The reason for writing this article is mainly because of two things: first, many people have mentioned India’s possession of nuclear weapons in the context of the current Sino-Indian confrontation and the possibility of war. Secondly, of course, it is because these days, the Japanese, who claim not to cause any trouble, have publicly announced that they will discharge waste water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, causing a big problem for the world.
Let’s not talk about the first incident, many people are seriously concerned about this; however, many people do not care much about the second incident.
However, it is normal that Japan’s intention to discharge nuclear wastewater is not only not searchable on the Internet, but there are also a lot of people washing their hands of it.
India’s nuclear bombs or Fukushima’s nuclear wastewater, which is worse?
For both of these things, my profession has a say.
How powerful nuclear weapons really are.
First of all, there is a unit of science – TNT equivalents.
The so-called TNT equivalent is the unit used to measure the power of nuclear bombs. For example, a 1 million tons of TNT equivalent nuclear bomb means that the explosive power of this nuclear bomb is equivalent to the power produced by the explosion of 1 million tons of TNT explosives. The power of the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was about 20,000 tons of TNT equivalent; the TNT equivalent of our first hydrogen bomb was 3 million tons; the most powerful nuclear weapon detonated in history was the “Big Ivan” of the former Soviet Union, with 58 million tons of TNT equivalent.
However, super-yield nuclear weapons were only a blip in the 1950s and 1960s, and the mainstream now is still the 10 to 300,000-ton multi-warhead diversion. Like China, although there are still 4 million tons of Dongfeng 5A single warhead in service, but this is only a product of the backward technology of the 1970s. Like the 535 and 575 warheads developed in the 80’s and 90’s, all of which are below 500,000 tons. And the largest percentage of the US empire’s active hydrogen bombs is the 100,000-ton W76, which is only five times the fat equivalent.
And then a word about the means of destruction of nuclear weapons.
Optical Radiation. Optical radiation is the instantaneous explosion of nuclear weapons in the form of heat released energy, so optical radiation is also known as thermal radiation. The nuclear explosion will form a high temperature and high pressure fireball, the fireball temperature surface temperature can reach eight thousand degrees, the internal 30 to 40 million degrees. The duration of the light radiation and the nuclear weapon equivalent, but the overall not too long. The energy of light radiation and general light, in the atmosphere is the speed of light along the straight line propagation, so in advance to hide in the shelter of light radiation protection is better. Large weapons, such as battleships and other defense against light radiation is also better. The energy of light radiation is usually measured in terms of light impulse, which is measured in calories per square centimeter. As with light in general, the light impulse is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the blast center of a nuclear weapon.
Shock Wave. The fireball from a nuclear explosion expands violently outward, compressing the atmosphere and creating a zone of compression. The fireball in the process of expansion, its own pressure gradually becomes lower, to a certain time will stop expanding. Compression zone in the action of inertia will be separated from the fireball, the formation of shock waves. Like light radiation, the destruction effect of the shock wave is a one-time event: it starts from the core of the explosion, passes to where it destroys, and ends afterwards. The destruction effect of the shockwave is also limited, in general, if it is an airburst, the effect of the shockwave is far away, but fortified bunkers and other defenses are better; if it is a ground burst, it can destroy strong fortifications / bunkers, but relatively small area of influence. The energy of the shock wave is usually measured by the pressure – overpressure – of the compression zone.
Early nuclear radiation. This is the main culprit of radiation sickness. The sources of early nuclear radiation are mainly the stream of neutrons emitted in the initial tens of seconds of a nuclear weapon explosion and gamma rays. Early nuclear radiation by the distance increases and decays rapidly – in general, the distance from the detonation core every four hundred meters, the dose of early nuclear radiation will decay to one-tenth of the original. Therefore, even if the equivalent of a strategic nuclear weapon of ten million tons, the kill radius of early nuclear radiation is only about four kilometers.
Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). Electromagnetic pulses don’t directly harm people, so let’s leave that aside.
Of course, there’s also the radioactive contamination that people are so afraid of and that the vast number of wasteland/nuclear winter-themed works delight in, more on that later.
In summary, when conventional nuclear weapons (atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs) explode in the atmosphere below thirty kilometers, the various destructive factors account for 50% of the total energy released by the blast: shock wave 50%; light radiation 35%; early nuclear radiation 5%.
What, then, is the range of action of these means of destruction for nuclear bombs?
