nuclear-news

Yes, Virginia, a nuclear bomb would effectively destroy our Washington DC

A nuclear blast of any size would end D.C. as we know it Washington Post, By Mike DeBonis, 27 March 12,  Last November, federal researchers issued a report  commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security on what would happen if a relatively small nuclear device — the kind a terrorist group would most likely come to possess — were detonated at 16th and K streets NW.

“National Capital Region: Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism” was little noticed until the Federation of American Scientists posted a copy of the study  on its Secrecy News blog. It was then picked up by this newspaper, Gizmodo  and others.

Today, the Associated Press wrote up a story on the report, and it’s a good summation of the aftermath of a terrorist nuclear blast in all its awful detail. But it moved across the wire with an unfortunate headline: “Gov’t report: DC nuke blast wouldn’t destroy city.”

Make no mistake, a nuclear blast of any size would destroy D.C. as we know it.

Yes, the loss of life (45,000 dead) and damage to property caused by a 10-kiloton ground blast — approximately Hiroshima-level — would be nowhere as apocalyptic as the multiple, multi-megaton air bursts that the city would absorb during a Cold War-type nuclear exchange.

Most of the city’s residents would survive and most of its residential neighborhoods would remain intact, but any nuclear blast would be an existential dagger for Washington as a center for government and commerce — a death knell for D.C. as a city worthy of that word….. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/mike-debonis/post/a-nuclear-blast-of-any-size-would-end-dc-as-we-know-it/2012/03/27/gIQAieZmeS_blog.html

March 28, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war