Effects of 0.1kT and 1kT nuclear blast?

[avantman42]

This may be a bit off-topic (and the reason I'm asking has nothing to do with T2K) but I figured that people here might be able to enlighten me.

Does anyone know roughly what the effects of a ground-burst nuclear explosion of either 0.1kT or 1kT would be? I'm less interested in radiation etc than blast and similar immediate effects.

I've tried googling and looked at wikipedia, but I couldn't find much that helped, or that I could understand

Thanks,

Russ

[Targan]

Is it possible to generate a proper fission explosion of only 0.1kt? A 1kt explosion would be in the order of an artillery nuke or a small backpack nuke. Those are the sort of weapons I'd be Googling about for info.

This site has a cool effects calculator for nukes.

http://www.carloslabs.com/node/16

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Targan

Is it possible to generate a proper fission explosion of only 0.1kt? A 1kt explosion would be in the order of an artillery nuke or a small backpack nuke. Those are the sort of weapons I'd be Googling about for info.

It's not a real-world scenario that I'm interested in, it's the effect in the Dune books when a lasgun hits a shield. I found something somewhere (can't find where now) that said it was roughly equivalent to a 0.1kT nuclear explosion.

I hadn't thought of looking for artillery nukes in particular. Now that I have, I've found some interesting stuff. Apparently it is possible to go down to about 0.01kT, and it's been done:
US M-388 Davy Crockett
British Wee Gwen

According to this declassified British document

The smallest warhead at present capable of providing significant tactical effort is .01 KT (10 tons). Deriving its effect from neutron and gamma radiation it produces loss of co-ordination in 1 minute (death in 36 hours) against troops in the open up to a distance of approximately 70 yards.

Russ

[Marc]

Originally Posted by avantman42

It's not a real-world scenario that I'm interested in, it's the effect in the Dune books when a lasgun hits a shield. I found something somewhere (can't find where now) that said it was roughly equivalent to a 0.1kT nuclear explosion.

Ei!! “The Holtzmann Effect�, if memory does not fail to me. Nice project Russ. I still must have my Dune book full of notes and post-its for my own Dune project… well, perhaps some day…

I’m going a little OT here, but, just for curiosity: what set of rules are you going to use? A new one or an existing one?

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Marc

Ei!! “The Holtzmann Effect”, if memory does not fail to me. Nice project Russ. I still must have my Dune book full of notes and post-its for my own Dune project… well, perhaps some day…

I’m going a little OT here, but, just for curiosity: what set of rules are you going to use? A new one or an existing one?

I'm planning to use GURPS, partly because I bought a copy years ago and haven't had a chance to run anything with it yet.

I'll probably put my notes etc on line at some point (might be some way off), let me know if you'd like me to give you the URL when that happens. Might be an idea to move this discussion to PM, though - don't want to pollute the forum too much

[Marc]

Bona nit!

I think the following links may be useful.

In this one, I've make some proofs and it allow you to enter a ground level burst of 0.1 kt. Sadly, only damage caused by overpressure is showed:

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/...?inpyield=0.1#

The following one gives you more information, but seems that the minimum power of the burst is 1kT and the figures showed "assume optimum burst height":

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Resourc...xplosions.html

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Marc

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/...?inpyield=0.1#

Thanks I forgot about that one. Some useful code there.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Marc

Bona nit!

I think the following links may be useful.

In this one, I've make some proofs and it allow you to enter a ground level burst of 0.1 kt. Sadly, only damage caused by overpressure is showed:

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/...?inpyield=0.1#

The following one gives you more information, but seems that the minimum power of the burst is 1kT and the figures showed "assume optimum burst height":

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Resourc...xplosions.html

Thanks for the links. I've got a good enough idea for what I need, now.

[Targan]

Interesting article: How to shelter from fallout after a nuclear attack on your city

[Matt Wiser]

Go here: http://www.nuclearsecrecy.org/NUKEMAP

You can choose the yield, air or ground burst-and if the latter, even plot fallout, and use Google Earth or Maps to select your target and adjust ground zero (and have multiple GZs in the same target!).