Nuclear Dissaster

Nuclear Disaster

Nuclear Disaster. To most of us this phrase does not hold a direct meaning. Nuclear Disaster is something far away that will never happen to us, we think, but the truth of the matter is it could. Since the break up of the Soviet Union people have become less and less worried about atom bobs and nuclear war. However even if a single nuclear bomb exploded in one city- through accident, terrorism, or war it could kill hundreds of thousands of civilians. If there was to be a world nuclear war as described in Z for Zachariah then the situation would be very different. The chances of such a valley as described in the book are almost 0%. There would unlikely be any survivors. At this point in time the world possesses enough nuclear power to destroy everything on planet Earth 3 times over. Also there is no effective medical response to a nuclear explosion; the only effective approach is prevention. The estimates for a city of one million or two million struck by a single one-megaton bomb (equivalent to one million tons of TNT) are that around one third of the inhabitants would be killed instantly or fatally injured, one third seriously injured, and the rest uninjured or only slightly injured. That number of injured, if they could be distributed throughout the hospitals of North America, would occupy something like a third of the total number of beds; and of course no hospital can deal adequately with such an influx of urgent cases within a few days. There might be fifty times as many cases of severe burns as there are burn beds in the whole of North America. A whole year's supply of blood for transfusion would be needed immediately, and of course is not available in storage nor could it be collected from volunteers in a few days. The injured who reached hospitals would have to be assayed for radioactivity, for the safety of the staff, which would cause a serious bottle-neck and delay in most hospitals. The result of this huge overload of cases is that most of the injured would die, even though prompt treatment might have saved them. Relatively few would even get reached by rescue teams before they were moribund or dead; the majority would probably die in hours or days without any analgesic, and without food, water, or any assistance.

Below are poles conducted in 1994 and 1995 in the US on the subject of nuclear issues and prevention:

Poll conducted by democratic pollster Alan Kay and republican pollster Fred Steeper.
December 28, 1994 - January 3, 1995

How important is reducing the danger of nuclear weapons?

56%..........very important

23%..........somewhat important

13%..........somewhat unimportant

5%............very unimportant

3%............don't know

Public support for a comprehensive test ban:

56%..........strongly favor

26%..........somewhat favor

8%............somewhat oppose

7%............strongly oppose

3%............don't know

Public support for reductions in nuclear weapons:

72%..........strongly favor

19%..........somewhat favor

3%............somewhat oppose

4%............strongly oppose

2%............don't know

Poll conducted by ICR Survey Research Group.

April 21-25, 1995

Should the US and Russia agree to negotiate deep reductions in their nuclear weapons?

82.3%..........yes

11.3%..........no

6.4%............no opinion

Should the US Senate ratify the second strategic arms reduction treaty which would require the US to reduce the number of deployed nuclear weapons to 3,500 and Russia to reduce to 3,000? (START II)

68.4%..........yes

20.1%..........no

11.5%..........no opinion

As you can see above the general population supports minimizing the use of nuclear weapons. However we are far away from a nuclear free world. Even if all existing arms control treaties are fully implemented, 20,000 warheads will remain by the year 2003- the equivalent of 200,000 Hiroshima bombs.
The detonation of even a single nuclear bomb or "warhead" would cause a local disaster on a scale that few people in the world have seen and survived.
The bomb would form an enormous crater four hundred meters across and seventy meters deep. All the dirt, rock, or masonry excavated would be made into radioactive dust and small debris. The general population would be devastated.

However despite all this we must also not forget the uses of nuclear energy. Nuclear power plays a very important role in today's world.

About Robert C'Obrien and Z for Zachariah,
What has been said about Robert C. O'Brien
The threat of nuclear disaster in the real world in comparisson to the novel,
Reviews of Z for Zachariah,
Conclusion