The Tsar Bomba, the largest USSR bomb ever tested, would not only wipe out London, but parts of its neighbouring counties too. Part of the blast would even effect Norwich. In total, 5,778,950 people would be killed and a further 3,420,670 injured.
The initial blast would have decimated the entire city and everything within 12 miles. The mushroom cloud, with a radius of 29.5 miles, would have stretched all the way into Washington D.C. The heat from the blast would have extended out 62 miles, and would have left everyone in Dover, Delaware with third-degree burns.
The Tsar bomba exploded about 4 km above the ground and reportedly produced a mushroom cloud 60 km high. The bomb destroyed an uninhabited village 55 km from Ground Zero with damage to buildings seen from 100 kms away.
Depending on its impact radius, even a Tsar bomb cannot destroy a whole country. Only a small country such as Vatican City or Monaco with land areas of 44 ha and 202 ha respectively can be completely destroyed using a nuclear weapon.
If the same bomb was dropped on London, it could kill 5.7million and injure a further 3.4million. A far smaller, 50 mega-tonne Tsar Bomb - the biggest the Soviet Union ever tested - could kill 2.1million people and injure a further 2.1million.
The cities that would most likely be attacked are Washington, New York City and Los Angeles. Using a van or SUV, the device could easily be delivered to the heart of a city and detonated. The effects and response planning from a nuclear blast are determined using statics from Washington, the most likely target.
Dr. Redlener identified six cities that have the greatest likelihood of being attacked: New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. Only New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles' emergency management websites give ways to respond to a radioactive disaster.
Russia could destroy New York City with a traditional ballistic missile. The flight time is about 30 minutes.
A nuclear weapon (also known as an atom bomb, atomic bomb, nuclear bomb or nuclear warhead, and colloquially as an A-bomb or nuke) is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), ...
When the giant bomb finally detonated about 13,000 feet (4 kilometers) over its target, the blast was so powerful that it destroyed everything within a nearly 22-mile (35-kilometer) radius, and generated a mushroom cloud that towered nearly 200,000 feet (60 kilometers).
As far as we know, nobody currently has a Tsar Bomba. The Soviets only built the one that was detonated in 1961.
The last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, was executed by the Soviet government in 1918. The early Bulgarian emperors (10th to 14th century) and the 20th-century kings of Bulgaria (from 1908 to 1946) also called themselves tsars.
Russia possesses an estimated 5,977 nuclear warheads as of 2022, the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world; the second-largest stockpile is the United States' 5,428 warheads. Russia's deployed missiles (those actually ready to be launched) number about 1,588, second to the United States' 1,644.
Interestingly enough, Tsar Bomba was one of the “cleanest” nuclear weapons ever detonated, because the bomb's design eliminated 97 percent of the possible fallout.
The volume the weapon's energy spreads into varies as the cube of the distance, but the destroyed area varies at the square of the distance. Thus 1 bomb with a yield of 1 megaton would destroy 80 square miles. While 8 bombs, each with a yield of 125 kilotons, would destroy 160 square miles.
Tsar Bomba
On Oct. 30, 1961, the Soviet Union dropped the most powerful nuclear weapon ever exploded on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, north of the arctic circle.
#1: Tsar Bomba (1961)
Initially, it was designed as a 100,000 kiloton bomb, but its yield was cut to half its potential by the Soviet Union. Tsar Bomba's mushroom cloud breached through the stratosphere to reach a height of over 37 miles (60km), roughly six times the flying height of commercial aircraft.
However, the Soviet Union developed three AN602 physics packages at 101.5 megatons (Mt) and these are more powerful than the Tsar Bomba, which was downscaled to 51 Mt before being used RDS-220 Vanya.
According to Outrider, “the fireball forms immediately from the burning bomb residue, and it emits an enormous amount of energy as x-rays, light, and heat, expanding out as it cools. Anything—or anyone—inside the fireball would be vaporized in an instant.” Since Manhattan is so close, you probably won't survive.
Prepare for a nuclear attack by stocking up on non-perishable food, water, and first aid supplies, if possible. Seek shelter indoors immediately. Ideally, go down into the basement, or move to a centrally located room in the house. Stay away from windows.
Recovery would probably take about 3-10 years, but the Academy's study notes that long term global changes cannot be completely ruled out. The reduced ozone concentrations would have a number of consequences outside the areas in which the detonations occurred.
Iceland doesn't have a standing army or any other military force. This means that there would be no one to target with a nuclear weapon.
Go to the basement or middle of the building.
Stay away from the outer walls and roof. Try to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who are not part of your household. If possible, wear a mask if you're sheltering with people who are not a part of your household.
Halting an atomic weapon is theoretically possible, say experts, but in reality is an enormous challenge. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has raised the fear of nuclear weapons to a level not seen since the Cold War.