nuclear fallout shelter washington state

Shortly after the nuclear detonation has released most of its energy in the direct radiation, heat, and blast, the fireball begins to cool and rise, becoming the head of the familiar mushroom cloud. The thermal flash from a 300-kiloton nuclear weapon could cause first-degree burns as far as 13 kilometers (8 miles) from ground zero. The light radiated by the fireball’s heat-accounting for more than one-third of the thermonuclear weapon’s explosive energy-will be so intense that it ignites fires and causes severe burns at great distances. The fireball following the airburst explosion of a 300-kiloton nuclear weapon-like the W87 thermonuclear warhead deployed on the Minuteman III missiles currently in service in the US nuclear arsenal-can grow to more than 600 meters (2,000 feet) in diameter and stays blindingly luminous for several seconds, before its surface cools.

Inside the fireball, the temperature and pressure are so extreme that all matter is rendered into a hot plasma of bare nuclei and subatomic particles, as is the case in the Sun’s multi-million-degree core. Microseconds into the explosion of a nuclear weapon, energy released in the form of X-rays heats the surrounding environment, forming a fireball of superheated air.

Nuclear fallout shelter washington state