Why are nuclear weapons so deadly?

As we sleepwalk into WWIII, it would be helpful to understand some of the basic physics pertaining to nuclear weapons to better comprehend what our "leaders” are getting us into.

Nuclear bombs (developed during WWII) release energy derived from nuclear reactions, similarly to what occurs in the sun. Humans have used chemical explosives for centuries since the invention of gunpowder and often view nuclear reactions in a similar (but wrong) light. Chemical explosions entail electronic rearrangements (i.e chemical reactions) that rapidly release energy. The energies released are typically at the electronVolt or eV level per molecule. The typical energy of photon visible light (for reference) is a few eVs.

Nuclear reactions, on the other hand, involve the rearrangement of nucleons (protons and neutrons) and quarks (constituents of nucleons) in the nucleus (where most of the atom's mass is concentrated). Rearrangement energies are typically in the mega-electron Volt or MeV level per nucleus. Thus, energies released in nuclear reactions are typically one million times (or more) greater than the energy released in chemical explosions.

Not only is the energy released much greater. The type of energy released is far more deadly. In chemical explosions, light and heat (a low energy form of light a. k.a. infrared) are released. In nuclear reactions, myriad high energy particles are generated: neutrons, protons, gamma rays, beta rays, alpha particles and other daughter nuclei, depending on the particular reaction. Some of these particles (e.g. neutrons and protons) themselves transmute nuclei (just like in the fantasies of alchemists) to typically unstable nuclei which are themselves radioactive with wide ranging half-lives from fractions of a second to billions of years.

Radiation from nuclear reactions is far more energetic and penetrating, and thus is far more damaging. Once a chemical explosive detonates, damage is done in less than a microsecond (beyond any secondary fires/explosions). A nuclear blast, on the other hand, causes damage long after the explosion which causes high radiation levels for decades to come. The blast generates significant dust (much of which is radioactive) that enters the upper atmosphere. The dust particles act as a shield to partially block sunlight from the Earth's surface which may cause the kind of global cooling that wiped out the dinosaurs 10's of millions of years ago. Dust that is accelerated into the upper atmosphere will take a long time to settle back to Earth's surface. It's not known exactly for how long.

Finally, the massive shockwaves generated by nuclear explosions will likely induce earthquakes — particularly in seismically active regions (e.g. California or Hawaii). Tsunamis may also be generated depending on where nuclear weapons are detonated and what kinds of earthquakes are triggered. Some have argued that earthquakes in Turkey were precipitated by NATO's illegal, relelentless and vicious bombing of Serbia in 1999.

I am deeply worried that our political leaders, who are largely scientifically illiterate, do not comprehend how dangerous and irreversible nuclear weapons are. Once an exchange starts, it cannot be stopped and the damaging effects will continue long after the bombs are detonated for many decades and longer. [There are people alive today who are still suffering from the WWII bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.] With destructive potentials of more than one million times conventional chemical explosive weapons (>Megatons of TNT), entire cities can vanish in milliseconds. For those unlucky to not be instantaneously vaporized by this incredible burst of energy, the possible earthquakes, the concomitant ionizing radiation and radioactive-laden fallout released thereafter will ensure great suffering for a long time afterward. Dust that is shot very high into the atmosphere will cause planet-wide global cooling as it blocks the sun from warming the Earth which will affect our ability to grow food.

As we are rapidly moving towards WWIII, we all need to be aware of the following:

1. Russia and the US have sufficient nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over.
2. Russia has state-of-the-art platforms including hypersonic missiles that can deliver these deadly weapons in minutes which was not the case during the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis.
3. Today's nuclear weapons are far more deadly than the weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki by at least a factor of 1000. We just don't know how dropping thousands of these upgraded massive weapons will affect life and weather on this planet. [As Einstein remarked, we will be fighting WWIV with sticks and stones.]

In summary, no one will win WWIII. All humanity will lose.

As we continue fighting Russia on her border via our Ukrainian proxy, we need to ask why. As information today propagates at the speed of light, it doesn't take much (false flags, accidents, miscommunications, etc.) to trigger total war. We are losing our friends (particularly our long standing European allies) as we force them to endure sanctions that hurt them (causing mass freezing and shutdown of their economies this winter) more than resource/energy-rich Russia and, as a result, we are garnering more enemies. In the developing multipolar world, nations with long-held grievances against America such as Cuba and Venezuela may start hosting Russian nuclear weapons.

Our "leaders” are playing a dangerous game of chicken and Russian roulette which is likely to trigger WWIII. Joe Biden's waste of $290 million to purchase radiation sickness drugs is all for show and to generate hysteria. The "lucky” people who survive a nuclear detonation will be far from ground zero and thus far away from distribution centers to benefit from these drugs.

America is in crisis with:

• hyperinflation,
• climate change,
• a divided/hyperpolarized populace,
• the COVID pandemic fallout,
• rising crime and civil war on our streets,
• open borders,
• food and energy insecurity,
• crumbling infrastructure,
• $31 trillion in debt, etc.

When will Western leaders admit that they made a grave mistake in provoking Russia since 1990 and change course to seek peace with the world's largest nation so we can focus on our domestic problems instead of the globalists' problems? The future of all humanity is in doubt now. Now is the time to get serious and get our priorities straight. We must stop this hastening march toward madness.