Nuclear bombs & their lingering radioactive effects

[bluegrass]

Hello, I wish to ask, if a kind of nuclear attack would happen, what radiation would it be, how far and for how long? How can we know how the radioation amount would change with time? Many thanks!

 

[ChrisVer]

Depends... are you asking for the fallout effects? those can in general span for a long time and of course they can travel around the globe several times (dying out exponentially with time due to transitions/radiation depending on the isotopes' lifetime, and also being diffused into the air bringing down their concentration).

 

[mfb]

Depends on the weapon used, the point of explosion, the local weather, topography, and so on.

In general: all of alpha, beta and gamma, and it would go down quickly. Hiroshima and Nagasaki got re-built quickly after the second world war, for example.

 

[QuickREACTION]

like the other posters said it would depend on the bomb used a large bomb like the Tsar would wipe out a very large area but a small bomb like North Korea's 2006 test bomb wouldn't be anywhere near as destructive and would only affect a very small area. The radiation released from the bomb is called fallout and it won't go away at any point in our life time even Hiroshima and Nagaski set off geiger counters as does Chernobyl. When a nuclear explosion occurs gamma alpha and beta radiation is released.

 

[mfb]

even Hiroshima and Nagaski set off geiger counters as does Chernobyl.

Compared to natural radioactivity, the radioactivity from the nuclear explosions is negligible today. Chernobyl is a different case, that was not a nuclear weapon.