Nuclear war in the US would wipe out 300 MILLION: New models reveal the ‘devastating’ impact of radioactive fallout from an attack on America’s missile launch facilities

About 300 million people in the United States would be at risk of death from exposure to radioactive fallout in the four days following a nuclear attack, according to a new report that models the potential effects of such a horrific event.

If the United States were to be attacked with nuclear weapons, the adversary would likely focus all its fire on the country’s intercontinental ballistic missile launch facilities.

Any retaliatory attack by the United States would come from these silos, located in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming – and removing them would be the enemy’s first priority.

That’s the assumption scientists used to model deaths from a nuclear strike, with the 450 intercontinental ballistic missile silos in these states serving as the epicenter.

The population density in these states is low, but winds can carry radioactive materials a great distance.

Their maps are part of a Special report About the US nuclear program, which was published on Wednesday American Scientific.

The results were grim: depending on weather conditions, 90% of the population of the lower 48 US states, as well as people living in the northern states of Mexico and the most populous areas of Canada, would be at risk of receiving lethal doses of radiation.

Using weather patterns recorded up to 2021, scientists simulated the aftereffects of an 800-kiloton warhead hitting each of the 450 silos simultaneously to cripple the US arsenal. First, they mapped how wind patterns will carry fallout dust each day of 2021.

For the map above, they recorded the worst possible score for each location. In this scenario, 3 million people living in communities around the silos would be at risk of receiving 8 grays (Gy) of radiation in the four days following the attack, resulting in certain death.

The annual radiation limit is 0.001 Gy

For the map below, the researchers used 2021 weather data to calculate a more conservative estimate: the average risk of radiation exposure on a hypothetical day. “They therefore calculated the average effect of changing winds on radioactive fallout across the continent,” according to the report.

This estimate is more conservative than the first, but it still predicts that “most residents of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota will receive average doses greater than 1 Gy, causing acute radiation syndrome deaths, especially among children.”

Even in this scenario, millions would be at risk of dying from radiation.

Symptoms of radiation syndrome depend on the dose a person receives, and can include nausea, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, skin damage, seizures, and even coma.

At high enough doses of penetrating radiation, these symptoms can begin within minutes and can be fatal.

Editors American Scientific The special report was commissioned because the US government is in the midst of a $1.5 trillion project to modernize its aging nuclear weapons, including those stored in these silos in Western countries.

Their message is unambiguous: “We must rethink this miserable folly rather than once again squander our wealth while leading a new arms race.”

This is not the first report issued by the magazine, but it is the most serious so far.

Similar estimates conducted in 1976 and 1988 underestimated the likely extent of deaths associated with fallout from a nuclear attack on the United States, according to the authors of the new report.

Newer weather modeling techniques allow scientists to more accurately assess the spread of precipitation across the continent.

These ground-based ICBM silos were originally intended to deter a nuclear attack from Russia or other foreign powers. The thinking was that the possibility of catastrophic retaliation would deter nuclear attack.

They also represent ideal targets for a pre-emptive nuclear strike. If this report’s predictions are correct, such an attack would forever change the population of North America and beyond.