EVER wondered what would happen if Brighton were hit with nuclear weapons?

Today, a clever interactive tool means that you no longer have to speculate at what the effect of a nuclear blast might be on your home city.

Using a tool developed by outrider.org, you can simulate the effects of a 50,000 kiloton nuclear warhead being dropped in Brighton city centre.

At ground zero, in this case Old Steine Gardens, the initial fireball would stretch more than 44sq miles.

Anything in this circle would be vaporised in an instant, including the i360, with the fireball burning 10,000 times hotter than the surface of the sun.

After this, an enormous amount of x-ray energy, light and heat would expand outwards, creating the outer circles of the blast.

The fireball would incorporate most of the city centre, stretching out towards Shoreham.

The next phase is the radiation, which would extend to around 30sq miles from the initial fireball.

The radiation, caused by the distribution of the nuclear components of the warhead, would give people in this area a dose of 500rem of radiation, 800 times greater than the average annual exposure to radiation in the United States.

According to Outrider: "Of those who survive the heat and the shockwave, 50 to 90 per cent will die a painful death from radiation poisoning within a few hours to a few weeks."

Expanding outwards from the fireball and radiation wave, there would be a shockwave.

At this phase, the main destructive element would be the blast of air from the explosion, which would be strong enough to destroy most buildings.

The majority of casualties in this wave would die from falling debris and collapsing buildings.

The final wave, stretching to 3200sq miles, would be intense heat, strong enough to see most light materials catch fire.

The Outrider site states: "Anyone within this radius would have severe or fatal third-degree burns.

"Within the radius shown here, wood, clothing, paper, and plastics would catch fire.

"Even outside this boundary, the heat would still be intense enough to cause first- and second-degree burns."

In total, Outrider's projected fatalities for a nuclear weapon hitting Brighton would be 404,804, with a further 390,163 injured.

"What Happens in a Bomb Blast?" is based on NUKEMAP created by Alex Wellerstein, a historian of nuclear weapons and an assistant professor of science and technology studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Data on blast size calculations and associated casualties are provided by Wellerstein's application.