WW3: Here’S what would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped on London in World War Three
The US President also revealed his intentions to develop new ballistic missiles – raising fears of a new arms race and even World War 3.
The landmark IRNF treaty, signed by America and Russia in 1987, eliminated all nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, with ranges of 500–1,000 kilometres (310–620 mi) (short-range) and 1,000–5,500 km (620–3,420 mi).
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Hide AdEarlier this year The News revealed that Portsmouth was one of the key Russian targets during the cold war along with many other cities across the country.
NUKEMAP calculates the predicted number of fatalities and injuries that would be caused - based on the size of a the bomb dropped on the city – for this story we have selected the option of the bomb exploding as an airblast.
So if the ‘Little Boy’ 15 kiloton bomb, which was dropped by the US on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in WW2, fell on the City of Westminster of London it is estimated that 76,460 would be killed and 245,960 injured.
The fireball would have a radius of 180m, the air blast radius - which would severely damage buildings – would be 340m and the radiation radius – where death rates would be between 50% and 90% - would be 1.2km.
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Hide AdHowever the ‘Little Boy' hasn’t been used since WW2, so if a 350kt W-78 nuke – currently the largest option on NUKEMAP – was used on London it would be much more devastating.
With an estimated 565,980 people being killed and 1,629,370 injured if it fell on the City of Westminister
The fireball radius would be 0.63km, the air blast radius - which would severely damage buildings – would be 4.95km, the thermal radiation radius – causing third degree burns, scaring, disablement, and can require amputation - would be 7.67km.
All of this is hypothetical and the risk of a nuclear bomb falling on London or anywhere in the World is extremely low.