How much damage can a nuclear bomb do?

Nuclear weapons are the most lethal, brutal, and indiscriminate weapons yet devised. They are unlike any other weapons in terms of the degree of damage they produce, as well as their uniquely persistent, spreading, genetically harmful radioactive fallout.

Millions of people could be killed by a single nuclear weapon detonated over a major city. The use of tens or hundreds of nuclear weapons would destabilize the global climate, resulting in severe hunger.

Nuclear weapons emit ionizing radiation, which kills or sickens those who are exposed to it, pollutes the environment, and has long-term health implications such as cancer and genetic damage.

Less than 1% of the world’s nuclear weapons might destabilize the global climate and threaten up to two billion people with starvation.

The thousands of nuclear weapons that the United States and Russia possess have the potential to cause a nuclear winter, destroying the critical ecosystems on which all life depends.