• Question: in a nuclear explosion, how much energy is there?

    Asked by serenalovesburgers to Yasmin, Natasha, Jemma, James, Davide, Craig, Charlie on 24 Jan 2017.
    • Photo: Jemma Rowlandson

      Jemma Rowlandson answered on 24 Jan 2017:

      Quite a lot! It depends on what caused the explosion. They measure the energy of nuclear bombs by how many tons (1 ton is 1,000 kilograms) of TNT it would take to make the same explosion. The most powerful nuclear weapon ever exploded was in 1961 and it had the same power as 50 million tons of TNT going off at once! When the nuclear power plant Chernobyl however exploded in 1986, it had the same energy as 300 tons of TNT.

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