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Old 01-04-2019, 02:27 AM
RN7 RN7 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker View Post
Just one warhead would be all that's needed to render the canal impassible to civilian (unshielded) shipping. An area of residual radiation to kill off, or at least make unprotected people VERY sick.
Physical damage to the machinery, etc needn't be particularly heavy either in that situation - just enough to slow passage of any military vessels and make the transit too dangerous (from radiation) for general use.
Given it was in US possession in 1997 and represents a VERY significant bit of international infrastructure, there's no logical reason the Soviets wouldn't have targeted it - the disruption to their enemies would be extreme to say the least!
But wouldn't the radiation from a nuclear detonation spread through atmospheric winds and enlarge the nuclear fallout zone hundreds of miles in different direction. This would effect the whole of Panama, northern Colombia, Costa Rica and large parts of Nicaragua.
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