Aldermaston named on Russia nuclear war UK ‘strike list’

The alleged strike list of 23 sites was revealed by a Russian politician, according to LADbible.

The outlet reported that Dmitry Rogozin, a Russian senator and the country’s former deputy prime minister, shared a map of the potential targets as tensions rose between NATO and Russia last year.

The list of 23 targets includes Aldermaston, a village in Berkshire that happens to be the main site for the UK’s atomic weapons programme.

Aldermaston has hosted the programme since 1950, and it was in this humble village that the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) designed the UK’s first hydrogen bomb in 1957.

The AWRE has since become the AWE Nuclear Security Technologies, and Aldermaston remains at the centre of the government’s nuclear capabilities, responsible for designing and manufacturing the UK’s nuclear warheads.

If the Russia did strike Aldermaston, it might use an Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which could reach the UK in as little as 20 minutes.

According to reporting by Sky News, Russian ICBMs vary quite widely in their destructive power and are capable of packing between 300 and 800 kilotons of explosive force (just one kiloton is equivalent to about 1,000 tons of TNT).

Using the ‘Nuke Map’ created by Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear historian at the Stevens Institute of Technology, we can map the potential impact of different nuclear strikes.

If Aldermaston was targeted with a 300 kiloton nuclear warhead, the Nuke Map estimates there would be over ten thousand casualties and more than 65,000 injuries.

Predictions for the nuclear fireball are volatile as much depends on what height the warhead detonates at, but the map predicts a 660 metre radius, meaning the village itself would be effectively vaporised.

Nuke Map simulation of the blast radius if Aldermaston was struck by a 300 kiloton nuclear warhead (Image: Nuke Map)

The ‘moderate’ blast radius – within which most buildings would collapse, injuries would be “universal”, and fatalities widespread – could stretch 4.71 kilometres and take in Tadley, Midgham, Beenham, and part of Ufton Nervet.

People 7.17 kilometres away in Thatcham could fall within the thermal radiation radius, and the ‘light damage’ blast radius would stretch all the way to Newbury, Pangbourne, parts of Basingstoke, and the western half of Reading.

Nuke Map simulation of the blast radius if Aldermaston was struck by a 550 kiloton nuclear warhead (Image: Nuke Map)

If Aldermaston was targeted with middle-of-the-range 550 kiloton nuclear warhead, the casualty estimate climbs to over 14,000 and the injuries to about 121,000.

Nuke Map simulation of the blast radius if Aldermaston was struck by an 800 kiloton nuclear warhead (Image: Nuke Map)

At 800 kilotons, fatalities are predicted to pass 19,000 and there could be more than 150,000 injuries, with the ‘moderate’ blast radius likely to flatten buildings on the eastern side of Thatcham and the outskirts of Reading.