What awaits us after a nuclear war? Project "ZZ". Will the Russians survive a nuclear strike?
Their only enemy in World War II was Japan, which was also soon to surrender. It was at this moment that the United States decided to show its military power. On August 6 and 9, they dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after which Japan finally capitulated. AiF.ru recalls the stories of people who managed to survive this nightmare.
According to various sources, from the explosion itself and in the first weeks after it, from 90 to 166 thousand people died in Hiroshima, and from 60 to 80 thousand in Nagasaki. However, there were those who managed to stay alive.
In Japan, such people are called hibakusha or hibakusha. This category includes not only the survivors themselves, but also the second generation - children born to women affected by the explosions.
In March 2012, there were 210 thousand people officially recognized by the government as hibakusha, and more than 400 thousand did not live to see this moment.
Most of the remaining hibakusha live in Japan. They get a certain state support, however, in Japanese society there is a prejudiced attitude towards them, bordering on discrimination. For example, they and their children may not be hired, so sometimes they deliberately hide their status.
Miraculous Rescue
An extraordinary story happened to the Japanese Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both bombings. Summer 1945 young engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who worked for the Mitsubishi company, went on a business trip to Hiroshima. When the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the city, it was only 3 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion.
The blast wave knocked out Tsutomu Yamaguchi's eardrums, and the incredibly bright white light blinded him for some time. He received severe burns, but still survived. Yamaguchi reached the station, found his wounded colleagues and went home with them to Nagasaki, where he became a victim of the second bombing.
By an evil irony of fate, Tsutomu Yamaguchi again found himself 3 kilometers from the epicenter. As he was telling his boss at the company office about what happened to him in Hiroshima, the same white light suddenly flooded the room. Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived this explosion as well.
Two days later, he received another large dose of radiation when he came almost close to the epicenter of the explosion, unaware of the danger.
What followed were many years of rehabilitation, suffering and health problems. Tsutomu Yamaguchi's wife also suffered from the bombings - she was caught in black radioactive rain. Their children did not escape the consequences of radiation sickness; some of them died of cancer. Despite all this, Tsutomu Yamaguchi got a job again after the war, lived like everyone else and supported his family. Until his old age, he tried not to attract special attention to himself.
In 2010, Tsutomu Yamaguchi died of cancer at the age of 93. He became the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as a victim of the bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Life is like a struggle
When a bomb fell on Nagasaki, a 16-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi delivered mail on a bicycle. In his own words, he saw something similar to a rainbow, then the blast wave threw him off his bicycle to the ground and destroyed nearby houses.
After the explosion, the teenager remained alive, but was seriously injured. The flayed skin hung in shreds from his arms, and there was no skin at all on his back. At the same time, according to Sumiteru Taniguchi, he did not feel pain, but his strength left him.
With difficulty he found other victims, but most of them died the night after the explosion. Three days later, Sumiteru Taniguchi was rescued and sent to the hospital.
In 1946, an American photographer took the famous photograph of Sumiteru Taniguchi with terrible burns on his back. Body young man was disfigured for life
For several years after the war, Sumiteru Taniguchi could only lie on his stomach. He was released from the hospital in 1949, but his wounds were not properly treated until 1960. In total, Sumiteru Taniguchi underwent 10 operations.
The recovery was aggravated by the fact that at that time people were faced with radiation sickness for the first time and did not yet know how to treat it.
The tragedy he experienced had a huge impact on Sumiteru Taniguchi. He devoted his entire life to the fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, becoming a well-known activist and chairman of the Council of Victims of the Nuclear Bombing of Nagasaki.
Today, 84-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi gives lectures around the world on the terrible consequences of using nuclear weapons and why they should be abandoned.
Orphan
For 16 year old Mikoso Iwasa August 6 was a typical hot summer day. He was in the courtyard of his house when neighboring children suddenly saw a plane in the sky. Then came an explosion. Despite the fact that the teenager was less than one and a half kilometers from the epicenter, the wall of the house protected him from the heat and blast wave.
However, Mikoso Iwasa's family was not so lucky. The boy's mother was in the house at that time; she was covered in debris and could not get out. He lost his father before the explosion, and his sister was never found. So Mikoso Iwasa became an orphan.
And although Mikoso Iwasa miraculously escaped severe burns, he still received a huge dose of radiation. Due to radiation sickness, he lost his hair, his body became covered in a rash, and his nose and gums began to bleed. He was diagnosed with cancer three times.
His life, like the lives of many other hibakusha, became misery. He was forced to live with this pain, with this invisible disease for which there is no cure and which slowly kills a person.
Among the hibakusha it is customary to remain silent about this, but Mikoso Iwasa did not remain silent. Instead, he became involved in the fight against nuclear proliferation and helping other hibakusha.
Today, Mikiso Iwasa is one of the three chairmen of the Japanese Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Victims' Organizations.
Was it necessary to bomb Japan at all?
Disputes about the expediency and ethical side of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have not subsided to this day.
Initially, American authorities insisted that they were necessary to force Japan to capitulate as quickly as possible and thereby prevent losses among its own soldiers that would be possible if the United States invaded the Japanese islands.
However, according to many historians, Japan's surrender was a done deal even before the bombing. It was only a matter of time.
The decision to drop bombs on Japanese cities turned out to be rather political - the United States wanted to scare the Japanese and demonstrate its military power to the whole world.
It is also important to mention that not all American officials and senior military officials supported this decision. Among those who considered the bombing unnecessary was Army General Dwight Eisenhower, who later became President of the United States.
