Yields of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear explosions

Technical Report · Mon Sep 30 04:00:00 EDT 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1489669· OSTI ID:1489669

Malik, John ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

A. deterministic estimate of the nuclear radiation fields from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear weapon explosions requires the yields of these explosions. The yield of the Nagasaki explosion is rather well established by both fireball and radiochemical data from other tests as 21 kt. There are no equivalent data for the Hiroshima explosion. Equating thermal radiation and blast effects observed at the two cities subsequent to the explosions gives a yield of about 15 kt. The pressure-vs-time data, obtained by dropped, parachute-retarded canisters and reevaluated using 2-D hydrodynamic calculations, give a yield between 16 and 17 kt. Scaling the gamma-ray dose data and calculations gives a yield of about 15 kt. Sulfur neutron activation data give a yield of about 15 kt. The current best estimates for the yield of these explosions are the following: Hiroshima 15 kt Nagasaki 21 kt The outside limits of uncertainties in these values are believed to be 20 percent for Hiroshima and 10 percent for Nagasaki.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1489669
• Report Number(s): LA--8819
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
BLAST EFFECTS
DATA
FISSION YIELD
GRAPHS
HISTORICAL SUMMARY
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
RADIATION DOSES