Nuclear Attack on Beijing Games

What if a Nuclear Bomb exploded in Beijing at the opening ceremonies of the games. How about a scenario like a Afghani radical, who supposedly went under the guise to see the games. Al-Qaeda/Taliban fund to buy tickets for him. He arrives and detonates the bomb outside of the Stadium as the Chinese Anthem plays.



I would think that several things might occur if this were to happen.


George W Bush and the First Lady would be dead. Vladimir Putin would also be dead along with much of the Chinese government. Other world leaders would also be dead, including the Mayor of London, Michael Phelps, and all of the participants would be dead.

The city of Beijing would be devastating, much of the city incinerated, and up to 1-2 Million dead. I am unsure of the international reaction. Blame might go to the Georgians, since at the same time Russia invaded Georgia, North Korea, but after some time, blame would come on the terrorists.
 
One thing that went unmentioned is the yield of the device in question. While it is terrifying possible to make a 20 kiloton nuclear device, using enriched Uranium and a simple gun-type detonation, larger yields require a lot more know how--implosion type weapons need to be carefully engineered, although they can get higher yields. Even an implosion type weapon is only going to reach 500 Kilotons maximum, at which point you'd outright need fusion power to go beyond that yield.

Millions Die is NOT the likely answer to such an attack, the likely damage is probably within the space of one square mile.

A weapon that could wipe out Beijing is going to be in the Megaton range, and it would essentially mean a Russian or American attack. And despite the appeal to warwankers everywhere, Russia's nuclear arsenal is pretty much safe--the materials are missing are mostly its fissionable raw materials, which COULD make a small nuclear device.

But there is one more wrinkle in all of this. The world has the power to detect ANY nuclear detonation, thanks to the large investment in tracking earthquakes. The Terrorists who attempt this weapon will NOT have the benefit of a previous test, and it is likely, perhaps even probable, that the weapon's yield is under a kiloton.
 
One thing that went unmentioned is the yield of the device in question. While it is terrifying possible to make a 20 kiloton nuclear device, using enriched Uranium and a simple gun-type detonation, larger yields require a lot more know how--implosion type weapons need to be carefully engineered, although they can get higher yields. Even an implosion type weapon is only going to reach 500 Kilotons maximum, at which point you'd outright need fusion power to go beyond that yield.

Millions Die is NOT the likely answer to such an attack, the likely damage is probably within the space of one square mile.

A weapon that could wipe out Beijing is going to be in the Megaton range, and it would essentially mean a Russian or American attack. And despite the appeal to warwankers everywhere, Russia's nuclear arsenal is pretty much safe--the materials are missing are mostly its fissionable raw materials, which COULD make a small nuclear device.

But there is one more wrinkle in all of this. The world has the power to detect ANY nuclear detonation, thanks to the large investment in tracking earthquakes. The Terrorists who attempt this weapon will NOT have the benefit of a previous test, and it is likely, perhaps even probable, that the weapon's yield is under a kiloton.
The gun type weapon, at least as I understand it, would have to be rather large to get a 20kt yeild. Not something this guy could slip into a backpack. So it will have to be detonated some distance away from the stadium. That changes the casualty counts all by itself, but it depends on how good Chinese security was and how far out from the stadium it extended. They were probably prepared for people firing rockets from nearby buildings, so it was porbably a fairly large net.
 
The gun type weapon, at least as I understand it, would have to be rather large to get a 20kt yeild. Not something this guy could slip into a backpack. So it will have to be detonated some distance away from the stadium. That changes the casualty counts all by itself, but it depends on how good Chinese security was and how far out from the stadium it extended. They were probably prepared for people firing rockets from nearby buildings, so it was porbably a fairly large net.

Believe me the security was tight. I was in Nanjing at the time and had to go through several security checks during that time when entering the subway.
Could they get a nuclear bomb into Beijing, certainly. But its unlikely they could get it close to a major area in Beinjing.
 
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