The attitude of the hibakusha towards explosions is clear. They believe that the tragedy they experienced should never happen again in human history. And that is why some of them dedicated their lives to the fight for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
When the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, the world found itself on the brink of a global catastrophe - a large-scale nuclear war between two superpowers, the USSR and America. What would the remnants of human civilization be like after a massive exchange of blows? The military, of course, predicted the outcome using computers. They like to calculate everything, this is their strong point.
Walter Mondale once said that “there will be no World War III veterans.” Contrary to this seemingly absolutely correct remark, in just a few decades since its creation atomic bomb, the world has turned into a huge powder keg. Although, if it were gunpowder. By the end of the Cold War, the number of strategic nuclear warheads and related intermediate-range munitions alone in the arsenals of NATO and the Warsaw Pact exceeded 24,000 units.
Their total power was 12,000 Megatons, more than enough to repeat the tragedy in Hiroshima approximately a million times. And this does not take into account tactical nuclear weapons, various mines filled with atomic warheads, torpedoes and artillery shells. Without an arsenal of chemical warfare agents. Not counting bacteriological and climate weapons. Would this be enough to bring about Armageddon? Calculations showed that - behind the eyes.
Of course, it was difficult for analysts to take into account all the factors, but they tried, in various institutions. The forecasts turned out to be frankly depressing. It has been calculated that during a large-scale nuclear war, the parties will be able to rain down on each other about 12,000 bombs and missiles of various bases with a total capacity of about 6,000 Mt. What could this number mean?
And this means massive attacks, first of all, on headquarters and communications centers, locations of intercontinental ballistic missile silos, air defense positions, large military and naval formations. Then, as the conflict grows, it will be the turn of industrial centers, or, in other words, cities, that is, areas with a high degree of urbanization and, of course, population density. Some nuclear warheads would be detonated above the surface to cause maximum damage, and some would be detonated at high altitudes to destroy satellites, communications systems and the power grid.
Once upon a time, at the height of the Cold War, implying all this madness military strategy was called the second strike doctrine. American Defense Secretary Robert McNamara defined it as “mutually assured destruction.” American generals calculated that the US Army and Navy would have to destroy about a quarter of the USSR's population and more than half of its industrial capacity before they themselves were destroyed.
We should probably not forget that in terms of the invention of new weapons, humanity has advanced much further than in the production of anti-cancer drugs, so the American “Little Boy” bomb, which destroyed Hiroshima in August 1945, is nothing compared to modern exhibits. So, for example, the power of the SS-18 Satan strategic missile is about 20 Mt (that is, millions of tons in TNT equivalent). This is approximately one and a half thousand “Kids”.
“The thicker the grass, the easier it is to mow.”
This phrase was said by Alaric, the legendary Gothic leader, who made proud Rome shudder. In a hypothetical nuclear war, residents of all large cities without exception would become this very grass. About 70% of the population Western Europe, North America And former USSR consisted of city dwellers and suburban residents. If they exchanged massive nuclear strikes, they would be doomed to immediate death. Calculations show that the explosion of even a bomb as obsolete by today’s standards as “Baby” over a city the size of New York, Tokyo or Moscow would result in the immediate death of millions of people. Just imagine what losses could be caused by the use of thousands of atomic, hydrogen and neutron bombs.
This, at one time, was more or less accurately predicted. As a result of a large-scale nuclear war, most of the cities of the warring parties were prepared for the fate of radioactive ruins. The shock waves and heat pulse would destroy buildings and highways, bridges, dams and levees over areas of millions of square kilometers in a matter of seconds. This is not so much in relation to the entire land surface of the Northern Hemisphere. But it is quite enough for the beginning of the end.
The number of people who evaporated, burned, died in the rubble or received a lethal dose of radiation should have been seven figures. Electromagnetic pulses, which spread over tens of thousands of kilometers during high-altitude nuclear explosions, caused paralysis of all power supply and communication systems, destroyed all electronics and would lead to an accident at those thermal and nuclear power plants that miraculously managed to survive the bombing.
Most likely, they would disrupt the Earth's electromagnetic field. As a result, this would provoke devastating natural disasters: hurricanes, floods, earthquakes.
There is an assumption according to which, with the massive use of weapons of mass destruction, the position of the Earth relative to the Sun would change. But we will not deal with this hypothesis, we will limit ourselves to such “trifles” as the destruction of storage facilities for spent nuclear power plant assemblies, and the depressurization of military laboratories producing bacteriological weapons. Some next superflu, hundreds of times deadlier than the notorious “Spanish flu,” once released, would finish the job that was started by the cholera and plague pandemics raging over radioactive rubble, overflowing with decaying corpses.
Humanity has accumulated millions of tons of toxic chemical waste, primarily dioxin-containing. From time to time, accidents that occur, in which a small part of them end up in river basins, lead to environmental disasters on a local scale. It’s better not to imagine what could happen in a disaster on a one-to-one scale. Serious scientific sources assure that this complex issue has not been thoroughly studied. As you can see, it is unnecessary. And it is clear that this would be the end.
Bah, we forgot about penetrating radiation - the fourth factor behind thermal radiation, shock wave and electromagnetic pulse, which distinguishes nuclear weapons from other products that are designed to destroy their own kind. Radioactive contamination would have poisoned colossal territories, the regeneration of which would have taken centuries. In rural areas, crops would be damaged by radiation, leading to starvation among the survivors.
Increased doses of radiation are a source of cancer, pathologies in newborns and genetic mutations due to disruption of DNA chains. In a post-apocalyptic world, after the health care systems are destroyed, these issues from the field of modern medicine would move under the jurisdiction of sorcerers, because the survival of individual doctors does not at all mean the preservation of medicine as a whole. The millions burned and maimed at the first stage of a nuclear conflict, immediately after the exchange of blows, do not count. They would have died in the first hours, days and months after the nuclear Apocalypse. Long before the advent of healers.
