The consequences of a nuclear incident during the 60s

I've been developing a timeline based on the plot of Ride To Hell: Retribution, in which a nuclear bomb is detonated off of the coast of a Californian city. In-game, they handwave it as only affecting fish in the water, but obviously that would be extremely unrealistic; a nuclear explosion that close would have devastating effects, wiping out most of the city and spreading radiation across most of the southwestern United States.

I've also been thinking about the further consequences that a nuclear incident like this would have to the political landscape. The game takes place in the mid-1960s, post-Cuban Missile Crisis and during the height of the Vietnam War. So, what are some possible consequences of such a scenario (assuming that the US doesn't immediately fire retaliatory strikes at the USSR, thinking they had something to do with it)?
 
I've been developing a timeline based on the plot of Ride To Hell: Retribution, in which a nuclear bomb is detonated off of the coast of a Californian city. In-game, they handwave it as only affecting fish in the water, but obviously that would be extremely unrealistic; a nuclear explosion that close would have devastating effects, wiping out most of the city and spreading radiation across most of the southwestern United States.

I've also been thinking about the further consequences that a nuclear incident like this would have to the political landscape. The game takes place in the mid-1960s, post-Cuban Missile Crisis and during the height of the Vietnam War. So, what are some possible consequences of such a scenario (assuming that the US doesn't immediately fire retaliatory strikes at the USSR, thinking they had something to do with it)?

We need some more details. In particular: how big is the weapon? And exactly where is it detonated - how close to the city? If it's a suitcase nuke detonated a few miles off coast when the current's going the right way, the consequences will be relatively minimal. If it's a multi-megaton city-buster, then at the very least you'll see a mini-tsunami wipe out the city, plus significant radiation contamination for some distance downwind.

Regarding political consequences, I doubt the US would nuke the USSR in retaliation. This is the height of Flexible Response as a doctrine, and you don't start a nuclear war by bombing the ocean off of California; SAC will scramble but they won't launch. Beyond that, it depends heavily on where the bomb came from, and how much damage it does.
 
We need some more details. In particular: how big is the weapon? And exactly where is it detonated - how close to the city? If it's a suitcase nuke detonated a few miles off coast when the current's going the right way, the consequences will be relatively minimal. If it's a multi-megaton city-buster, then at the very least you'll see a mini-tsunami wipe out the city, plus significant radiation contamination for some distance downwind.

Regarding political consequences, I doubt the US would nuke the USSR in retaliation. This is the height of Flexible Response as a doctrine, and you don't start a nuclear war by bombing the ocean off of California; SAC will scramble but they won't launch. Beyond that, it depends heavily on where the bomb came from, and how much damage it does.

The nuke is an actual nuke (a hydrogen bomb, to be more specific); they steal it from a military base. Seems to be somewhere around 3-5 Mt. The explosion can be seen from the docks, so it's at best 5 kilometers away, and at worst within a kilometer of the coast.
 
The nuke is an actual nuke; they steal it from a military base. Seems to be somewhere around 3-5 Mt. The explosion can be seen from the docks, so it's at best 5 kilometers away, and at worst within a kilometer of the coast.

5 megaton bomb surface burst will have a fireball about 2.4 kilometers in diameter, 20 psi overpressure out to 3.7 kilometers, and 5 psi out to 7.8 kilometers. 3rd degree degree burns will occur as far out as 21 kilometers, although this is naturally terrain dependent.
 
The nuke is an actual nuke (a hydrogen bomb, to be more specific); they steal it from a military base. Seems to be somewhere around 3-5 Mt. The explosion can be seen from the docks, so it's at best 5 kilometers away, and at worst within a kilometer of the coast.

Okay, that's pretty hefty, yield-wise. That's going to be big just plain physically, too; you'll need a truck to haul it around. I would guess you'd get a mini-tsunami from that, though I'm not positive.

Now, you're going to get a lot of fallout from this. How bad it is depends a lot on which way the wind is blowing - pray that it's blowing out to sea. Just eyeballing things based on scaling the CASTLE BRAVO fallout plume, I would estimate that the 1,000-rad contour would be about 30 to 50 miles long, and 4 to 8 miles wide. The 100-rad contour would be about 60 to 90 miles long, and about 8 to 16 miles wide. 1000 rads will kill anything. 100 rads is the threshold for when some people start exhibiting acute radiation syndrome. Fortunately, it won't arrive instantaneously; there will be some time to evacuate or get to shelter, and even just going down in the basement can cut your exposure by a factor of ten, but we're still looking at massive numbers of deaths.

Long term, we're also looking at substantial numbers of cancer cases. The threshold for where your cancer risk detectably increases is 10 rads*; at that point your cancer risk rises by 1%, and above that, the increase in risk is proportional to dose. So, lots of people are going to get cancer even if they're not exposed enough to get radiation sickness.

Still longer term, some part of that region is going to need to be evacuated for a lengthy period of time, though I'm not sure precisely how much. Given that this is the '60s, and radiation standards are lower, they could probably remediate it enough to be livable with some work, but it's going to be expensive.

Short version: pray that the wind is blowing out to sea when this thing goes off.

*: Whether doses below that increase your cancer risk is uncertain and very controversial, but the difference cannot be detected statistically.
 
I've been developing a timeline based on the plot of Ride To Hell: Retribution, in which a nuclear bomb is detonated off of the coast of a Californian city. In-game, they handwave it as only affecting fish in the water, but obviously that would be extremely unrealistic; a nuclear explosion that close would have devastating effects, wiping out most of the city and spreading radiation across most of the southwestern United States.

I've also been thinking about the further consequences that a nuclear incident like this would have to the political landscape. The game takes place in the mid-1960s, post-Cuban Missile Crisis and during the height of the Vietnam War. So, what are some possible consequences of such a scenario (assuming that the US doesn't immediately fire retaliatory strikes at the USSR, thinking they had something to do with it)?
The US wouldnt retaliate immediately until they knew more about what happened. They would be pretty sceptical of any attack which is carried out on one Californian city when it they could have nuked the whole US.
I am unsure if you are aware of this, but there was an incident where the US nearly accidentally nuked itself in the early 1960s, when a B 52 broke up with two nukes on board over Goldsboro, North Carolina, and one of them went through 3 of the 4 arming procedures. It is seriously scary stuff. There have been a few speculations about what would've happened if it detonated, and the general consensus was that politically it would deal a major blow to US self esteem and standing in the world, and possibly lead to some kind of reduction in nuclear weapons in treaty with the USSR if they arent too busy basking in America's failure to be scared about the same thing happening to them.
In terms of deaths, it really depends on the population of the area, and crucially, where the fall out goes, if the wind is blowing in the right direction on that day, everything is reasonably okay for the US, but if it isnt, then it could have a big impact on the eco system of the surrounding states, that might create a fair number of refugees as well as food shortages if much farmland is contaminated.
 
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