At the height of the Cold War, when US policy makers knew that they were severely outnumbered by the combined military might of the Warsaw Pact countries, they began experimenting with tactical nuclear weapons. One of those was a suitcase nuke, the kind of portable bomb that could be thrown by elite Army Special Forces into enemy territory to create a radioactive no-go zone. Foreign Policy recently sifted through a treasure trove of newly declassified documents to find out what a suitcase nuke looks like.
The American version of the suitcase nuke was known as a Special Atomic Demolition Munition, or SADM. When it came time to arm these little nukes, a two-person team was sent out to place them on top of targets like dams, tunnels, and bridges. They weren’t exactly teeny-tiny: The physics package alone was around 47 pounds, and when you add in the case, power supplies, and locks, the total weight was over 100.
If the weapon detonated, it would emit a radioactive fireball with a radius of a few miles. People within the radius would die from the explosion’s force, and those farther away might suffer radiation poisoning in the weeks afterward. The damage caused by a suitcase nuke depends on how high it’s thrown. If it goes off on the ground, the radius of destruction is about a half-mile.
If you want to see what a suitcase nuke could do, check out the NUKEMAP mapping mash-up. Plug in the kiloton you’d like the bomb to be, and it will calculate how far from the center of the explosion you’d have to be to survive.
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