How many miles can a nuclear bomb cover?

Answer 1

You have asked a question that though appearing very simple has an enormously complex answer that I can only summarize here. Much of the basic info can be obtained from the book The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, edited by Samuel Gladstone, and has been reprinted in many updated editions by the US government. Some of the variables that must be considered are:

• Yield
• Burst height/depth
• Exact effect being considered (e.g. blast, thermal. radiation, fallout, EMP)
• Weather conditions
• Terrain
• Building construction
• If burst is subsurface, material around burst (e.g. dirt, rock, concrete)
• etc. etc.

Without answers to these variables no actual answers can be given. However to give some ideas, for a low yield bomb just considering prompt radiation effects they might only cover a radius of a couple hundred yards around ground zero (blast and thermal would be larger, EMP would be negligible), while for a high yield bomb exploded in the ionosphere just considering EMP effects they might cover a radius of 1000 to 2000 miles around ground zero (all other effects would be negligible).