UNITED NATIONS: A 20-megaton nuclear bomb exploded in air over the heart of New York could kill six million of the city’s eight million inhabitants and lead to an additional one million deaths outside the city, an International panel of experts said today [Oct 23].

If a similar bomb were detonated on the ground it would cause a crater 75-90 metres deep and 800 metres in diameter.

These were among the findings of the experts appointed by Secretary-General U Thant to report on the effects of the possible use of nuclear weapons.

The experts, drawn from 12 countries, including the major nuclear Powers — Russia and the US — said a theoretical study had been made of the effects of one megaton bomb exploded at the surface on an actual city with a population of just over a million people covering an area of about 100 square miles. They did not name the city.

Based on the experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the casualties would have been 270,000 killed by blast and fire, 90,000 killed by radioactive fallout, 90,000 injured.

“One-third of a million dead to approximately the same number of civilians who were killed by air raids both in Germany and Japan during the whole of the Second World War,” the report said.

And, it pointed out, one megaton bombs were small units. Nuclear explosives of more than 50 megatons had occurred and there appeared to be no upper limit except in terms of practicable size and weight.

A warning that the nations of the world would not ensure their security by acquisition or further development of nuclear weapons was issued by the International experts today.

It was highly probable that further increase in the number of nuclear weapons States or of existing nuclear arsenals would lead to greater tension and greater instability in the world at large, the experts reported.

Their conclusions were presented in a 102-page report dealing with the effects of the possible use of nuclear weapons and on the security and financial implications of their development.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2017