Effects of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear War

Contents:

• Effects of Nuclear Weapons, 1977
• Descriptions of Weapon Bursts
• Weapon Effect Videos

The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, 1977

This is the definitive, unclassified text on nuclear weapons effects.

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter I -- General Principles of Nuclear Explosions
• Chapter II -- Descriptions of Nuclear Explosions
• • Chapter IIa -- Atmospheric and Surface Explosions
  • Chapter IIb -- Underwater and Underground Explosions
  • Chapter IIc -- Scientific Aspects of Explosion Phenomena

Descriptions of Weapon Bursts

The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, 1964

The following entries contain three small sections from the 1964 edition of "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" which were deleted in the 1977 edition.

Chronological Development of Air Burst

These 5-pages contain diagrams and descriptions comparing the air burst of a 20 kiloton and 1 megation nuclear weapon. [also Adobe Acrobat PDF, 419KB]

Chronological Development of Shallow Underwater Burst

These 5-pages contain diagrams and descriptions illustrating the shallow underwater burst of a 100 kiloton nuclear weapon. [also Adobe Acrobat PDF, 467KB]

Chronological Development of Shallow Underground Burst

These 4-pages contain diagrams and descriptions illustrating the shallow underground burst of a 100 kiloton nuclear weapon. [also AdobeAcrobat PDF, 280KB]

Worldwide Effects Of Nuclear War - - - Some Perspectives

by the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1975. [ASCII, 54KB]

Weapon Effect Videos

Note: These video clips were digitized from the best available copies of U.S. Government films. For additional information about these films, see the Historical Nuclear Test Photos and Films page at the DOE Nevada Test Site.

Contents

• Trinity Atomic Test Site
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Nuclear Weapon Physics and Technology
• Effects of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear War
• The Years of Atmospheric Testing
• Gallery of Test Photos
• Civil Defense
• Criticality and Radiation Accidents
• Los Alamos Publications (no longer) Online
• Other Online Sources
• Annotated Bibliography

Related Links

• Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues: Nuclear War
• atomicarchive.com: Example Scenarios