A Nuclear Weapon Strikes. What Happens Next?

What would it feel like to live through a nuclear attack? A scenario that might have once felt relegated to the Cold War era now feels less and less remote.

The world’s nine nuclear powers are believed to be modernizing their arsenals. Today’s generation of tactical nuclear weapons pose an unpredictable threat. And Vladimir Putin recently threatened the United States and Europe with nuclear retaliation if they become more involved in the war in Ukraine.

In this fictionalized audio scenario, Times Opinion imagines the aftermath of one nuclear strike, informed by leading research, hundreds of hours of interviews with experts and accounts from those who have survived nuclear fallout.

This is part of At the Brink, a series from New York Times Opinion about the growing threat of nuclear weapons in an unstable world.

(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Phoebe Lett and Alison Bruzek. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin, Annie-Rose Strasser, Krista Mahr and Meeta Agrawal. The scenario was voiced by Jonah Kessel, and written by W.J. Hennigan. Fact-checking by Spencer Cohen, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Mixing, sound design and original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta, Kristina Samulewski and Derek Arthur. The executive producer of Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Katie Kingsbury.

This Times Opinion series is funded through philanthropic grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Outrider Foundation and the Prospect Hill Foundation. Funders have no control over the selection or focus of articles or the editing process and do not review articles before publication. The Times retains full editorial control.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, X (@NYTOpinion) and Instagram.