"And those of you who survive will envy the dead"
And these ominous words were said by John Silver, one of the most famous heroes of the English writer R. L. Stevenson. They are said on a completely different occasion, but surprisingly fit into the context of describing the world after a nuclear war. Scientists agreed that nitrogen oxides generated in the fireballs of nuclear explosions would be thrown into the stratosphere, where they would destroy the ozone layer. Restoring it could take decades, and this is at best - with our level of scientific knowledge, it is impossible to predict the timing more accurately. Once upon a time (about 600 million years ago), the ozone layer of the stratosphere played the role of a kind of cradle of life, protecting the Earth's surface from the deadly ultraviolet radiation of the Sun.
According to a report by the American National Academy of Sciences, the explosion of 12,000 megatons of nuclear weapons could destroy 70% of the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere - presumably the theater of war - and 40% over the Southern Hemisphere, which would lead to the most disastrous consequences for all forms of life. Humans and animals would go blind, burns and skin cancers would become commonplace. Many plants and microorganisms would disappear forever, completely and irrevocably.
“Our arrows will block the Sun from you”
This famous phrase: “Our arrows will block the sun from you,” said the envoy of the Persian king Xerxes to the Spartan king Leonidas, who fortified himself in the Thermopylae pass. Leonidas’ answer is known from history books: “Well, that means we will fight in the shadows.” Fortunately, the brave Spartans did not know the consequences of using nuclear weapons. In the “shadow cast by atomic arrows,” there would simply be no one to fight.
In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, due to water pipelines destroyed by the shock wave, it was impossible to localize the fires. A “firestorm” developed. This is the name of a powerful fire that causes intense vortex air movement. The city was covered with a huge thundercloud, and it began to rain - black, greasy and oily. Attempts to fight the fire, which was caused by an atomic flash and many short circuits in electrical networks, ended in complete fiasco.
We can say with absolute confidence that in the event of a large-scale nuclear war, there could be no talk of any such attempts, because there would simply be no one to put out the fires. In general, the fire would have spread in earnest, compared to the sea of flames that engulfed Dresden after the ritual raids of allied aircraft. Nowadays, industrial centers contain colossal reserves of paper, wood, petroleum, lubricants, gasoline, kerosene, plastics, rubber and other flammable materials that are capable of blazing and darkening the sky to blackness. Ejecting millions of tons of smoke particles, ash, highly toxic substances and highly dispersed radioactive dust into the atmosphere over the Northern Hemisphere.
Calculations prove that in a few days impenetrable clouds comparable in size to continents would cover the Sun over Europe and North America, and impenetrable darkness would fall on the Earth. The air temperature would drop by 30 - 40°C. The earth's surface was struck by bitter frosts, which in a short period of time would have turned it into permafrost. The cooling would continue for centuries, aggravated by a gradual decrease in ocean temperatures. That is, the end result of a large-scale nuclear war is a climate catastrophe.
At first, due to significant temperature differences between the continents and the ocean, severe storms would arise. Then, as the temperatures dropped, they would have calmed down a little, the surfaces of the seas and oceans would have been covered first with ice chips, and then with hummocks. Even at the equator it would become more than cool, about -50 degrees Celsius! Animals and plants that would survive a nuclear cataclysm would certainly die from such cold weather. There would be total extinction. The jungle would turn into a shackled severe frosts forest, taiga of dead vines and palm trees. Well, people who could miraculously survive would probably know that there is real hunger.
Radiation would permeate almost everything - air, water, and soil. Surviving viruses and insects, having undergone powerful mutations, would spread new deadly diseases. A few years after a nuclear war, a population of seven billion would be, at best, an insignificant shadow - about 20 million people scattered across the Earth immersed in nuclear twilight. Maybe it would have been Twilight of the Gods. Humanity would return to its primitive state under incomparably worse conditions environment. I don’t want to think about looting, ritual murders and cannibalism, but probably the most terrible pictures of the apocalypse drawn by science fiction writers would become commonplace.
Degenerate descendants of the Normans
There is no doubt that humanity would be very lucky if it were able to survive the cataclysm at all. And what kind of knowledge would he have preserved, and the memories of cars, airplanes or televisions passed down from generation to generation would not become akin to the legends that Plato brought to us. Albert Einstein once said: “I don’t know what weapons it will be with, but I know for sure that the Fourth World War will be with stones and sticks.” Do you think this is not a particularly optimistic forecast? Imagine yourself as just Robinson on a desert island and honestly admit: will you be able to recreate a hot water supply system, design a radio or just a telephone?
Alexander Gorbovsky in his book “Fourteen Thousand Years Ago” cited the example of the fate of the Norman settlements that were founded in the 14th century on the coast of North America. Their sad fate is very indicative. In a nutshell it looks like this. The colonists brought with them from Scandinavia knowledge of pottery, the ability to smelt and process metal. But when communication with the metropolis was interrupted, they found themselves assimilated by local Iroquoian tribes, who were at a much lower stage of development, and knowledge was lost forever. The descendants of the settlers were thrown back into the Stone Age.
When European conquerors arrived in these places 200 years later, they found only tribes that were light-skinned and used a number of Scandinavian words. And, that was all! The great-grandchildren of the Vikings had no idea of the crumbling, moss-covered structures that had once been iron smelters and mining shafts. But they didn’t have a nuclear winter...
A nuclear war is usually called a hypothetical clash between countries or military-political blocs that have thermonuclear or nuclear weapons and put them into action. Atomic weapons in such a conflict will become the main means of destruction. The history of nuclear war, fortunately, has not yet been written. But after the outbreak of the Cold War in the second half of the last century, nuclear war between the United States and the USSR was considered a likely development.
