Re:W54
by kijin on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @12:37PM
(#42452759)
It will take a much bigger nuke than a backpack to make a big city "just gone" in the modern world.
Every now and then, ships full of explosive material blow up in a coastal city, with yields much larger than what a small nuke like W54 can produce. Texas City. Tianjin. Beirut. They were tragic accidents with many casualties, but nowhere near strong enough to wipe a big city off the map. Reinforced concrete is incredibly tough. There's an old building in Hiroshima that survived only 150 yards from ground zero. WW2-style firebombing is much more effective at rm -rf'ing cities than most nukes we have today.
Whether or not the man at the top will take the explosion as an opportunity to attack another country, now that's a much more serious concern.
Every now and then, ships full of explosive material blow up in a coastal city, with yields much larger than what a small nuke like W54 can produce. Texas City. Tianjin. Beirut. They were tragic accidents with many casualties, but nowhere near strong enough to wipe a big city off the map. Reinforced concrete is incredibly tough. There's an old building in Hiroshima that survived only 150 yards from ground zero. WW2-style firebombing is much more effective at rm -rf'ing cities than most nukes we have today.
Whether or not the man at the top will take the explosion as an opportunity to attack another country, now that's a much more serious concern.