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Nukes also:

* Create EMP blasts potentially disabling electronics over larger areas.

* Start fires in every direction for miles beyond the blast zone.

* Delegitimize nuclear energy. Sort of indirect but fear of nukes is why we don't invest heavily in safe fission alternatives with no weapons path.

* Have no real theoretical limit. 50MT has been donated. Designs have been shown up to 10GT.

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Was there any news about EMP this time? I thought I read that this was theoretically possible with volcanoes.

I don't think Vulcanoes usually produce an EMP, however, we did record quite a number of lightning strikes around the vulcano. If memory serves, the area around the vulcano was struck in excess of 200'000 times per minute at the height of the ejecta's activity.

https://wildfiretoday.com/2022/01/17/hunga-tonga-volcano-tri...: “a ground-based lightning detection system recorded nearly 400,000 strikes with 200,000 occurring in a one-hour period.”

Lightning causes EMPs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Transient_currents_d...) , so there were EMPs. I think/guess each one was a lot less powerful than that of a nuclear explosion, though.

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