- What will happen if there is a nuclear war?
- Doctrines of nuclear war in the past
- US nuclear doctrine during the Thaw
- Russian nuclear doctrine
What will happen if there is a nuclear war?
Many people fearfully asked the question: what will happen if a nuclear war breaks out? This conceals a large-scale environmental danger:
- The explosions would release enormous amounts of energy.
- Ash and soot from the fires would obscure the sun for a long time, which would lead to the effect of “nuclear night” or “nuclear winter” with a sharp drop in temperature on the planet.
- The apocalyptic picture would be complemented by radioactive contamination, which would have no less catastrophic consequences for life.
It was assumed that most countries of the world would inevitably be drawn into such a war, directly or indirectly.
The danger of a nuclear war is that it would lead to a global environmental disaster and even the death of our civilization.
What will happen in the event of a nuclear war? Powerful explosion- this is only part of the disaster:
- As a result nuclear explosion a giant fireball is formed, the heat from which chars or completely burns all living things at a sufficiently large distance from the epicenter of the explosion.
- A third of the energy is released in the form of a powerful light pulse, a thousand times brighter than the radiation of the sun, so it instantly ignites all easily flammable materials (fabrics, paper, wood), and causes third-degree burns to people.
- But the primary fires do not have time to flare up, since they are partially extinguished by a powerful blast wave. Flying burning debris, sparks, explosions domestic gas, short circuits and burning petroleum products cause extensive and already long-lasting secondary fires.
- Individual fires merge into a terrifying fire tornado that can easily burn down any metropolis. Such firestorms, created by the Allies, destroyed Dresden and Hamburg during the Second World War.
- Since massive fires release heat in huge quantities, heated air masses rush upward, forming hurricanes at the surface of the earth, bringing new portions of oxygen to the source.
- Dust and soot rise to the stratosphere, forming a giant cloud there that blocks out the sunlight. And prolonged darkening leads to nuclear winter.
The earth after a nuclear war would hardly remain even a little like its former self; it would be scorched, and almost all living things would die.
An instructive video about what will happen if a nuclear war breaks out:
Doctrines of nuclear war in the past
The first doctrine (theory, concept) of nuclear war arose immediately after the end of World War II, in the United States. Then it was invariably reflected in the strategic concepts of NATO and the United States. However, the military doctrine of the USSR also assigned a decisive role to nuclear missile weapons in the next big war.
Initially, a massive nuclear war scenario was envisaged with unlimited use all available nuclear weapons, and their targets would be not only military, but also civilian targets. It was believed that in such a conflict the country that would be the first to launch a massive nuclear strike against the enemy, the purpose of which was the preemptive destruction of its nuclear weapons, would gain an advantage.
But there was the main problem of a nuclear war - a preventive nuclear attack might not be so effective, and the enemy would be able to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike on industrial centers and large cities.
Since the late 50s, a new concept of “limited nuclear war” has emerged in the United States. In the 70s, according to this concept, various weapons systems could be used in a hypothetical armed conflict, including operational-tactical and tactical nuclear weapons, which had restrictions on the scale of use and means of delivery. In such a conflict, atomic weapons would only be used to destroy military and important economic facilities. If history could be distorted, nuclear wars in the recent past could realistically follow a similar scenario.
One way or another, the United States still remains the only state that in practice used nuclear weapons in 1945 not against the military, but dropped 2 bombs on the civilian population of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9).
Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, under the guise of the Potsdam Declaration, which set an ultimatum regarding the immediate surrender of Japan, the American government sent an American bomber to the Japanese Islands, and at 08:15 Japanese time it dropped the first nuclear bomb, codenamed “Baby,” on the city of Hiroshima.
The power of this charge was relatively small - about 20,000 tons of TNT. The explosion of the charge occurred at an altitude of about 600 meters above the surface of the earth, and its epicenter was above the Sima hospital. It was not by chance that Hiroshima was chosen as the target of a demonstrative nuclear strike - it was there at that time that the general headquarters of the Japanese Navy and the second general staff of the Japanese army were located.
- The explosion destroyed a large part of Hiroshima.
- Over 70,000 people were killed instantly.
- Near 60,000 died later from wounds, burns and radiation sickness.
- Within a radius of about 1.6 kilometers there was a zone complete destruction, while the fires spread over an area of 11.4 square meters. km.
- 90% of the city's buildings were either completely destroyed or severely damaged.
- The tram system miraculously survived the bombing.
In the six months following the bombing, they died from its consequences. 140,000 people.
This “insignificant”, according to the military, charge once again proved that the consequences of a nuclear war for humanity are devastating, as for a race.
Sad video about the nuclear attack on Hiroshima:
Nagasaki
On August 9 at 11:02, another American plane dropped another nuclear charge, “Fat Man,” on the city of Nagasaki. It was detonated high above the Nagasaki Valley, where industrial plants were located. The second American nuclear attack on Japan in a row caused further catastrophic destruction and loss of life:
- 74,000 Japanese died instantly.
- 14,000 buildings were completely destroyed.
In fact, these terrible moments can be called the days when a nuclear war almost started, since bombs were dropped on civilians, and only a miracle stopped the moment when the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
US nuclear doctrine during the Thaw
At the end of the Cold War, the American doctrine of limited nuclear war was transformed into the concept of counterproliferation. It was first voiced by US Secretary of Defense L. Espin in December 1993. The Americans considered that it was no longer possible to achieve this goal with the help of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, therefore, critical moments The United States reserved the right to carry out “disarmament strikes” against nuclear facilities of unwanted regimes.
