Hundreds of Thousands of Americans Could Die Near Targeted Nuke Silos

A chilling map simulation created by scientists illustrates how residents across North America could be affected by nuclear fallout following an attack on US missile silos.

The Northrop Grumman-built missile system — expected to cost about $160 billion, more than double the Pentagon’s original estimate — will replace the aging Cold War-era Minuteman III missiles. (Photo: Steve Jurvetson Flickr) 

Researchers at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and the Princeton Program on Science and Global Security created the visualization, titled Under the Nuclear Cloud, Falyn Stemper reported for Daily Express US.

The simulation predicts how nuclear fallout could spread across the continent over time based on hundreds of modeled scenarios.

It highlights communities that would face the highest radiation exposure if nuclear weapons targeted US missile silos.

Researchers based the simulation on publicly available information indicating that the US Air Force plans to deploy next-generation land-based nuclear missiles, known as Sentinels, in underground silos across five states where they are expected to remain for more than 50 years.

Those sites would likely be primary targets in any nuclear attack on the United States, potentially creating widespread radioactive fallout across North America.

The US Air Force said last month that the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile could reach initial capability in the early 2030s.

The Northrop Grumman-built missile system — expected to cost about $160 billion, more than double the Pentagon’s original estimate — will replace the aging Cold War-era Minuteman III missiles.