Let’s talk about the shock wave, take the most powerful “big Ivan” for example, calculated according to the formula, of course, the calculation process is not put here, overpressure up to 15psi shock wave, can act to the scope of the radius of about 33 kilometers. And 15psi is equivalent to what concept? That pressure can wreak havoc on a single story masonry structure.
However, in today’s cities, which are dominated by reinforced concrete structures, it would take at least 40 psi to cause serious damage, and 15 psi is far from enough. Moreover, this is the most powerful nuclear weapon in history, “Big Ivan”, in the unobstructed open space to explode the range of action. If a nuclear bomb were to explode in a real city, the shockwave would be quickly reduced by the buildings that surround it. For example, in World War II Hiroshima, 20,000 tons of nuclear weapons equivalent explosion, overpressure of 15 psi shock wave can reach the radius of only 600 meters, Hiroshima buildings are almost all wooden structure.
Coming back to light radiation, the killing of light radiation comes mainly from the heat contained in bright light, essentially a thermal radiation killing. Let’s look at the thermal radiation damage radius of a 300,000 ton warhead. By calculation, the 35 cal/cm2 radius of a 300,000-ton warhead exploding at 2090 meters is 3.73 kilometers (43.6 square kilometers), while the 10.6 cal/cm2 radius is 7.17 kilometers (161 square miles). (square kilometers).
Likewise, the power of light radiation can be very easily attenuated in cities. Non-flammable and impervious barriers such as concrete buildings can block out light radiation almost completely.
Finally, there’s what’s known as early nuclear radiation. Many people think that radiation can penetrate everything, but this is not the case, early nuclear radiation can still be blocked by various obstacles and will also attenuate very much. For example, a 50cm thick layer of soil can weaken it by 90%. The weakening of early nuclear radiation by various materials is shown in the following table.
Therefore, in general, although nuclear weapons are very powerful, they do not have the power to destroy the earth and the sky, and it is nonsense to say that a single nuclear bomb can destroy a city. After calculation, basically the mainstream nuclear weapons of 100,000 to 300,000 tons of TNT equivalent can only cause damage in a city with a radius of about 3 km. The nuclear weapons possessed by India, North Korea, Pakistan and other countries are far less powerful than 100,000 TNT-equivalent.
Moreover, every city has its own man-protection projects, such as underground garages, air-raid shelters and so on, which can provide very good protection against nuclear weapons.
How serious is the danger of a leak in a nuclear power plant
Let us come back to the so-called radioactive contamination. This is also the main reason why ordinary people have become “pale” when they talk about nuclear contamination.
The so-called radioactive contamination refers to the release of radioactive residues into the environment after the explosion of a nuclear bomb, causing environmental pollution and making the environment unfit for human habitation because of its radioactivity. Radioactive contamination is also the main cause of damage caused by leaks in nuclear power plants.
First of all, let me ask you a question: which is more serious: radioactive contamination caused by nuclear bomb explosions or by leaks from nuclear power plants?
In fact, after the detonation of a nuclear bomb, the radioactivity in the environment decreases rapidly.
The rapid decline in the dose rate of radioactive material stems from the natural decay of radioactive material, and we know that many radioactive materials have very short half-lives of less than a day, and that radioactive materials with short half-lives after a nuclear explosion predominate. If it is a mainstream nuclear weapon, the level of unfissile nuclear material is not too high, unless an inferior nuclear weapon with dirty bomb levels is used. The main sources of radiation are inductive radioactivity and fission fragments. Induced radioactivity generally comes from radioisotopes formed when elements in nature are hit by the high-speed neutron streams produced by nuclear weapons. These isotopes have short half-lives, such as 2.31 minutes for aluminum, 2.6 hours for manganese, 45 days for iron, and so on. So the hazard of sensible radiation does not last long. Fission fragments are radioactive isotopes formed by neutron bombardment of fissile material. There are many types of fissile fragments, some with short half-lives, some with long half-lives; some emitting only beta radiation, some emitting both beta/gamma radiation. However, the fission fragments are all generally less radioactive. Therefore, two days after the nuclear explosion, some radioactive material per unit mass of radiation intensity radiant intensity will drop to the beginning of the nuclear explosion of 1/100 or even 1/1000.
