Effects of nuclear explosions
An American nuclear test.
Nuclear weapons
History
Warfare
Arms race
Design
Testing
Effects
Delivery
Espionage
Proliferation
Arsenals
Terrorism
Civil defense
Nuclear-armed states
United States · Russia
United Kingdom · France
China · India · Israel
Pakistan · North Korea
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The energy released from a nuclear weapon
detonated in the troposphere can be divided
into four basic categories:[1]
• Blast—40-50% of total energy
• Thermal radiation—30-50% of total energy
• Ionizing radiation—5% of total energy
• Residual radiation—5-10% of total energy
However, depending on the design of the
weapon and the environment in which it is
detonated the energy distributed to these
categories can be increased or decreased to
the point of nullification. The blast effect is
created by the coupling of immense amounts
of energy, spanning the electromagnetic
spectrum, with the surroundings. Locations
such as submarine, surface, airburst, or exo-
atmospheric determine how much energy is
produced as blast and how much as radi-
ation. In general, denser mediums around the
bomb, like water, absorb more energy, and
create more powerful shockwaves while at
the same time limiting the area of its effect.
The dominant effects of a nuclear weapon
where people are likely to be affected (blast
and thermal radiation) are identical physical
damage mechanisms to conventional explos-
ives. However the energy produced by a nuc-
lear explosive is millions of times more
powerful per gram and the temperatures
reached are briefly in the tens of millions of
degrees.
Energy from a nuclear explosive is initially
released in several forms of penetrating radi-
ation. When there is a surrounding material
such as air, rock, or water, this radiation in-
teracts with and rapidly heats it to an equilib-
rium temperature. This causes vaporization
of surrounding material resulting in its rapid
expansion. Kinetic energy created by this ex-
pansion contributes to the formation of a
shockwave. When a nuclear detonation oc-
curs in air near se