Nuke Simulator: Nuclear Map

NukeSimulator shows, on a real map, what a nuclear weapon would do to the place you know best — your own city, a world capital or the middle of the ocean.

Pick a target and a weapon, press Detonate, and watch the missile come in. When it lands, the map fills with the zones of damage:

• Fireball

• Heavy, moderate and light blast damage (20, 5 and 1 psi)

• Third-degree burns and the reach of the thermal flash

• Initial radiation dose

• Optional radioactive fallout plume for surface bursts

Below the map you get an estimate of deaths and injuries, calculated from a global population grid, so the numbers change with the real density of the city you chose.

WEAPONS FROM HISTORY AND TODAY

More than 40 presets, from the 20-ton Davy Crockett to the 50-megaton Tsar Bomba: Little Boy and Fat Man, Castle Bravo and Ivy Mike, the warheads of Topol, Sarmat, Trident and Minuteman missiles, the B83 bomb — or type in any yield you like.

MORE THAN CIRCLES

• Airburst or surface burst, with the optimal burst height calculated for you

• Terrain shadows: hills and ridges that would block the flash are marked on the map

• 3D terrain view

• Several detonations on one map for comparison

• A permanent link to share your scenario

• A live map of the explosions other people simulated in the last 24 hours

• Ready-made scenarios: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Trinity, Tsar Bomba, and blast maps for hundreds of world cities

LEARN HOW IT WORKS

Articles on how nuclear weapons work, what an explosion does, the history of testing, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tsar Bomba and today's arsenals. The interface is available in 16 languages.

HOW THE NUMBERS ARE CALCULATED

The effects come from openly published, declassified models — Glasstone and Dolan's The Effects of Nuclear Weapons and the scaling laws derived from it. Casualty rates follow the US Office of Technology Assessment study The Effects of Nuclear War. The methodology page explains every assumption.

NukeSimulator is an educational tool. It does not glorify nuclear weapons — it shows why they must never be used. The results are idealised estimates for learning and discussion, not a prediction and not a civil-defence planning tool.

Free, no registration.