Guess the MegaTons of This Nuke

[DBTrek]

Time for a morbid holiday game. Here’s an old school pic designed to help school children decide how close or far they want to be to a nuclear blast. The only problem ... no word on what size nuke we’re talking about! Suppose you calculate the perfect spot for viewing your civilization going up in a hellfire cloud only to discover you miscalculated the strength of the bomb by twenty megatons.

Why, it’d be enough to ruin your day!

So ... based on this picture, how big of a nuke do you think we’re talking about?

[Speaker to Animals]

Maybe about 10-12.

[Smitty-48]

20 megatons, SS-18 effects radius profile.

[heydaralon]

Maybe a stick of dynamites worth. A real nuke would have melted the computer generatinf that graphic.

[DBTrek]

I’m seeing North Korea rated for only having 50 Kiloton capability - or .05 megaton.

If the pic shows 10 to 20 megaton blast then NK must only be good for wiping out a state fair at this point, eh?

[Smitty-48]

I’m seeing North Korea rated for only having 50 Kiloton capability - or .05 megaton.

If the pic shows 10 to 20 megaton blast then NK must only be good for wiping out a state fair at this point, eh?

0.5 megatons is 500 kts, not 50 kts. Which is the estimated yield for the NK bomb they last detonated.

50 kts would not produce 5.8 on the Richter scale, depending how deep it was, that's 500 kts easily.

That's still a big bomb, the most powerful warhead in the current US arsenal is the W87 at a maximum yield of 475 kilotons, more than enough to wipe a major city off the map.

Thing is, once you've mastered the basic design, it's not hard to boost it, particularly if you're not using MIRV's, so if you can make a 500 kt hydrogen bomb, 5 megatons is easily within reach from there.

[DBTrek]

Damn, 20 megaton nuke on Seattle is no bueno.

[Smitty-48]

Damn, 20 megaton nuke on Seattle is no bueno.

Nobody deploys a 20 megaton warhead anymore, the biggest the Russians use now are 800 kt MIRVs, the Chinese are the only ones using megaton class warheads, the largest being 5 megatons, and that sort of warhead, is what the NK's are likely shooting for.

It's not that high tech, it's actually easier to make a bigger bomb than it is to make a smaller one.

[DBTrek]

North Korea’s 50kiloton nuke doesn’t even get all of Seattle, what a joke.

[Smitty-48]

You forgot to add the radioactive fallout, click on radioactive fallout in the settings and then look again.