WOULD you want to know what would happen if York was hit by a nuclear bomb?

Thankfully, the Government does not believe it is likely that York would be a nuclear target.

But, in the 1970s, intelligence services under Conservative prime minister Edward Heath drew up a top secret list of 106 cities and towns across the UK deemed to be 'probable nuclear targets', according to the National Archives.

Now, to find out how parts of the country would be impacted in the event of a nuclear blast, an online map based on NUKEMAP, 'What Happens in a Bomb Blast' developed by Outrider, created by Alex Wallerstein, a historian of nuclear weapons and assistant professor of science and technology studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology, in America, shows what is predicted to happen should it ever happen.

Outrider said: “Nuclear weapons are the most destructive weapons on the planet. You may not even realize how powerful they really are.

“Use this tool to better understand the effects of a nuclear detonation.

“Learn more about how the fireball, shock wave, radiation, and heat would separately impact a targeted city.”

For example, an explosion in York city centre would create a fireball destroying everything within 0.73 square miles and those who are 5.56 square miles away would still absorb the radiation.

Heat from the blast would be felt 48.54 square miles away, spreading as far as Copmanthorpe, Poppleton, Askham Bryan, and Acaster Malbis.

The shock waves would spread for 11.3 square miles to Dringhouses, Fulford and Heslington. 

Such an event is estimated to cause just short of 70,000 fatalities - 69,708 people - and injure 57,275 more.