Uncovering The Nuclear Threat: South Dakota’s Risk In The Event Of An Attack

Keep in mind that there really is no safe place in the event of a nuclear attack, but South Dakota ranks as one of the most dangerous states to live in in the event of a nuclear attack.

There has been much talk recently about the possibility that a rogue nation launches an attack on US soil or an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP). In a most-likely scenario, the attacking country would try to destroy US nuclear missile silo sites - and that's bad news for the Upper Midwest. The nation's nuclear missile silos sites are located in Montana, North Dakota, and the tight corner of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

That puts South Dakota in the bullseye of a "triangle of radiation."

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In a recent article, Newsweek published a map of the most dangerous places to be in the event of such an attack. There are 8 states included and they are Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. This is determined to their proximity to nuclear silos sites.

The data was based on a "hit" and the level of radiation absorbed after 4 days measured in grays and joules. It gets pretty scientific from here so feel free to check out how this data is collected here in the original Newsweek article.

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The safest states include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

However, experts agree that the entire United States would be affected in the case of a nuclear attack and that nowhere is truly safe. Contaminated water and food supplies, loss of power and electronics, and the economic hit would be disastrous.

"Even a relatively 'small' nuclear war would cause a nuclear winter famine that would kill at least a billion people." ~ Christian G. Appy, Director of the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst via interview with Newsweek

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