In 1997, a directive was adopted according to which the US Army must be prepared to strike foreign facilities for the production and storage of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. And in 2002, the concept of counterproliferation entered the American national security strategy. Within its framework, the United States intended to destroy nuclear facilities in Korea and Iran or take control of Pakistani facilities.
Russian nuclear doctrine
Russia's military doctrine also periodically changes its wording. In the latter option, Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons, if not only nuclear or other types of weapons of mass destruction, but also conventional weapons were used against it or its allies, if this threatens the very foundations of the existence of the state, which could become one of the causes of a nuclear war. This speaks to the main thing - the likelihood of a nuclear war currently exists quite acutely, but the rulers understand that no one can survive in this conflict.
Russian nuclear weapons
An alternative history with nuclear war was developed in Russia. In 2016, the US State Department estimated, based on the data provided under the START-3 treaty, that the Russian army deployed 508 strategic nuclear delivery vehicles:
- intercontinental ballistic missiles;
- strategic bombers;
- missiles on submarines.
There are 847 nuclear charge carriers in total, on which 1,796 charges are installed. It should be noted that nuclear weapons in Russia are being reduced quite intensively - over six months their number decreases by 6%.
With such weapons and more than 10 countries in the world that have officially confirmed the presence of nuclear weapons, the threat of nuclear war is global problem, the prevention of which is a guarantee of life on Earth.
Are you afraid of nuclear war? Do you think it will come and how soon? Share your opinion or guesses in the comments.
Just one nuclear explosion can cause irreparable damage. What if a real nuclear war (nuclear apocalypse) breaks out in the world and there are hundreds and thousands of such explosions. All this will forever change the appearance of our planet beyond recognition and the world after a nuclear war will never be the same as it is now. The history of mankind still remembers the time when there were disagreements between countries that possess nuclear weapons. And then the whole world lived with bated breath and fearing that someone would simply press the button and start a nuclear apocalypse. Currently, they are no longer worried about this so much, because most countries have concluded agreements on the regulation of their nuclear arsenal. You can find out more about this treaty, as well as see the list of participating countries, in the article on Wikipedia. And we continue.
First briefly and general outline Let's see what a nuclear explosion is?
- If the threat of a nuclear attack becomes real, then it will be announced through TV, radio, loudspeakers on the streets and other means, in general, you will definitely know about the threat.
- After this, you need to immediately go to shelters, the addresses of which will be announced upon notification. If they are not nearby, then you can go to the subway, underground parking, sewerage, or just to the basement. All this can save you from damaging factors.
- After the explosion, a powerful light radiation of thermal energy is formed, burning everything out. It can last up to 15 seconds.
- Then comes the shock war, a powerful air current that rushes at the speed of sound and destroys everything in its path.
- At the moment of explosion, a powerful bomb can cause serious destruction over an area up to several tens of kilometers in diameter.
- Then the worst thing begins: the wind carries radioactive substances over hundreds of kilometers, contaminating vast territories. We will talk about other horrors of nuclear explosions later.
Today, we often see nuclear explosions and their consequences in movies and video games. But in fact, this threat to the real world has not disappeared. The nuclear bombs are still in place, waiting for someone to activate them and aim them at their target. And no matter how small the chances of such a development of events may be, they exist, and many people, including eminent scientists, think about the consequences of such events. To better understand how people's lives will change after a nuclear war, scientists conduct a variety of tests and simulations. And they have repeatedly found out that despite the gigantic losses of people, some will still manage to survive and they will find themselves in very harsh conditions. After all, life on the smoldering remains of a destroyed world will be completely different. And many are interested in what will happen after a nuclear war. Let's look at 10 brutal realities of life after the explosion of thousands of nuclear bombs.
1 Black rain
Soon after the explosions of nuclear bombs, which will cause enormous destruction, black rain will begin to fall from the sky. Moreover, it will not be rain in the direct understanding of this phenomenon by people. This rain will not be able to knock down the flames and clear the streets of dust. These will be black, large textured droplets, slightly reminiscent of oil. These drops will continue to kill survivors.
For example, after the well-known nuclear bomb explosion in Hiroshima, black rain began about 20 minutes later. It covered an area of about 20 km, covering everything with a thick black liquid that was very radioactive - the radiation was about 100 times stronger than in the epicenter of the nuclear explosion itself. Some time after these terrible events, when the city was already destroyed and its last remains were burning out, the surviving people were suffering from thirst. Out of desperation, they began to drink this strange black liquid that fell from the sky. And thus they killed themselves, since the increased radiation instantly made changes and penetrated into the blood of people. As experts note, to this day, in places that were affected by this black slurry, an increased level of radiation is observed and the consequences of this disaster are visible. Therefore, many assume that if a similar phenomenon is repeated after other explosions of nuclear bombs, and there will be hundreds of times more such explosions, then black rain can cover most of the territory of our planet with its substance, continuing to pollute it and kill all living things.
2 Electricity will be turned off by electromagnetic pulse
After a nuclear explosion, a powerful pulse of electromagnetic radiation is generated, which can turn off all electrical system even in the whole country. So all cities after a nuclear war will be plunged into darkness. When this phenomenon was being studied, a test explosion of a nuclear bomb was carried out and the subsequent electromagnetic radiation was so strong that it turned off street lights, televisions and telephones in the homes of residents located 1600 km from the epicenter of the explosion. Of course, no one expected such a result, so the incident was called simply an accident, without going into details. And this discovery allowed the military to realize that they could send powerful electromagnetic pulses using a nuclear bomb explosion and cut off electricity to a large area if necessary. For example, to knock out all the power grids in a country the size of the United States of America, a bomb would need to be detonated at an altitude of about 400 km. Then a powerful impulse will be able to cover such an area.
