Are you far enough away? This is the exact distance to survive a nuclear bomb in your city

A nuclear bomb explosion is one of the most frightening concepts imaginable. First comes the blinding flash, then a fireball vaporizing everything within its radius. That is followed by a tremendous shockwave and searing heat expanding out miles setting all it touches on fire.

No one would want to be within the reach of the nuclear bomb’s destructive force but how far away do you need to be to survive? The answer depends on a few factors. Here’s a look.

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Where to be to survive a nuclear blast

Ideally you would want to be in a fallout shelter when a nuclear bomb detonates with plenty of supplies to ride out the aftermath. But let’s say you are above ground. The distance you need to be from the nuclear blast in order to survive will depend on the size of the bomb and whether it explodes in the air or not.

Alex Wellerstein, a professor and historian of nuclear technology, has produced a ‘Nukemap’ simulator where you can look at the effects of a range of different nuclear weapons that have been or still are part of national stockpiles around the world.

Using this tool a 1Mt (1,000 kilotons) W-59 Minuteman I warhead, almost 67 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, would create a fireball that would vaporize everything within at least 0.65-mile radius from the epicenter of the explosion. Most residential buildings would collapse, injuries would be universal, and fatalities widespread almost 4.4 miles out.

People nearly 7.6 miles from the blast would experience third-degree burns throughout layers of the skin. The only upside is that these “are often painless because they destroy the pain nerves,” however, “they can cause severe scarring or disablement, and can require amputation.”

While you may survive, if there were an all-out nuclear war, all that would be left is a hellscape full of untold suffering. You would have to deal with radioactive fallout from the bombs that would contaminate the soil and water and survive the nuclear winter that would follow and last for several years.

What are the most powerful nuclear weapons

Science Time took a look five of the most powerful modern nuclear weapons in the arsenals of China, Russia and the United States. Each of them have varying potential payload capacity carrying either a single warhead or multiple nukes.

Russia’s ICBM RS-28, dubbed the Satan II, is potentially able to carry the biggest with a single 50-megaton bomb. That is the same size as Tsar Bomb that the Soviet Union detonated in the Artic in 1961.

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