What would happen if London was hit by a Russian nuclear bomb? There would be tens of millions of deaths and the total destruction of the city. As tensions rise in Ukraine, this horrifying scenario was reconstructed by the Daily Star using Nukemap, an interactive map created by Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science who studies the history of nuclear weapons at Stevens Institute of Technology. With Nukemap you can run simulations with different cities and different nuclear weapons, and calculate the effects of the explosions based on the power of the bomb and the population density. The Daily Star therefore gave special attention to the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 with devastating results (it actually killed over 60,000 people). If a bomb of the same magnitude were to hit London, 76,470 people could lose their lives and another 245,960 could be injured. Based on this simulation, the blasts would extend to Kensington, Camden and Shoreditch. Areas that would be safer if you can speak of safety in this case include Croydon to the south, Hackney and Walthamstow to the north east.
On the other hand, if a bomb of the same magnitude as that which hit Nagasaki were dropped and killed 40,000 people, the extent of the destruction would be greater: 82,600 people would be killed and 252,580 injured. The magnitude of the blast would be fairly similar, reaching Kensington, Brixton and Whitechapel. However, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki date from the end of World War II and were of much lower power than that developed by modern atomic bombs. The Daily Star therefore also simulated the effects of an explosion caused by a newer atomic bomb. With terrifying results. By testing the largest atomic bomb ever tested by the Soviet Union on Nukemap, it turns out that not only would London be completely wiped out, but neighboring counties would be affected as well. The effects of the blast would reach Norwich, 100 miles northeast of the capital. And 5,778,950 people would be killed while another 3,420,670 would be injured.
However, this would not be the worst case scenario, because if we instead consider, as the Daily Star did, the largest bomb ever tested by the United States, the radiation would reach Denmark. Both London and all of Essex and parts of Cambridgeshire would be destroyed, with an estimated death toll of 2,792,630 and 2,756,780 injured.
However, the Soviet Union designed another, even more powerful bomb that was never built, capable of releasing 10,000 kilotons of energy. According to the Daily Star, if such a bomb were to fall on London, both the city and most of southern England would be completely destroyed. The death toll would rise to 5,920,060. And that of the injured at 6,052,200.
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