Thread by @nuclearban

This morning, Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons. What does that actually mean? (Thread🧵)
kremlin.ru/events/preside…

1) Flash. An intense Tsunami of light, the brightest and blinding light anyone has ever seen.

2) Fireball. A flaming ball of gas hotter than the sun appears and grows to a fireball km in width. Within seconds anyone and anything within this ball is gone, evaporated. In Hiroshima, the only thing left were people’s shadows, burnt forever into stone. icanw.org/hiroshima_and_…

3) Firestorms. Mass fires will likely form intensifying deaths, injuries and damage caused by the blast. icanw.org/catastrophic_h…

4) Blast. A huge shockwave travelling hundreds of kilometres per hour causes damage, killing people close to ground zero, and causing widespread injuries even further away. Buildings are damaged, and glass is shattered for kilometres.
icanw.org/catastrophic_h…

5) Radiation: immediate. Thermal radiation (heat) is so intense that almost everything close to ground zero is vaporised. In the short term, the extreme heat causes severe burns and ignites fires over a large area, which coalesce into a giant firestorm. icanw.org/hibakusha

6) Radiation: long-term. In the long run, the ionising radiation either kills or sickens those exposed, even generations later, and contaminates the environment for many, many years to come. icanw.org/catastrophic_h…

7) Response capacity. As @ICRC and medical professionals have warned for decades, the humanitarian catastrophe of a nuclear bomb will be impossible for any health care system to deal with. The world cannot respond to the consequences of nuclear weapon use.
icanw.org/report_no_plac…

8) We must prevent what cannot be cured. As @BeaFihn wrote today in @politico, we need diplomatic action to uphold international law. We need #nuclearban.
politico.eu/article/putins…