I know it's to do with fission and fusion, I know it's like a big fireball thing and then there's stuff called radioactive waste that poisons you if you come into contact with it. That's it.
Might sound silly but I don't want to just google as that throws up a lot of pretty terrifying articles, and that inflames my anxiety. I just want to learn the basics of how it works, in simple terms, via a conversation, as I find that less anxiety provoking than an article where there is no interaction.
Is the initial nuclear blast pretty much like a giant petrol explosion - in terms of a huge ball of fire and energy that also generates a wind that flattens buildings etc?
What exactly is radioactive waste/ nuclear fallout? My understanding is that it's very tiny particles of something that enters your body through skin and damages cell structure, so creates cancers? But what does it look like? Does it feel like hot ash?
And some of this damage can be "less bad" in that the level of cell destruction doesn't kill you, but might for example destroy your reproductive organs?
How does it happen that children born a couple of generations later can suffer from birth defects, if their parents didn't die?
Can you breathe in radioactive particles and not know?
How does it poison the land and the water - I mean, would you know by looking?
Sorry for my childish questions. I know I should probably be able to just google GCSE science or something and find out there, but like I say, I find discussions easier for learning about this kind of thing. And I do want to learn the basics!
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AIBU?
IABU as I can't grasp it, but can someone explain very simply how nuclear bombs work?
42 replies
AbsentmindedWoman · 07/04/2017 16:58
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