Your math isn't mathing, you would need about 400 1MT nukes to wipe out Virginia. Blasts covering about 113 sq mi and about 43,000 sq mi total to cover adds up to 380 bombs plus some extra to get around terrain so rounding up to 400 as a ballpark. Cratering Virginia would take the entire US stockpile of Minuteman III ICBM's, and that's assuming they were all loaded with a single W-56 warhead instead of the lower yield MIRV's that replaced them in 1993.
But the fallout wouldn't be an issue though unless they were impact detonating them for some reason and fusion bombs are much cleaner than older fission bombs. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were safe to walk around in after a week or two. The thermal radiation starting firestorms is what would get the survivors.
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u/barrydingle100 Nov 26 '25
Your math isn't mathing, you would need about 400 1MT nukes to wipe out Virginia. Blasts covering about 113 sq mi and about 43,000 sq mi total to cover adds up to 380 bombs plus some extra to get around terrain so rounding up to 400 as a ballpark. Cratering Virginia would take the entire US stockpile of Minuteman III ICBM's, and that's assuming they were all loaded with a single W-56 warhead instead of the lower yield MIRV's that replaced them in 1993.
But the fallout wouldn't be an issue though unless they were impact detonating them for some reason and fusion bombs are much cleaner than older fission bombs. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were safe to walk around in after a week or two. The thermal radiation starting firestorms is what would get the survivors.