This page shows a simulation of the Topol (SS-25) (currently in Russian arsenal) (800 kt) nuclear bomb (800 kt) detonated over Paris, France. The map displays the estimated fireball, the zones of heavy, moderate and light blast damage, thermal radiation and ionizing radiation. Click «What does that mean?» for a detailed legend, or run your own detonation on the main page.
The 800-kiloton warhead of the Topol (SS-25) is the kind of weapon a strategic missile actually carries today — about 50 Hiroshimas, delivered in roughly 30 minutes. On this map it is an airburst, the height chosen to maximise the area of heavy blast damage. The fireball is about 1.8 km across; total destruction (20 psi) reaches roughly 2.6 km, residential collapse (5 psi) about 6.5 km, third-degree burns on exposed skin about 11.5 km, and broken windows with flying-glass injuries (1 psi) about 20 km.
What that means in Paris
Centred on the Île de la Cité, the 2.6 km zone of total destruction covers Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Marais, the Latin Quarter and the Hôtel de Ville. The 6.5 km collapse ring reaches the Eiffel Tower, the Opéra, the Gare du Nord, the Bastille, Montparnasse and the Place de la République; burns to 11.5 km cover the whole of Paris inside the Périphérique — Montmartre, La Villette, Bercy, the Bois de Boulogne — and the inner suburbs of Boulogne, Montreuil and Saint-Denis. The 20 km ring of broken windows extends to La Défense, Versailles' outskirts, Orly airport and the Stade de France.
Paris is one of the densest cities in Europe: 2.1 million people live inside the Périphérique, entirely within the burn ring, and about 9 million inside the outer circle. The city sits in a shallow basin; the hills of Montmartre and Belleville are too low to give any real shadow. See the 100-megaton scenario for the whole Île-de-France region.
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