The Unofficial Hunger Games Companion (46 page)

NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON

Because the government and District 13 both possess nuclear weapons, there’s a truce of sorts between the two. The Capitol allows District 13 latitude but keeps its existence secret from the other twelve districts. The government fears nuclear missiles and radiation should officials attempt to nuke District 13 (
Mockingjay,
138). Twill tips us off that there was indeed an apocalypse of
some
kind in District 13: “We think the people moved underground when everything on the surface was destroyed” (
Catching Fire,
147). This may explain the devastation of District 13, but it doesn’t explain what happened to the rest of the world during the period of war.

In terms of the possible destruction of the entire world by nuclear weapons, this horrific scenario has been feared since World War II. As with plagues and biological warfare, a nuclear holocaust could wipe out the world’s populations and in this case also destroy the cities and infrastructures. Possibly, as with plagues and biological agents, pockets of humanity somehow survive the apocalypse, such as the districts of Panem. And then, as mentioned earlier, an evil Capitol could step in and subdue the survivors using military force, starvation, and other measures.

In general terms, a nuclear bomb uses the forces that hold the nucleus of an atom together. In particular, nuclear bombs deal with atoms that possess unstable nuclei.

Atoms release nuclear energy in two ways. With nuclear fission, the nucleus is split into two fragments; isotopes of uranium or plutonium are typically used. With nuclear fusion, two atoms are brought together; hydrogen or hydrogen isotopes are typically used.

There are many ways of devising and detonating bombs. Some of the most common nuclear bomb designs are:

To understand how a fission bomb works, you need some basic knowledge about nuclear radiation. We’re sure you remember from chemistry class that everything consists of atoms and that groups of atoms form molecules. For example, two hydrogen atoms plus one oxygen atom equal one water molecule. The Periodic Table lists all the types of atoms, which are also called elements.

Each atom consists of subatomic particles: protons and neutrons form the atom’s nucleus; electrons orbit the nucleus. Protons have positive charges, while electrons have negative charges. Usually, the number of protons and electrons in an atom are the same. The role of the neutrons is basically to keep the protons together in the nucleus. Because the protons all have the same charge, positive, they would repel one another. You might recall that opposites attract. The neutrons do not have a specific charge, such as positive or negative.

Some elements have more than one stable form. By stable, we mean that you could leave the element alone for five hundred years, then return to find that it hasn’t changed at all. If you accidentally leave a chunk of stable copper in a garbage bin, then return in five hundred years to find your chunk of copper still sitting in the garbage, then this means two things: first, that the trash collectors have been on strike for five hundred years; and second, that the copper is in a stable form.

In fact, speaking of copper, 70 percent of all natural copper is called copper- 63, and the other 30 percent is called copper-65. Each type of copper has twenty-nine protons, but a copper-63 atom has thirty-four neutrons and a copper-65 has thirty-six neutrons: similar, but slightly different. Both copper- 63 and copper-65 are stable forms of the element.

Both are called
isotopes
of copper.

Now some isotopes happen to be
radioactive
. In the most simple terms, radioactivity means that an isotope is unstable. For example, one of the hydrogen isotopes, which is called tritium, is radioactive. It has one proton and two neutrons. Over time, it transforms—by means of
radioactive decay
—into the more stable isotope called helium-3, which has two protons and one neutron.

There are three ways that a radioactive isotope will decay: alpha decay, beta decay, and what we’re interested in talking about here, spontaneous
fission
. This is, by the way, how alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron rays are formed.

The actual word,
fission,
means “splitting.” So if an atom undergoes spontaneous fission, the atom splits. For example, a fermium-256 atom, which is really heavy, may split and turn into one xenon-140 atom and one palladium-112 atom, and in the process, shed four neutrons. These four neutrons may crash into other atoms and cause various nuclear reactions.

Induced fission means that an element can be forced to split. Uranium-235 is a good example of such an element. It is often used in fission bombs. If a Uranium- 235 nucleus is hit by a free-floating neutron, then the nucleus instantly becomes unstable and splits. This kind of thing happens to cause a nuclear explosion.

In a
gun-triggered fission bomb
, explosives ignite, thus propelling a bullet down a barrel. The bullet hits a generator, which launches the fission reaction. Detonated over Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, Little Boy was a gun-triggered fission bomb. It had a yield equal to 14,500 tons of TNT. If Lex Luthor dropped a Little Boy a mile outside of Smallville, Clark Kent’s hometown would not fare any better than Hiroshima.

In an
implosion-triggered fission bomb,
explosives ignite and create a shock wave, which then compresses the core of the bomb. The fission reaction occurs, and the bomb explodes. In World War II, Fat Man was an implosion-triggered fission bomb. It wiped out Nagasaki, Japan. It would wipe out Smallville within seconds.

Which brings us to
fusion bombs,
also known as thermonuclear bombs. Before we describe this type of device, it’s well worth noting that a fusion bomb is far more powerful than either Little Boy or Fat Boy. In fact, estimates place the deadly power of a fusion bomb at seven hundred times more than the deadly power of Little Boy.

Basically, the fission part of the bomb implodes, and resulting X-rays heat the inside of the bomb. Pressure causes shock waves that initiate the fission in a plutonium rod, which in turn gives off radiation, heat, and neutrons. Combined with high pressure and temperature, these neutrons are used to create fusion reactions. The fusion reactions create yet more radiation, heat, and neutrons. In a horrific cycle, the neutrons from the fusion create yet more fission, and round and round we go until the bomb detonates.

Irreversible damage is in the form of: (a) intense heat and fire, (b) intense pressure, (c) radiation, and (d) radioactive fallout. The fallout alone would enter the water, cling to the air, be carried to far distances by winds.

Big Boy’s explosion was that of 12,500 tons of TNT. A 1-megaton hydrogen bomb possesses eighty times the deadly power of 1945’s Big Boy. Within a 1.7-mile radius of a hydrogen bomb, everything would be destroyed, including 98 percent of the people.
¹
Within a 2.7-mile radius, everything would be destroyed, including 50 percent of the people, with 40 percent of the remaining population seriously injured. Moving to a 4.7-mile radius, most buildings would be destroyed, with 5 percent of the people dead and an additional 45 percent of the population seriously injured.

OTHER APOCALYPTIC SCENARIOS