In general, electromagnetic pulses will extinguish all light bulbs, turn off all household appliances, destroy data on computers, turn off everything wastewater treatment plants, thanks to which clean water comes into our homes drinking water, and will cause a lot of other damage. Presumably, it will take 6 months of hard work to more or less restore the operation of all these systems. But throughout this time, people will have to live without clean water and electricity, and there will be a lot of other dangers around.
3 Smoke will cover the sun
The incredible amount of energy released during a nuclear explosion will lead to the detonation of all explosive objects. That is, everything that can burn will burn. Because of elevated temperature Entire buildings, forests and even asphalt on the roads will catch fire. Not to mention oil refineries, gas stations and everything related to oil, gasoline, gas and other flammable substances. Fires will be everywhere, and as a result, ash and toxic smoke will rise into the air. All this will rise into the atmosphere, and then into the upper layers of the stratosphere. As a result, dark clouds impenetrable to light will envelop the earth at an altitude of about 15 kilometers. They will move and increase in size thanks to the winds until they cover the entire planet. As a result, the planet after a nuclear war will become cold and dark. Such conditions will persist for several years after a nuclear war. People, going out into the street, will not see the picture they are used to, but will only see black clouds overhead, which will hide the sunlight. It's hard to say how long it will take for this cloud to dissipate and return blue color sky. But scientists have calculated that if a nuclear war affected our entire planet, then surviving humanity would not be able to see clear skies and the sun for about 30 years.
4 Nothing will grow because of the cold
Once the sun is cut off by a thick layer of smoke, temperatures on Earth will quickly begin to drop. According to preliminary estimates, the global temperature in the world could drop by 20 degrees at once. In the event of a complete nuclear apocalypse, in the first year after it there will be no summer anywhere on the planet at all. Instead, in all seasons of the year it will feel like a very cold winter outside, or the frost will be even stronger than usual. Of course, in such conditions it will be almost impossible to grow food. The surviving animals will also not be able to find food for themselves and will starve until they eventually die. All planted vegetables and other agricultural crops will quickly wither and die. Of course, a new Ice Age will not begin on earth, but for at least 5 years the air will be too cold for any plants to grow. And in about 25 years, the temperature on the planet will begin to return to its normal, the sun and all seasons will appear again, and even then it will be possible to say that all the plants planted by people will at least with some more or less high probability survive and bear fruit.
5 The ozone layer will be destroyed
A nuclear apocalypse and all of the above consequences will lead to the fact that the ozone layer will begin to deteriorate. Holes will literally appear in it. Moreover, according to scientists, if only 0.03 percent of the entire nuclear arsenal of all countries in the world is detonated, then the ozone layer will be destroyed by approximately 50%. But if all the existing nuclear charges are detonated, then there may be nothing left of it at all. After this, ultraviolet rays will begin to devastate the surface of our planet. Many living beings and plants that manage to survive the explosions will die. And those who still manage to survive will undergo painful mutations. Moreover, this will affect even the most resistant to external factors crops and animals. They will become much weaker and will reproduce much less frequently, and this will lead to the fact that even when the long winter on the planet, which we mentioned a little above, ends and the sun appears in the sky again, again starting to heat its surface, people will not be so happy just grow something. Planted plants will die in entire fields, and people who work in these fields and try to help the plants will also be in mortal danger, since ultraviolet rays will cause severe burns, as well as the rapid development of skin cancer.
6 General hunger strike
For approximately 5 years after a large-scale nuclear war, the surviving people will be forced to starve, as they will not be able to grow enough food. Low temperatures, frosts, and powerful ultraviolet radiation will lead to the fact that most of the crops grown will simply die. After a nuclear war, people who manage to escape will be deprived of food and will be forced to starve until they die. In this situation, those who live near large bodies of water, such as seas and oceans, will have a much better chance of survival. The fact is that although life in the oceans will become more scarce, plankton, which feeds a lot of marine life, will die, some species of fish will still survive and will be able to exist for some time while the water slowly cools. Of course, radioactive contamination will also accumulate in the water, which will kill animals, and possibly even people if they catch these animals and eat them. In general, in such harsh conditions, the nutrition of the surviving people will be very poor, and the competition will be very tough, so quite a few of the survivors will most likely not cope with life in these conditions and will die in the next 5 years.
7 Canned food is the main basis of the diet
But this will not mean that humanity will be doomed to death in the first 5 years after a nuclear war. The situation can be slightly improved by eating foods that were previously bottled or canned. In many films and books about nuclear war, you can see how surviving people eat food tightly sealed in bags, tin cans or bottles. And scientists confirmed this fact by conducting a dangerous experiment. During the nuclear bomb test, nearby they placed beer and soda, which were tightly sealed in glass bottles. After the explosion, these bottles were found and carefully examined. There was indeed a very heavy layer of radiation on their surface, but the contents of the bottles turned out to be safe and could be safely drunk. Only those drinks that were in the immediate vicinity of the center of the nuclear explosion became radioactive. But experts noted that the level of contamination of the contents of these bottles was very low and in the event of an apocalypse they could be eaten as they would not have a critical effect on the body. To prove this, scientists even drank these drinks themselves and answered only that their taste did not change, but they lost any aroma. It is also believed that during the apocalypse all the water that was on the surface will be contaminated, but from the deep underground wells will still flow clean water, which you can drink without fear. But among the surviving people, a struggle will begin for control of such wells, deep wells and of course warehouses with a supply of canned food and bottled drinks.
