Table of Contents
How long does radiation stay in the air after a nuclear bomb?
Seven hours after a nuclear explosion, residual radioactivity will have decreased to about 10 percent of its amount at 1 hour, and after another 48 hours it will have decreased to 1 percent.
What happens if a nuclear blows up in the air?
If a nuclear weapon is exploded in a vacuum-i. e., in space-the complexion of weapon effects changes drastically: First, in the absence of an atmosphere, blast disappears completely. There is no longer any air for the blast wave to heat and much higher frequency radiation is emitted from the weapon itself.
How fast do Explosions travel?
Gas explosions can either deflagrate or detonate based on confinement; detonation velocities are generally around 1600 m/s to 1800 m/s but can be as high as 3000 m/s. Solid explosives often have detonation velocities ranging beyond 4000 m/s to 10300 m/s. Detonation velocity can be measured by the Dautriche method.
What height do nukes detonate?
Nuclear weapons The air burst is usually 100 to 1,000 m (330 to 3,280 ft) above the hypocenter to allow the shockwave of the fission or fusion driven explosion to bounce off the ground and back into itself, creating a shockwave that is more forceful than one from a detonation at ground level.
How long do nuclear fission bombs last?
The fissionables should last around 30 – 50 years before helium embrittlement degrades the pit. Explosives typically last in the elevated radiation environment for a decade or so, then they degrade and become unstable.
What is the half-life of radiation from a nuclear explosion?
The vast majority of gamma radiation from and air burst – which most nuclear blasts would be due to a larger blast radius – is iodine 131. It has an 8.2 hour half-life and would be essentially gone in 3–4 days. The beta radiation, on the other hand, is primarily from cesium 137 which has a half-life of about 30 years.
How long does radioactive fallout stay in the environment?
About Radioactive Fallout From Nuclear Weapons Testing Fallout typically contains hundreds of different radionuclides. Some stay in the environment for a long time because they have long half-lives, like cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30.17 years.
How far away from a nuclear bomb would you be blind?
For a bomb that size, people up to 21 km (13 miles) away would experience flash blindness on a clear day, and people up to 85 km (52.8 miles) away would be temporarily blinded on a clear night.