17 ms·

Those who witnessed Castle Bravo looked into Armageddon

296 points by omarfarooq 5y ago

eitland 5y ago
Unusual and spectacular failure mode: Loads perfectly, then after loading reloads and displays a 500 error and tells me to find something else to read on Medium :-]
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  It'd be a shame if anything happened to that article you wanted to read, lol. Dark patterns like this are infuriating.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- enriquto 5y ago
  The site actually "de"-grades gracefully, in that with js disabled the experience is objectively better.
Santosh83 5y ago
And India was hit with sanctions for decades for testing nuclear weapons underground, while one country is so (self-appointed) exceptional it can get away with anything. The article makes for infuriating reading.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- King-Aaron 5y ago
  That's a good thing. No one should be testing nuclear weapons.
  - Dah00n 5y ago
    If you test and gain knowledge and then work to ban testing you are part of the problem. If the US wants to stop others from testing it needs to share all gained knowledge freely or accept it opened pandora's box and cannot shut it again.
- kodah 5y ago
  The event in this story took place in 1954 and India was sanctioned in 1998. I'd expect that there's a wealth of information between those two time periods that give evidence that we shouldn't be; you're also talking about post-Cold War time period in which, although non-linearly, the world has been attempting to disarm.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    > world has been attempting to disarm. evidently not.
    - kodah 5y ago
      It's a challenging task. You're dealing with nations who think a nuclear weapon to their name will give them representation on the world stage. In reality, it doesn't, because there's a lot more factors at play for representation in the global landscape than fission. So, as powers rise the US (and other countries) have attempted diplomacy in various forms to curb deviation from the conclusions we reached at the peak of the arms race. I don't think that'll end, and my prediction is that we'll go through this with state-sanctioned hacking as well.
      - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
        no one thinks having nukes gives them representation on the world stage, people think having nukes keeps the Americans from attacking you if they don't like something you're doing. Of course trying to get nukes will make the Americans attack, so you try to hide it, unless you already are doing stuff that are making the Americans make attacking noises so then you start to ramp up the nuke production because maybe you can get some and stop the Americans or maybe the Americans will back off if you agree to back off with the nuke production. on edit: so in other words, people try to get nukes as deterrents, not as status enhancers. You might want to deter a neighbor of course, like Pakistan and India, but there are countries in almost every region that might want to deter the U.S should it be necessary. I suppose in the near future countries may also wish to deter China.
- shartacct 5y ago
  Why are you implying that this is a bad thing...? Sanctions are generally not punishing enough, and in this case I think India should have been disarmed. They cannot even figure out basic things like building roads, using the toilet, not dumping garbage into rivers, etc.
Edward0018 5y ago
Your article content is being very much interested, I am very impressed with your post. I hope to receive more great posts. https://www.jcpenneykiosk.bid/ https://www.jcpenneykiosk.bid/
vel11 5y ago
ss
ycuser2 5y ago
The Youtube video is not available here.
- eps 5y ago
  Yup, same here.
- vincnetas 5y ago
  Here you go : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2I66dHbSRA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2I66dHbSRA
  - qwertox 5y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew064gt2thY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew064gt2thY -- The Castle Bravo Disaster - A "Second Hiroshima" This is a general explanation of what went wrong and its consequences, like a well done amateur documentary.
Synaesthesia 5y ago
Nuclear weapons are utter madness to be "messing around" with, we need to dismantle all of them to make sure no accidents occur.
- lolthishuman 5y ago
  How would you know they’re all dismantled?
- s5300 5y ago
  Given the track history of near nuclear accidents, attempting to dismantle all of the existing ones may be statistically more likely to cause an accident, simply in the dismantling process. I'm still mind bogglingly confused at how badly the San Onofre nuclear power plant got butchered that I really think there was sabotage involved. It's hard to believe what happened to the place is all because of sheer stupidity.
  - acidburnNSA 5y ago
    Nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors do both leverage atomic nuclei, but they are pretty darn different. Dismantling nuclear weapons is unlikely to cause a radiological accident. Before nuclear detonation, nuclear weapons aren't all that radioactive. Nothing like post detonation. You probably know this, but nuclear reactors, despite how well known various incidents are, are still among the safest, cleanest, and lowest carbon ways to make electricity we know [1] [1] https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy
  - Johnny555 5y ago
