NUKES: Washington D.C. Is A Very Vulnerable Target

Why are so many federal agencies all bunched up together in Washington D.C. where they could potentially all be put out of business by one nuclear weapon?

This is a question that has puzzled me for years.

QUESTION: Why have we allowed the heart of the United States federal government in Washington D.C. to be such a target rich environment?

If you dare, consider this map:

This image was provided by NukeMap, a genius invention of Alex Wellerstein. NukeMap show the impact of various kinds of nuclear weapons on any city you wish to see.

In this image we see the projected impact of a one megaton nuclear weapon targeted on the White House in Washington D.C. The map has three color coded zones showing how the detonation would affect those areas.

• Center Orange Zone: In the orange circle at the very center of the display everything would be incinerated, that is, converted in to atomic particles. Zapped, over, done, completely gone.

• Gray Zone: In the gray zone on map, most residential buildings collapse, injuries are universal, fatalities are widespread.

• Outer Orange Zone: In the large orange circle covering most of the display people would experience third degree burns extending throughout the layers of skin, which can cause severe scarring or disablement, and can require amputation.

And, radiation would affect a much larger area than shown above, depending on wind direction, wind speeds, weather conditions etc.

Here are a couple of videos which remark on studies which have attempted to predict the damage to Washington D.C. from a 10 kiloton nuclear weapon, a size researchers used to simulate the scale of weapon a terror group might use. Please note that a 10 kiloton nuclear weapon is vastly smaller than a 1 megaton weapon, the kind of nuke an enemy nation state might use.

Federal Agencies In Washington D.C.

Here’s a list of the federal agencies in Washington that would be impacted by a nuclear weapons detonation. How impacted these agencies would be by a nuclear detonation would depend on where the agencies are located in Washington, the size and location of the detonation, weather conditions and so on.

• General Services Administration

• Office of Personnel Management

• Department of Education

• Department of Veterans Affairs

• Internal Revenue Service

• National Archives and Records Administration

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

• Securities and Exchange Commission

• Commodity Futures Trading Commission

• United States Mint

• Small Business Administration

• National Endowment for the Arts

• Commission on Civil Rights

• Administrative Office of the United States Courts

• Federal Labor Relations Authority

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

• Federal Communications Commission

• Federal Emergency Management Agency

• Department of Commerce

• Department of Homeland Security

• Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

• Office of Management and Budget

• International Development Finance Corporation

• Natural Resources Conservation Service

• Federal Bureau of Investigation

• Nuclear Regulatory Commission

• Office of Science and Technology Policy

• Export–Import Bank of the United States

• Department of State

• National Labor Relations Board

• Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

• Department of Justice

• Department of the Interior

• Environmental Protection Agency

• Department of Labor

• Department of Health and Human Services

• Bureau of Indian Affairs

• Federal Trade Commission

• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

• Library of Congress

• Department of the Treasury

• AmeriCorps

• Federal Maritime Commission

• Defense Intelligence Agency

• Department of Agriculture

• Federal Bureau of Prisons

• National Security Council

• Legal Services Corporation

That’s a long list, so let’s zero in on the federal agencies which might be most important in the event of a nuclear attack on Washington. Let’s imagine the Washington headquarters of the following agencies gone, or too damaged to function.

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

• Department of Homeland Security

• Federal Bureau of Investigation

• Department of State

• Department of Justice

• Defense Intelligence Agency

And of course, these are just the federal agencies. Washington D.C. is also home to the nation’s political leadership.

• The White House

• The Capitol

• The Supreme Court

Add to this a long list of government office buildings which house all the federal employees needed to keep the political system in Washington functional. Too many to list.

Oops, we almost forgot the Pentagon and CIA. Kinda important!

The Hawley-Blackburn Bill

Senators Hawley and Blackburn did introduce legislation which would move some federal agencies out of Washington to other areas around the country. The agencies involved included the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Energy and the The Bureau of Land Management. The Trump administration wanted to move the Department of Agriculture to Kansas City.

Correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, but as best I can tell, none of these efforts succeeded. And more to the point, it appears that none of these efforts to move federal agencies out of Washington D.C. had anything at all to do with nuclear weapons.

So there you have it folks. The heart of America’s federal government is all bunched up together in one place, making it a very rich target for a nuclear attack. When was the last time you heard any of your elected officials even mention this?

Now you see it…

And then you don’t….