The Capabilities of Nuclear Warfare .
The danger of nuclear warfare is both technology and political. Neither technologically nor politically will these two to be stable enough to see mutual destruction. (Nuclear Weapons and world Politics. Pg. 256) .
The United States military are coming up with plans for a RNEP (robust nuclear earth penetrator) and it's not make believe. Buried inside the 4000 page budget request of Energy Department is money for a weapon that puts a 21st century twist on the logic of the Cold War, a nuclear warhead that could actually be used. The Pentagons nuclear priesthood believes an earth penetrating nuclear bomb might be used to destroy underground bunkers- often hundreds of feet deep, that may hide chemical and biological weapons. (Pg. 40 US news & world report, July 22, 2002).
Some effects of nuclear warfare is those people within approximately a six square mile area (for a One megaton blast) will indeed be close enough to "ground zero" to be killed by the gamma rays emitting from the blast itself. Ghostly shadows of these people will be no more. They literally won't know what hit them, since they will be vaporized before the electrical signals from their sense organs can reach their brains. Of the many victims these are the luckiest ones of course. Outside the circle where people will not be instantly vaporized from the initial gamma radiation blast. The light form the explosion is many times hotter than the sun and is so bright that it will immediately and permanently blind every living thing from cows to birds, pets and us humans whether their eyes are opened or closed. This could accur within ten miles of the blast. The nuclear blast is so strong that it just doesn't blow up then its all over, the multispectral heat blast (UV rays) which will come about a tenth of a second after the gamma blast. This blast would cause bleeding from every orifice of the body.