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Comparative fireball radii for a selection of nuclear weapons. [citation needed] Contrary to the image, which may depict the initial fireball radius, the maximum average fireball radius of Castle Bravo, a 15-megatonne yield surface burst, is 3.3 to 3.7 km (2.1 to 2.3 mi), [6] [7] and not the 1.42 km displayed in the image.
Intense thermal radiation at the hypocenter forms a nuclear fireball which, if the explosion is low enough in altitude, is often associated with a mushroom cloud. In a high-altitude burst where the density of the atmosphere is low, more energy is released as ionizing gamma radiation and X-rays than as an atmosphere-displacing shockwave.
This is known as a "radiatively driven" fireball. [citation needed] Inside the radiative fireball, the bomb itself is rapidly expanding due to the heat generated by the nuclear reactions. This moves outward at supersonic speeds, creating a hydrodynamic shock wave at its outer edge. After a brief period, this shock front reaches and then passes ...
At the moment of a nuclear explosion, a fireball is formed. The ascending, roughly spherical mass of hot, incandescent gases changes shape due to atmospheric friction, and the surface of the fireball is cooled by energy radiation, turning from a sphere to a violently rotating spheroidal vortex. A Rayleigh–Taylor instability is formed as the ...
A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction.The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion-based weapons have used a fission device to initiate fusion, and a pure fusion weapon remains a hypothetical device.
Nuclear weapons and the most powerful non-nuclear weapon examples Weapon Total yield (kilotons of TNT) Mass (kg) Relative effectiveness GBU-57 bomb (Massive Ordnance Penetrator, MOP) 0.0035 13,600 0.26 Grand Slam (Earthquake bomb, M110) 0.0065 9,900 0.66 Bomb used in Oklahoma City (ANFO based on racing fuel) 0.0018 2,300 0.78 BLU-82 (Daisy Cutter)
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Note that these are only for the fireball component of the explosion — radiation, blast, and heat would extend far beyond these distances (i.e. for the Tsar Bomba, anyplace with 6.56 km would receive 500 rems of radiation, there would be near total fatalities for the air blast within 9.95 km, structural damage at 26.26 km, and third-degree ...