8 Bones will be affected by chemical radiation
Even if people find somewhere to shelter, warm themselves and have something to eat, their life will still be unbearable, since cancer will haunt everyone. The fact is that radiation after a nuclear war, or rather radioactive particles, will first rise into the sky and then fall back to the surface of the earth. These particles are so small that people simply do not see them, but despite this, they are fraught with mortal danger. For example, chemical substance strontium-90 is capable of deceiving the human body. Once a person inhales this substance or ingests it through other means, the body thinks it is calcium and sends it straight to our bones, teeth, brain and other parts of the body, which unsuspectingly receive toxic chemicals that destroy them. They will also cause cancer. In general, the chances of cancer in a post-apocalyptic world will be much higher, people's life expectancy will be shortened, children born will often be born with defects and abnormalities, but even despite this, humanity will still exist.
9 Long and powerful hurricanes will begin
During the first 2-3 years, along with complete darkness and severe frosts, powerful hurricanes will rage in the world, which humanity has never encountered before. modern world. The fact is that all the dust, smoke and small fragments that rise into the atmosphere will not easily block the sunlight, but will also affect the weather. Clouds will form differently, they will be more massive and will bring down powerful rain on the surface, accompanied by very strong winds. Especially powerful storms will occur along the ocean, as the temperature of the land will drop quickly and the water will cool more slowly, and because of this difference, hurricanes and typhoons will cause additional damage to everything located on the coast. It will rain there almost constantly, flooding everything around. And in such conditions people will have to survive for years.
10 People will survive!
Hundreds of millions of people will die as a result of a nuclear apocalypse. At least half a billion people will die immediately during the immediate explosions. The survivors will begin to starve or freeze to death from the cold and other factors, while still trying to survive in the new world. But it is generally accepted that in any case there will be some people who will be able to survive all these misfortunes and the consequences of nuclear explosions. There won’t be many of them, but still the fact that someone will survive and be able to rebuild civilization is a more positive vision of the post-apocalyptic future. Let us note that this is what is commonly believed today, and back in about the 1980s, scientists around the world were confident that in the event of a nuclear war, no one would have a chance and the planet would simply be destroyed. Now, many believe that humanity will not be wiped out from the face of the Earth, and in about 30 years, when the dense clouds dissipate and the temperature begins to return to its climatic norm, people will be able to return to a more or less normal life, starting all over again. Plants will also begin to cover the surface of our planet again, but they will no longer be the same as before. In a few more decades, the scorched surface of the Earth will already be covered with trees and the picture will be somewhat reminiscent of what can be seen today in Chernobyl, where dense forests grow right among the buildings of an abandoned city. And even today’s largest megacities will take this form. In the meantime, life will go on, people will survive, overcoming all the difficulties of life in a post-apocalyptic world. So there is a future after nuclear war. And although it will be very difficult, humanity will have a chance to survive.
That's all, we hope that now you have at least a little idea of how to survive after a nuclear war and what difficulties you will have to face.
If you liked the article, tell your friends about it on social networks, let them know too, since it will be easier to survive in such harsh conditions in the company of friends. Like and write your comments. What do you think are the chances of survival after a nuclear war, how can they be increased, and is it even possible for such a large-scale and destructive conflict for humanity as a nuclear war to arise?
Any feedback gives us strength to prepare new ones interesting materials and helps develop the project website.
After the bombs start falling, the appearance of the planet will change beyond recognition. For 50 years, this threat awaits us at every moment of our lives. The world lives with the knowledge that all it takes is one person to press a button and a nuclear holocaust will ensue.
We stopped thinking about it. Since the breakup Soviet Union the idea of a massive nuclear strike has become the plot of science fiction films and video games. But in reality this threat has not disappeared. The bombs are still in place and waiting in the wings. And there are always new enemies to destroy.
Scientists conducted tests and calculations to understand what life would be like after the atomic bombing. Some people will survive. But life on the smoldering remains of a destroyed world will be completely different.
10. Black rains will begin 
Almost immediately after a nuclear strike, heavy black rain will begin. It will not be that little rain that will extinguish the flames and remove the dust. These will be thick black jets of water with a texture similar to oil, and they can kill you.
In Hiroshima, black rain began 20 minutes after the bomb exploded. It covered an area with a radius of about 20 kilometers from the point of explosion and flooded countryside a thick liquid from which one could receive 100 times more radiation than at the epicenter of the explosion.
The people who survived the explosion found themselves in a burning city, fires burned out oxygen, and people died of thirst. Making their way through the fire, they were so thirsty that many opened their mouths and tried to drink the strange liquid that fell from the sky. There was enough radiation in this liquid to cause changes in a person's blood. The radiation was so strong that the effects of the rain are still felt in the places where it fell. We have every reason to believe that if the bomb falls again, it will happen again.
9. An electromagnetic pulse will turn off all electricity. 
A nuclear explosion produces an electromagnetic pulse that can damage electrical appliances and even shut down the entire electrical grid of a country.
During one of the nuclear tests The impulse after the detonation of an atomic bomb was so powerful that it disabled street lights, televisions and telephones in houses at a distance of 1,600 kilometers from the center of the explosion. It happened by accident at the time, but since then there have been bombs designed specifically for this purpose.
If a bomb designed to send an electromagnetic pulse were to explode at an altitude of 400-480 kilometers above a country the size of the United States, the entire electrical network throughout the entire territory would be switched off. Therefore, after the bombs fall, the lights will go out everywhere. All food storage refrigerators will shut down and all computer data will be lost. The worst thing is that the wastewater treatment plants will shut down and we will lose clean drinking water.
It is expected that it will take six months of hard work to return the country to normal operations. But this is provided that people have the opportunity to work. For a long time after the bombs fall, we will face life without electricity or clean water.