I will now quote a graph showing the rate of radiation decay in the first two days after a nuclear explosion.R stands for roentgen, which is a general measure of the intensity of X-rays and gamma rays. The chart shows very clearly that the radiation dose in the first hour after the explosion was 1000R/hour, after 7 hours, it decayed to 100R/hour, and after 48 hours, it decayed to 10R/hour. Typically, the radiation dose rate drops to 1R/hr after two weeks. At the same time, meteorological factors will also significantly affect the radiation dose rate, precipitation can wash away the radiation fallout attached to vegetation and houses, and then accelerate the decay of radiation dose rate.
Generally speaking, two days after a nuclear strike, radiation dose rates drop to a level where it is safe to go outside and seek help (prolonged periods of time outside can still be fatal), while two weeks after a nuclear strike, external radiation dose rates drop to an acceptable and safe level (no longer fatal) and people who have taken refuge in manned facilities can safely leave their shelters and go outside to seek help. Of course, the “two-week” time frame does not necessarily apply to downwind areas of a major strike zone, where people may need to stay in the bunker for a longer period of time (2-4 weeks).
In general, the power of a military-grade nuclear weapon is greatest at the moment of detonation, after which there is little radiation for some time. The environmental impact of a leaking nuclear power plant is much greater than that of a bomb.
Today’s nuclear power plants use nuclear fission technology and mainly use uranium-235 as the main fuel. Unlike atomic bombs, the concentration of uranium-235 in nuclear fuel is extremely low, only 2% to 5%, and the fission reaction of nuclear fuel is extremely slow, unlike atomic bombs, which fission all materials at once. Therefore, if a nuclear power plant fails, it will not explode like a nuclear bomb, only leak. However, since the uranium content in nuclear fuel is extremely low, it is difficult to consume the radioactive material in the fuel through a chain reaction. Therefore, once a nuclear power plant leaks, a large amount of unreacted radioactive material is bound to remain in the leaked material. These radioactive materials are not only highly radioactive, but also have a very long half-life. For example, cobalt-60, which has a half-life of 5.27 years; uranium-235, which has a half-life of 700 million years ……
That’s why Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be habitable in a few years, and all of them into Chernobyl now require Geiger counters for real-time monitoring.
People tend to exaggerate the power of nuclear weapons and ignore the damage caused by leaking nuclear power plants.
Japan’s original sin
You can understand the serious consequences of Japan’s discharge of Fukushima nuclear waste water into the Pacific Ocean by reading this.
To this day, the Japanese government declares that “our nuclear wastewater contains only tritium, which is safe and poses limited harm to human beings”. It is true that it is an internationally accepted practice in the treatment of nuclear wastewater that tritium-containing wastewater is diluted and discharged into the sea.
Yet the Japanese government is lying. According to an outgoing document from 2018, the results of sampling of Fukushima’s nuclear wastewater showed that the water contained not only tritium, but also radioactive elements such as cesium, strontium and cobalt, which can be fatal to humans.
And Australia’s The Conversation also reported that 72% of the treated wastewater to date exceeds regulatory standards, with some treated wastewater nearly 20,000 times more radioactive than allowed.
Originally, there were five possible solutions for nuclear wastewater treatment in Japan: discharge into the sea, evaporation, underground irrigation, electrolysis, and mixing with cement to make concrete blocks and burying them deep. In descending order of cost and hazard, Japan chose the least expensive and most irresponsible solution. Japan, however, has chosen the least costly and most irresponsible one.
When this wastewater is poured into seawater, the radioactive elements in it spread down the ocean currents, polluting large areas of the ocean and poisoning a large number of marine life. Moreover, these radioactive elements are difficult to metabolize, and they will gradually converge on large marine fish through the “bioconcentration effect”, with higher and higher concentrations. If people eat these fish, they will be exposed to nuclear radiation. Radioactive cesium has been found in tuna fish in the West Coast of the United States.
And cesium has a half-life of 30 years. This means that for a long time, we are going to suffer the consequences of the evil that Japan has sown.
Write in the end.
What Japan is doing is more outrageous than what India is doing.
Of course, we don’t need to panic too much, after all, the direction of the ocean currents dictates that the nuclear wastewater from Fukushima will flow towards the US.
I am writing this article, both to give you some science, and to make you realize some facts, and not to be fooled by some people, who blow up Japan that is paradise.
After all, the biggest lesson the magical 2020 teaches is that we’re all human, so don’t act like a big tail wolf.
When you overact, the smack in the face will come too soon and it will be doubled back.
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