November 1, 2007
1 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmThe Nuclear Threat
A look at strike capabilities worldwide, and how a bomb would affect single cities and people.
By Mark Fischetti
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Nine countries could kill many people on a moment’s notice by launching missiles carrying nuclear warheads. A 10th, Iran, may be weaponizing uranium. The U.S., Russia and China can bomb virtually any country with long-range ballistic missiles and, along with France and the U.K., could do the same using submarines. The effects of even one bomb could far exceed the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“People came fleeing.... One after another they were almost unrecognizable.
The skin ... was hanging from their hands and from their chins; their faces were red and so swollen that you could hardly tell where their eyes and mouths were.”
—Hiroshima survivor in The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes
“I have been hospitalized 10 times by radiation diseases, three times ... my family called to my bedside. I have to admit I am getting bored with death.”
—Hiroshima survivor Sanao Tsuboi, quoted by Torcuil Crichton in “Hiroshima: The Legacy,” U.K. Sunday Herald; July 31, 2005
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