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The U.S. is inadvertently involved in multiple conflicts around the world in backing its allies, while also facing tensions with China over several issues including trade.
The recent escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war has led to increasing talk of nuclear war and Newsweek has looked at the impact of a Russian nuclear weapon on U.S. cities and NATO capitals .
Now, Newsweek has also looked at the impact of a U.S. nuclear weapon on the capitals of North Korea, Russia and China.
It used maps created by Alex Wellerstein, a professor and historian of nuclear technology, to assess what the impact would be if B-83, the largest weapon currently in the U.S. arsenal, was used.
The fireball radius (inner yellow circle), in which everything would be vaporized by intense heat rising to millions of degrees F, would reach around 1.59 square miles. The more moderate blast damage radius (inner grey circle), covering 67.
7 square miles of the blast, would destroy residential buildings and probably cause widespread fires. Anyone within 211 square miles of the explosion (the thermal radiation radius: wider orange circle) would be at risk of suffering third-degree burns throughout the skin, "often painless because they destroy the pain nerves," which can cause severe scarring, disablement and require amputation. Within the light blast damage radius (wider gray circle), 535 square miles from the blast, glass windows should be expected to break, which can cause injuries.
Newsweek has contacted the defense departments for the U.S. and Russia, via email, for comment.
It has also contacted the Permanent Mission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the United Nations as well as the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C., via email, for comment Pyongyang, North Korea In Pyongyang, an estimated 1,327,820 people would die and 1,105,660 would suffer injuries.
In any given 24-hour period in the city, there are on average 3,177,764 people in the light (1 psi) blast range of the simulated detonation. Moscow, Russia In any given 24-hour period in Moscow, there are on average 10,222,930 people in the light (1 psi) blast range of the simulated detonation. Some 1,374,840 would die and 3,747,220 would suffer injuries.
Beijing, China An estimated 1,548,460 would die in Beijing, where there are on average 9,038,075 people in the light (1 psi) blast range of the simulated detonation in any given 24-hour period. Some 3,332,190 would suffer injuries. Methods Newsweek looked at the results of an airburst attack, more likely to be used in a strike on a city than a surface attack, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
These estimations would be heavily impacted by how high the detonation takes place. This model assumed the detonation altitude was 10,890 ft.—to maximize the 5 psi range.
The Context The U.S. has backed Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia, where President Vladimir Putin signed an updated nuclear doctrine into law which emphasizes that Russia will make "all necessary efforts to reduce the nuclear threat" and aims to prevent escalating tensions between states that could lead to "military conflicts, including nuclear ones.
" It also says that nuclear deterrence should also ensure "an understanding by a potential adversary of the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies." Ukraine has recently used U.S.
-made ATACMS missiles against a target inside Russia for the first time last week, after President Joe Biden allowed such usage. This followed Moscow's deployment of North Korean troops to the front lines in the Kursk region, an action described by the Biden administration as a significant escalation of the conflict. Earlier this month, U.
S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall warned that "war with China or Russia is not unlikely, it can happen at any time." This came after China held the largest invasion rehearsal around Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing views as its territory, over the summer.
China's claims over islands, reefs, and maritime zones in the South China Sea conflict with those of other regional countries, but its disputes with the Philippines , the oldest treaty ally of the U.S. in Asia, have led to the most intense physical clashes and political tensions.
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