Modeling the Impact of a Small Nuclear Bomb in Washington DC

[BillTre]

Here is a longish article from Science mag news about using an agent based modeling approach and detailed geographic information to model what might happen if a small nuclear bomb went off in the middle of Washington DC.
The article also discusses the use of similar models for other purposes like modeling disease outbreaks, weather disasters, and economics.
They want to make models like these much more available for many cities.
I was happy that the radioactive plume did not go toward where I used to live (Bethesda, MD, to the NW), but my sister in Georgetown (same direction but much closer) would probably not do well.

 

[fresh_42]

This appears to me as a very specific American topic. In my opinion, and this is a personal view from abroad, the objective chances something like this might happen are close to zero. However, it addresses the fears and in my personal view one of the many paranoid attitudes in the American society. A dirty nuclear device, maybe, although I can't really think of a method to "deliver" it, but this is at least thinkable, as harbors worldwide can hardly be controlled to an extend that would be necessary to uncover such an attempt. A classic nuclear explosive, no. The chances of a nuclear accident like in Harrisburg are far greater. I would rather fear the many and meanwhile also old nuclear plants along the west coast.