What would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped on the Tri-Cities?

A nonprofit wants you to know what would happen if a nuclear bomb were dropped on the Tri-Cities.

It’s terrifying, as you would imagine.

The Wisconsin-based nonprofit Outrider hopes a graphic representation of how a nuclear explosion would devastate your hometown might inspire you to take action to end the threat of nuclear war.

It has created an online interactive nuclear bomb simulator.

Type in a location worldwide, choose a bomb and blast type and then watch the fireball.

Rings of heat, a shock wave and radiation follow, expanding across the map around ground zero.

The Tri-Cities is forever linked to nuclear weapons, after plutonium was produced at the Hanford nuclear reservation for the second bomb dropped on Japan during World War II.

The Fat Man bomb, loaded with Hanford plutonium was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, and Hanford continued to produce plutonium for the U.S. weapons program through the Cold War.

Three days earlier the first atomic bomb used in the war was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

Fat Man is not one of the Outrider choices for the simulation, but you can see the affects on your hometown of the first bomb, Little Boy, loaded with uranium enriched at Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Little Boy was somewhat less powerful than Fat Man, with about 15 kilotons of force, compared to Fat Man’s approximate 20 kilotons of force.

Detonated over downtown Kennewick, Little Boy would kill 9,888 people and injure 28,528, according to Outrider’s simulation.

But since World War II, bombs have become far more powerful.

The Tsar Bomba, the largest Soviet Union bomb detonated, had 50,000 kilotons of force.

If it were detonated in the air over Kennewick, it would kill 192,929 people and injure 46,735, according to the simulation.

The intense heat from the explosion would cause fatal third-degree burns and catch clothing on fire over a 4,362 square mile area, stretching almost from Sunnyside to Walla Walla.

The toll would be far greater in densely populated areas.

Detonated over New York City, the Tsar Bomba would kill almost 7.7 million people.

If you are concerned about the threat of a nuclear war with North Korea, Outrider has a simulation for that.

North Korean has an intercontinental ballistic missile with a 150 kiloton yield that could kill 35,779 people in the Tri-Cities, according to Outrider.

“Most people don’t think about nuclear weapons very much,” says the Outrider website. “But you can — and you should. Learn about the issue. Understand it. Discuss it with the people in your life.”

Then join a grassroots movement, contact your elected officials and vote, Outrider advises.

Find more information at outrider.org. For the simulator click on, “What Happens in a Bomb Blast?”

This story was originally published April 6, 2018 at 12:37 PM with the headline "What would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped on the Tri-Cities?."