If Russia drops a nuclear bomb, is it realistically possible to prevent neutralize it without getting serious damage? [closed]

Question

By "serious damage" I mean any kind of severe environmental damage and/or damage to the people health/life. I understand that there's a tiny probability for that to happen, but just in case, how would other countries prevent a disaster from happening?

Answer 1

The explosion of a single nuclear bomb does significant damage, but it isn't apocalyptic unless you stand below it. Nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, today cities of several hundred thousand to a million inhabitants. There were plenty of surface tests, too.

On the other hand, many, big nuclear bombs would bring serious environmental effects, beyond the sum of the individual blasts. Scientists argue about the magnitude nuclear winter from the firestorms, and there would be few uncontaminated areas to flee to.

Casualties will depend on the yield (the kiloton-equivalent or megaton-equivalent in TNT), altitude, and very much on the location. A city is obviously worse than a rural area.

The amount of fallout depends on the yield and altitude, too. Some cleanup may be possible, similar to the activities after Fukushima, or just an exclusion zone, as after Chernobyl. Consider the crew and cast of the John Wayne movie downwind from the testing site.