Russian bomb impact if it actually hit Taunton in Somerset

This article contains purely speculative information that may be alarming to readers who prefer to avoid unsettling or morbid topics.

MORE than 300,000 estimated fatalities could be expected if Russia dropped its largest bomb onto Taunton.

That's according to Nuclear Secrecy, a website that estimates the potential damage that various nuclear weapons, past and present, could wreak.

The 'Tsar Bomba', if dropped in Taunton, would destroy everything within a 6.71km radius, vaporising everything as far west as Hillfarrance and the road between Ham and Knapp in the easterly direction.

Those within this radius would need to travel farther north than Broomfield village and as far south as Lowton to avoid vapourisation.

READ MORE: Somerset A361 closed after reopening due to further flooding

READ MORE: Sewage row delays decision on Somerset travellers' site

READ MORE: Somerset Tudor building with 'sumptuous' details and long gallery among UK's best

With "light" damage reaching as far as Salisbury, Nuclear Secrecy estimates 1,590,370 people could be left injured by the blast. That's on top of 326,850 estimated fatalities, again, according to Nuclear Secrecy.

For those within this "light damage" radius, the Nuclear Secrecy website states that windows can be "expected" to break.

What would be the impact of a Russian bomb if it actually hit Taunton in Somerset? (Image: Newsquest)

The blast radius if Russia's largest designed bomb hit Taunton. (Image: nuclearsecrecy)

"At around 1 psi overpressure, glass windows can be expected to break," reads the Nuclear Secrecy webpage. "This can cause many injuries in a surrounding population who come to a window after seeing the flash of a nuclear explosion (which travels faster than the pressure wave)."

To see how other nuclear bombs fare on Taunton, visit https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Nuclear Secrecy's Nukemap is a project by Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science with a PhD from Harvard, who currently works at the American Institute of Physics.

Dr Wellerstein states that the Nukemap simulator was made for educational purposes and has fifty variables, but is not a "rigorous" model. For example, it "doesn’t take into account terrain or fallout or height of detonation".