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NukeMap: Online tool shows what nuclear blast would do to your city

Nuclear weapons have been around for more than 70 years. In that time, nine countries have acquired them. North Korea is the latest, and it wants more. Other countries&nbsp;<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/11658338/The-Saudis-are-ready-to-go-nuclear.html" target="_blank">aren&#39;t shy</a>&nbsp;about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/04/south-korean-media-calls-country-build-own-nuclear-weapons" target="_blank">potentially acquiring</a>&nbsp;their own. But these nations go nuclear for a lot of different reasons &mdash; and it rarely has to do with actually using a nuclear weapon.The most obvious reason nations build nuclear weapons is deterrence. If two nations can strike each other with a nuclear weapon and kill millions, then the chance one attacks the other decreases significantly.&nbsp;But going nuclear empowers governments in lots of other ways. For North Korea, it&#39;s largely about internal stability &mdash; protecting against regime change. It fears the U.S. will try to topple its government, so it hopes nuclear weapons can prevent any action.&quot;I think the intel community assesses &mdash; and I agree &mdash; that Kim Jong-un is on the path he&#39;s on right now because he believes that&#39;s necessary to enhance the survival of his regime. So he views the possession of ballistic missiles and nuclear capability is inextricably linked to regime survival,&quot; Gen. Joseph Dunford said at a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.&nbsp;SEE MORE: <a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/ican-wins-nobel-peace-prize-for-working-to-ban-nuclear-arms/">A Group Working To Ban Global Nuclear Arms Wins Nobel Peace Prize</a>This is different than a nuclear power like the United Kingdom. When Britain built the bomb, World War II was fresh in everyone&#39;s memory and Western Europe was on edge over fears the Soviet Union would attempt to expand further into Europe. Britain didn&#39;t want to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Test-Greatness-Britains-Struggle-Atom/dp/0719552257" target="_blank">rely wholly on the U.S.</a>&nbsp;for protection, so the nation built the bomb as a means of self-defense.France, on the other hand, decided to build the bomb a few years later in a quest to reassert its power status. It had already created a peaceful nuclear program in the years after World War II, and the nation&#39;s forced withdrawal during the Suez Canal crisis&nbsp;<a href="http://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB184/FR12.pdf" target="_blank">helped set the nationalistic tone</a>&nbsp;needed to back weaponization.One author&nbsp;<a href="https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/jaro2016/MVZ235/um/62203174/Hymans.pdf" target="_blank">connects France&#39;s decision</a>&nbsp;to go nuclear with something he calls &quot;national identity conception&quot; &mdash; essentially, how a nation views its place in the world. President Charles de Gaulle believed France could only be France if it were a great power. And to be a great power, it needed great weapons.After China&#39;s successful tests in the mid-&#39;60s, India started building its own nuclear weapons program to rival its Asian neighbor. It detonated its first bomb in 1974, and, a little over two decades later, India&#39;s other rival, Pakistan, built its own bomb.Of course, it&#39;s not always about rivaling other nuclear powers. Israel, which is assumed to either have nuclear weapons on hand or the ability to quickly put them together, would have the upper hand if any of its neighbors tried to overpower the small nation by conventional means. This same factor&nbsp;<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2013/07/why-countries-build-nuclear-weapons-in-the-21st-century/" target="_blank">may play a role</a>&nbsp;in East Asian nations seeking nuclear capabilities in response to China&#39;s growing conventional strength.SEE MORE: <a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/why-trump-s-budget-cuts-to-us-soft-power-matter/">Why Trump's Budget Cuts To US Soft Power Matter</a>President Donald Trump&#39;s allusions to pulling U.S. military support out of of East Asia has also sparked some debate in South Korea and Japan about whether the two nations should pursue the bomb to deter a potential strike from North Korea.But there&#39;s a reason only nine nations have nuclear weapons: They&#39;re a big responsibility. And no nation wants to let one slip into the hands of a non-state actor that doesn&#39;t play by the same rules.<hr>Trending stories at <a href="http://www.newsy.com">Newsy.com</a><ul class="inline-related-links"><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/catalan-leader-says-region-won-right-to-independence/">Catalan Leader Says Region Won The Right To Be Independent From Spain</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/kim-jong-un-promotes-sister-to-north-korea-s-politburo/">Another Kim Family Member Is Now In North Korea&#039;s Top Political Body</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/france-asks-catalonia-to-rethink-independence-from-spain/">France Pressures Catalonia To Stay Part Of Spain</a></li></ul>

By: Katie Cox

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(WRTV) — As the tensions continue between the United States and North Korea, the possibility of a nuclear attack has become real for the first time in 30 years.

The threats have continued to escalate since President Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” saying he would "totally destroy" the country if necessary.

And a North Korean official issued a stern warning to the world that it should take “literally” the country’s threat to test its nuclear weapon above ground. North Korea carried out the strongest ever of its six nuclear tests in early September, claiming to have used a hydrogen bomb.

If tensions escalated to a critical level, one man wondered what it would look like if a blast reached the U.S.

An online tool created by Alex Wellerstein allows you to see the impact if a bomb was detonated in your city - or any city in the United States – and what affect it would have on the area around it.

Wellerstein, an assistant professor of Science and Technology at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, created the NUKEMAP nearly six years ago, but the number of users is growing steadily with the rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

Click here to try NUKEMAP for yourself

As of Wednesday, over 128 million “detonations” had been tested on the site – almost 30 million of those have come in the past few months alone.

The map allows you to choose your location and the type of bomb that would hit as well as specific options and scenarios. Hitting the “detonate” button will then highlight your city and show you the potential impact zone if a bomb were to hit there – either on the ground or in the air – depending on what you chose.

As an example, let's see how one kind of nuclear weapon would affect the city of Indianapolis.

According to NUKEMAP, if you detonated a “Tsar Bomb” (which is 100 megatons and the largest USSR bomb designed) in the air in the center of Indianapolis, the impact would be felt as far north as Kokomo, Indiana and as far south as Bloomington, Indiana. It would kill roughly 930,000 people and injure another 860,000, according to the map.

Below is an image of an air burst for a “Tsar Bomb” in Indianapolis.

For a look at more impact areas, including different types of bombs and impact abilities, you can put in your own location on the NUKEMAP.