The Effects of Nuclear War

DETROIT AND LENINGRAD

1-Mt Air Burst on Detroit

For comparison, the same 1-Mt nuclear weapon was assumed to have been air burst at an altitude of 6,000 feet [1.8 km] over the same interstate intersection as used in the preceding ground burst discussion. This altitude will maximize the size of the 30-psi circle, but the radius of the 5-psi circle that results will be only 10 percent smaller than what would have resulted from a height of burst raised to the 5- psi optimized value. There will be several significant differences in this case.

• The sizes of the rings of pressure damage will be larger.
• The range of thermal burns and fire starts will also increase.
• There will be no significant fallout.
• There will be no crater.
• The strongest structures may partly survive even directly under the blast.

Figure 5 shows the corresponding pressure circles and (second column) illustrates that the number of fatalities nearly doubled, and the number of injured have greatly increased. At the same time, damage to major industrial facilities is becoming significant, with the Chrysler plant in the middle of the 2- to 5- psi band, and the Ford River Rouge plant in the 1- to 2-psi band.

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