(ORDO NEWS) — If an atomic bomb were dropped on your city tomorrow, would you know where to hide? Nuclear war is a terrible thought, but a team of researchers from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus think of it first.
In a recent study, scientists calculated how an explosion from a nuclear blast might affect people sheltering indoors and found that even if you are at a safe distance from the blast to survive the blast, you may still be in immediate danger.
“It is important to understand the impact on people indoors in order to provide recommendations for protecting people and property,” said co-author Dmitry Drikakis. “For example, we can design structures that provide more protection.”
Avoid corridors and doors. Look for corners in rooms with no windows
The detonation of a nuclear bomb produces not only radiation in the form of bright blinding light and scorching heat, but also powerful shock waves that can travel tens of miles.
It is these shock waves that are potentially lethal to people who are at a sufficiently safe distance from the fireball.
The team simulated the nuclear explosion of a 750 kiloton atomic bomb. For reference: the bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima had a yield of 15 kilotons, and on Nagasaki – 25 kilotons.
Thus, on average, this is about 37 times smaller than the bomb in the researchers’ simulations.
A warhead that powerful would likely destroy anything within 2.5 miles (4 km), but people outside that radius could stand the chance if they took cover in the right place of solid structure.
However, where this is the right place, the results of the researchers become interesting.
“The explosion was modeled using high-resolution, high-order computational fluid dynamics,” Drikakis told Insider, based on three decades of experimentation and theory.
Using these models, they calculated how the shock wave would travel through buildings including rooms, walls, corners, doors, corridors, windows, and doorways from 2.5 to 30 miles from the blast site.
They reported that narrow pockets inside buildings, such as doorways and corridors, could act as a wind tunnel, accelerating the shock wave to dangerous pressures up to 18 times the human pressure. body weight – light enough to break bones.
“The most dangerous indoor critical spaces to avoid are windows, hallways, and doors,” said co-author Ioannis William Kokkinakis.
The best location is in the half of the building furthest from the explosion site, in a windowless room.
But “even in a front room facing the blast, you can be safe from high airspeeds by positioning yourself at the corners of the wall facing the blast,” Kokkinakis told Insider.
It is also worth noting that the building itself is important. For example, you don’t want to take shelter in a log cabin.
“As the newspaper notes, if you are too close to the explosion, there is little you can do.
However, at some distance, building structures, especially those made of stone, concrete, or other strong non-combustible materials, can provide some degree of blast protection,” said Katherine Higley, professor of radiation biology at Oregon State University, who was not involved in the study.
Preparing for an Uncertain Future
The researchers said they simulated the detonation of a 750-kiloton bomb after the Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile tested by the Kremlin last April.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine raised fears that we might be heading towards a nuclear war, and one of the main motivations for their investigation was “the growing rhetoric about the use of nuclear weapons,” Drikakis said.
“Nuclear war is a serious matter that will lead to widespread destruction.
For several decades, the international community believed that this would not be possible. However, the rhetoric around the world has changed,” Drikakis said.
The authors believe that these results may help nuclear safety experts develop better strategies to mitigate damage from nuclear explosions and radiation leaks.
They hope that the results of this study may also help in the development of buildings that are protected from nuclear explosions in the future.
“The wide-ranging implications of this study are that it could improve understanding of how best to protect yourself in the event of a nuclear explosion,” Higley said.
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