ) smaller “ blast ” of the nuke likeliest to be handed off by a terrorist , fallout is impossibly devastating :
Within 10 to 20 miles of the detonation , exposure from fallout would be swell enough to cause near - term ( within hours ) symptoms such as nausea and vomiting .
The orangish area depicts exposures of 300 to 800 R for those who do not shelter before long enough . Most would know immediate health effect ( e.g. , sickness and vomit within 4 hour ) , and some fatality would be likely without medical treatment For those in the dark blue region who do not take immediate shelter , outdoor exposures ( > 800 gas constant ) would be heavy enough that fatalities are probable with or without medical handling . excreting is not an alternative in this surface area because radioactive dust would get too quickly ( within 10 minutes ) to evacuate .
Even if Washington and everyone in it is n’t toast directly , many will die later .
So what can we do?
Not much ! Short of keeping this from happening in the first topographic point ( of import ) , the written report conclude poorly :
The magnitude of a terrorist attack take [ such an plan of attack ] will overwhelm all reply resource .
There ’s no way to sincerely prepare for a nuclear onslaught — the point is to dismantle any fall in lodge . It ’ll always do just that . And no matter how many times the administration can babble Eisenhower - epoch meaninglessness like this :
DUCK and COVER : After an unexplained dazzling flash of light , do not go up windowpane , and stay behind cover for at least a minute to prevent injuries from wing and fall dust , such as broken glass .
we still ca n’t treat nuclear attack like a bad snowstorm . You might say there ’s no harm in get a “ preparedness plan ” in place , as if this were a fire in a gamy school , but the more we think we can survive a nuclear attack , the more comfortable we might become with engage one .
The report can be read in its integrality below . [ FAS ]
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