Nukemap is an online computer programme which allows people to get an estimation of what would happen to a city if it was struck by a bomb device.
It was created by American nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein and gives an idea of what damages different bomb devices can cause to a city.
However: “Modelling casualties from a nuclear attack is difficult. These numbers should be seen as evocative, not definitive. Fallout effects are ignored,” the author has stressed.
NB: This is just a computer programme that gives rough estimates, so we advise our readers to use the programme as a tool of information and education not as something to trust.
We have used the software to predict the impact of a 10 kilotons bomb device if it hit Newcastle, and this is the result:
- As many as 17,610 people would be killed and 25,530 would be injured, if a 10-kiloton bomb was detonated on the surface in Newcastle city centre
- But as many as 32,290 would be killed and 85,750 would be injured in Newcastle, if it was a 10-kiloton bomb air blast
- The thermal radiation radius changes depending on whether the blast is on the surface or in the air, but an air blast would have a worse impact on people than a surface.
- We tested the programme using 10 kilotons of yield, as this was the exact value of the hydrogen bomb North Korea have claimed to have tested underground