This Is What Would Happen To Us In A Nuclear War

This week, the spectre of global thermonuclear war reared its head again - as Turkish reports suggested nuclear weapons might be used in Syria.

The report - by Consortium News - was unsubstantiated, claiming that Vladimir Putin was ‘ready’ to use the weapons to defend troops in event of a Turkish invasion.

But it highlights the fact that both Russia and NATO are still in the position to unleash global-scale nuclear attacks - and the weapons are armed and ready.

Designed to be basically unstoppable, intercontinental thermonuclear missiles could destroy cities on the far side of the globe in minutes - and bring about instant, catastrophic change to our world

The Arms Control Association says, ‘United States and Russia still deploy more than 1,500 strategic warheads on several hundred bombers and missiles - far more than necessary to deter nuclear attack - and they are modernizing their nuclear delivery systems.

‘If these weapons were used even in a “limited” way, the result would be catastrophic nuclear devastation.’

How would nuclear war start?

No state with a large nuclear arsenal - such as Russia or America - actively WANTS nuclear confrontation.

What observers fear is a military or political confrontation which builds up tensions around a nuclear missile attack - possibly leading one side to fire.

Such moments were defining features of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western powers.

In 1983, the Soviets became convinced that a NATO nuclear training exercise - Able Archer 83 - was actually a cover for a real nuclear strike against Warsaw pact countries.

Soviet forces began moving nuclear missiles to launch sites in Europe, the new report confirms - and elements within the Soviet military were prepared for war.

What happens once the order to fire is given?

Nuclear weapon systems are designed to be extremely difficult to stop once fired.

British weapons engineer Lieutenant Commander Woods works on one of Britain’s four nuclear-armed submarines - HMS Vigilant - and uses a red, handheld trigger (modelled on a Colt pistol) to fire the 60-tonne missiles on board.

The order has to come from the serving Prime Minister - but once fired, there is little anyone can do, Lt Col Woods says.

Lt Col Woods says, ‘‘Once the missile has left the submarine there is no self-destruct button.

‘Once it’s gone from here, it is effectively ‘fire and forget’ – it is going to reach its target.

What would be the first sign?

There wouldn’t be air raid sirens - or a ‘four minute warning’.

The four minute warning system, a national system of sirens which would have gone off during a nuclear attack was retired in 1992 - one of the reasons being that more people now have double glazing.

Instead, it’s likely people would learn via TV or internet broadcasts. The government also recently tested technology which would deliver a text message warning of disasters such as nuclear attacks.

The system, drawn up by the National Security Council, was tested in Glasgow and Yorkshire in 2013.

What would a bomb do?

Hydrogen bombs would destroy most civilian buildings in a 10-mile radius (based on a 20-megaton weapon exploding 3.3 miles above the ground, according to calculations in Physics and Nuclear Arms Today.

The effects on people nearby would be even more frightening, with a blast killing thousands or millions instantly, followed by poisoning from radioactive fallout from the blast.

Witnesses of the Hiroshima attack said that people near the centre of the blast ‘vanished’.

William Burchett said, ‘Of thousands of others, nearer the centre of the explosion, there was no trace. They vanished. The theory in Hiroshima is that the atomic heat was so great that they burned instantly to ashes - except that there were no ashes.’

How many would die?

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a fraction of the size of the hydrogen warheads now used by Russia and the U.S.

In 1979, the U.S. Congress’s Office of Technology published a report called The Effects of War, which envisaged the impact of an all-out nuclear attack.

The OTA envisaged up to 80% of the population of the U.S. being killed immediately, with further casualties from radiation.

What would happen to the world?

‘Doomsday’ predictions of all life on Earth being exterminated are probably overstating the impact of nuclear weapons - but it would have a huge impact on life on our planet.

Researchers from the University of Colorado predict that a ‘limited’ exchange in which 100 nuclear weapons were detonated would change the world’s climate for decades.

The release of ‘black carbon’ into the atmosphere would lead to decades of ‘killing frosts’ - and changes in the Earth’s season.

The researchers said, ‘Knowledge of the impacts of 100 small nuclear weapons should motivate the elimination of more than 17,000 nuclear weapons that exist today.’