Risks → War → Nuclear War Detonation Modelling → NUKEMAP - Introduction
Use NUKEMAP to explode your own nuclear bomb and see the effects!
Simulation of a 5 megaton nuclear air burst over central London
Source: NUKEMAP
What is NUKEMAP?
NUKEMAP is a nuclear explosion simulation tool based on Google Maps developed in 2012 by Alex Wellerstein, a professor of Science and Technology
Studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA.
It allows the user to detonate a nuclear device, either at altitude ( an air burst)
or at surface (a surface burst), and then map the effects of that detonation. It covers all the major components of a nuclear blast, viz.,
fireball radius, blast damage radius (selectable at 1, 5, 20, 200 and 3,000 psi overpressure), ionising radiation radius (selectable at 100,
500, 600, 1,000 and 5,000 rem), thermal radiation radius (again selectable between 1st to 3rd degree burns), and will also map nuclear fallout areas at
1, 10,100 and 1,000 rads per hour, if a surface burst is selected. It also
provides an estimate of the number of fatalities and injuries that will result from the blast.
It is very flexible tool and will even allow you to set
a precise height for an air burst detonation and wind strength and direction if you wish to map fallout from a surface blast.
To date,
NUKEMAP has registered over 341 million detonations and counting (June 2024).
London Destroyed?
My introductory image is a similation of a 5 megaton air burst detonation over central London. As you can see devestation in massive. The simulation
suggests that there will be up to 2,270,430 fatalities and 3,630,850 injuries. The fireball from this detonation will have a radius of 2.02 km, moderate
blast damage (5 psi over pressure when most residential buildings collapse) will extend outwards for 12 km to areas such as Wimbeldon in the south west and
Wood Green in the north, that 3rd degree burns will be common out to 24.5 km and that light blast damage (1 psi overpressure) will extend up to 33.8 km out
from central London to areas such as Slough and Windsor. Of course, there is no fallout as this is an a single air burst detonation.
I have also simulated a 5 megaton surface burst at the same central London location which will generate fallout, and
present results below.
Simulation of a 5 megaton nuclear surface burst over central London
Note the extensive fallout plume
Source: NUKEMAP