"Bombing Bombay"
"The energy released when a nuclear weapon explodes is called the yield. The yield is usually measured in kilotons or megatons of TNT equivalent, i.e., as much energy as thousands or millions of tons of chemical high explosive. One ton of TNT releases 4.2 billion joules of energy upon detonation. The total amount of explosives used during the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, has been estimated to be around 2.2 tons. Besides extensive damage to the building, the explosion in Oklahoma City also killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others. The weapons used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had yields of 15 and 22 kilotons respectively, nearly ten thousand times the amount of explosive used in Oklahoma City. Thermonuclear weapons, currently possessed by several countries, could have yields of hundreds or thousands of kilotons. ...
The immense scale of these effects, and that too resulting from just a single fission weapon with a low yield, should make it clear that the possible use of such weapons would lead to a major catastrophe..."
Bombing Bombay (IPPNW Global Health Wath Report Number 3, 1999, 54 pages) is available from www.ippnw.org/bombay.pdf.