8. Smoke will block sunlight 
The areas around the epicenters of the explosions will receive incredible amounts of energy and fires will break out. Everything that can burn will burn. Not only buildings, forests and fences will burn, but even asphalt on the roads. Oil refineries, which have been among the main targets since the Cold War, will be engulfed in explosions and flames.
The fires that ignite around the epicenter of each explosion will release thousands of tons of toxic smoke that will rise into the atmosphere and then higher into the stratosphere. At an altitude of about 15 kilometers above the Earth's surface, a dark cloud will appear, which will begin to grow and spread under the influence of the wind until it covers the entire planet and blocks access to sunlight.
This will take years. For many years after the explosion we will not see the sun, we will only be able to see black clouds overhead that will block the light. It is difficult to say exactly how long this will last and when blue skies will appear above us again. It is believed that in the event of a global nuclear war, we will not see clear skies for approximately 30 years.
7. It will get too cold to grow food. 
When the clouds cover the sunlight, it will start to get colder. How much depends on the number of bombs exploded. In extreme cases, global temperatures are expected to drop by as much as 20 degrees Celsius.
There will be no summer in the first year after a nuclear disaster. Spring and autumn will become like winter. Plants will not be able to grow. Animals all over the planet will begin to die of hunger.
This will not be the start of a new ice age. During the first five years, plant growing seasons will become a month shorter, but then the situation will gradually begin to improve, and after 25 years the temperature will return to normal. Life will go on - if we can live up to this period.
6. The ozone layer will be destroyed 
However, this life can no longer be called normal. A year after the nuclear bombing, holes in the ozone layer will begin to appear due to atmospheric pollution. It will be devastating. Even a small nuclear war, using only 0.03 percent of the world's arsenal, could destroy up to 50 percent of the ozone layer.
The world will begin to die out from ultraviolet rays. Plants will begin to die all over the world, and those living beings that manage to survive will have to go through painful DNA mutations. Even the most resilient crops will become weaker, smaller, and reproduce much less frequently. So when the skies clear and the world warms up again, growing food will become incredibly difficult. When people try to grow food, entire fields will die, and farmers who stay in the sun long enough will die of skin cancer.
5. Billions of people will starve 
After a full-scale nuclear war, it would be about five years before anyone could grow a reasonable amount of food. At low temperatures, deadly frosts and destructive ultraviolet radiation from the sky, not many crops will survive long enough to be harvested. Millions of people will die of hunger.
Those who survive will have to find ways to get food, but it won't be easy. People living near the ocean may have a slightly better chance because the seas will cool more slowly. But life in the oceans will still be scarce.
The darkness from a blocked sky will kill plankton, the main food source that keeps the ocean alive. Radioactive contamination will also accumulate in the water, reducing the number of living organisms and making any caught living creature dangerous to eat.
Most of the people who survived the explosions will die within the first five years. The food will be too scarce and the competition too fierce.
4. Canned food will remain safe 
One of the main ways people will survive in the first five years will be by drinking bottled water and canned foods - similar to what is described in fiction, tightly sealed food packages will remain safe.
Scientists conducted an experiment in which they left bottled beer and soda water near the site of a nuclear explosion. Covered the outside of the bottles thick layer radioactive dust, but their contents remained safe. Only those drinks that were located almost at the epicenter became radioactive, but even their level of radiation was not lethal. However, the testing team rated the drinks as "not edible."
It is believed that canned foods will be as safe as these bottled drinks. It is also believed that water from deep underground wells may be safe to drink. Thus, the struggle for survival will be a struggle for access to village wells and food.
3. Radiation will damage your bones. 
Regardless of access to food, survivors will have to contend with widespread cancer. Immediately after the explosion, a huge amount of radioactive dust will rise into the air, which will then begin to fall throughout the world. The dust will be too fine to see, but the radiation levels in it will be high enough to kill.
One of the substances used in nuclear weapons is strontium-90, which the body mistakes for calcium and sends directly to the bone marrow and teeth. This leads to bone cancer.
It is unknown what the radiation level will be. It is not entirely clear how long it will take for the radioactive dust to begin to settle. But if it takes long enough, we can survive. If the dust begins to settle only after two weeks, its radioactivity will decrease by a factor of 1000, and this will be enough for survival. The number of cancers will increase, life expectancy will shorten, birth defects will become commonplace, but humanity will not be destroyed.
2. Widespread hurricanes and storms will begin 
During the first two to three years of cold and darkness, unprecedented storms can be expected. Dust in the stratosphere will not only block sunlight, but will also affect the weather.
The clouds will become different, they will contain much more moisture. Until things return to normal, we can expect rain to fall almost constantly.
It will be even worse in coastal areas. Although the cold snap will trigger a nuclear winter across the planet, the oceans will cool much more slowly. They will be relatively warm, causing widespread storms along all coasts. Hurricanes and typhoons will cover all the coasts of the world, and this will last for years.
1. Humanity will survive 
Billions will die as a result of a nuclear war. We can expect that about 500 million people will die immediately, and several billion more will die from hunger and cold.
However, there is every reason to believe that the toughest handful of people will cope with this. There won't be many, but it's a much more positive vision of a post-apocalyptic future than what came before. In the 1980s, all scientists agreed that the entire planet would be destroyed. But today we have a little more faith that some people will survive.
In 25-30 years, the clouds will clear, the temperature will return to normal, and life will begin again. Plants will appear. They may not be as lush as before. But in a few decades, the world may look like modern Chernobyl, where dense forests rise above the remains of the dead city.
Life will go on and humanity will be reborn. But the world will never be the same again.
