General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is a nuclear war winnable? [View all]DFW
(54,502 posts)Even when Chernobyl blew up nearly 40 years ago, mushrooms from the forest were exhibiting high radiation levels here in Germany for a long time after the explosion, and the populace was warned not only not to eat them, but not even to go hiking in the woods for months afterward. The number of thyroid cancer cases exploded in number. And this was from a power plant many hundreds of miles to the east, the direction in which the winds generally blow. After vaporizing London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid and Rome, there would be no central government, no currency, no transportation, no food, and virtually no medical facilities available to handle all the gruesome effects of the radiation, which would be a slow, agonizing death sentence for all not vaporized in the initial attack. MAYBE Putin would spare non-aligned places like Amsterdam or Zürich, but these places are so close to cities that WOULD be bombed, their radiation levels would exceed what is deemed survivable several dozen times over. It would probably be a great time to find yourself vacationing on New Zealand's South Island, but who knows for how long?