    Given the track history of near nuclear accidents, attempting to dismantle all of the existing ones may be statistically more likely to cause an accident, simply in the dismantling process. Nuclear weapons don't last forever and need to be dismantled/replaced at some point, so dismantling them all doesn't add additional risk as long as it's done over a long enough period that they would have needed to be replaced anyway.
  - lostlogin 5y ago
acidburnNSA 5y ago
This was really when people started figuring out how bad fallout from thermonuclear bombs could be. General Fields described it most lucidly: "If Bravo had been detonated in Washington, D.C., instead of Bikini, Fields illustrated with a diagram, that lifetime dose in the Washington-Baltimore area would have been 5,000 roentgens; in Philadelphia, more than 1,000 roentgens; in New York City, more than 500, or enough to result in death for half the population if fully exposed to all the radiation delivered. This diagram was classified secret and received very little distribution beyond the Commissioners." [1] Image reproduced here [2]. Thermonuclear bombs are really terrifying. If one goes off and you're in the fallout zone do not go outside for at least 2 weeks. If you survive the initial blast you have about 10 minutes to get inside where you must stay. If you're still outside and it's 'snowing' ash you're already dead. More tips and tricks in [3]. Though these days, they say it's likely that a single individual or small group can have even worse impact from a basement bioterror lab. [1] Hewlett and Holl - Atoms for Peace and War around pg 181 (free pdf history book) https://www.energy.gov/management/downloads/hewlett-and-holl-atoms-peace-and-war https://www.energy.gov/management/downloads/hewlett-and-holl... [2] https://whatisnuclear.com/img/castle-bravo-if-on-dc.png https://whatisnuclear.com/img/castle-bravo-if-on-dc.png [3] Nuclear War Survival Skills (free pdf book) https://www.oism.org/nwss/ https://www.oism.org/nwss/
- gambiting 5y ago
  >>If you're still outside and it's 'snowing' ash you're already dead. Are you sure? Even from this article - Pacific Islanders came out and even licked the "snow" curious what it is, yet only a single death is attributed to it. Shouldn't they all have died if it's as bad as you say?
  - acidburnNSA 5y ago
    Fine. Correction: You *may be already dead, within 2 weeks from acute radiation syndrome. It does depend how close or far to the detonation site you are. If you're catching the first snow in the nearby vicinity of the detonation, then that's where you're in a fatal dose range, by my understanding. There may very well be snow far away that is less fatal.
  - 5y ago
chx 5y ago
I know it's near trivial in comparison but I really understood the power of atomic weapons as a child when I read what happened to the Saratoga, namely the explosion lifted the ship out of the water, more like thrown it out of the water several meters high. How can anything lift a thirty seven thousand ton ship???
- fho 5y ago
  To be fair if you look at conventional weapons against ships most of them manage to lift ships out of the water (or just break them in half). I think it was that "Not what you think" Youtube channel, saying that today weapon systems are powerful enough that there is no amount of armor that you can put on a ship that would protect it on a direct hit (so ships are actually becoming less armored and more agile to prevent being hit).
  - mannykannot 5y ago
    Even by WWII the futility of trying to armor-plate aircraft carriers like battleships was already recognized. The British put some armor on their aircraft carrier flight decks to give some defense against land-based bombers, but in the Pacific, neither the US nor Japan did this, leading to outcomes like Midway.
  - aerostable_slug 5y ago
    That's true at least with today's heavy torpedoes. They detonate under the ship, breaking its spine/keel. That will sink a ship. If a ship is properly buttoned up, damage controlmen are squared away, etc. most antishipping missiles will result in a mission kill, but not a quick sinking. Even without active intervention, ships stay up through quite a number of big hits in SINKEXs. However, Mark 48 torpedoes and the like are in a different class, and are generally what are used to bring the festivities to a close. Of course, both torpedos and antishipping missiles can carry nuclear warheads, which rather changes the equation. When a friend worked the Outer Air Battle problem back in the day, a projected worry was a regimental-sized Blackjack raid firing AS-16 diving hypersonic missiles with at least some fitted with 300 kt nuclear warheads (AS-16 was/is the Soviet equivalent to the SRAM). Combine that with missiles from Oscar II submarines and Backfire bombers and you've got a party.
sharmin123 5y ago
Let’s Secure WiFi Network and Prevent WiFi Hacking: https://www.hackerslist.co/lets-secure-wifi-network-and-prevent-wifi-hacking/ https://www.hackerslist.co/lets-secure-wifi-network-and-prev...
coolspot 5y ago
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba
Synaesthesia 5y ago
So basically releasing unknown toxins into the atmosphere and sea, I mean, it's freaking outrageous.
Thorentis 5y ago
For those who haven't read A Canticle for Leibowitz, I highly recommend it.
dustintrex 5y ago
The bikini, as in the swimsuit, was named after the devastating effect of these explosions. It's one of the sad ironies of history that it's now virtually impossible to read a line like "We left Bikini and have wandered through the ocean for 32 years" without snickering, because sexy ladies amirite hurr durr.
jeffrallen 5y ago
War is not only boring, but stupid.
andylynch 5y ago
It’s worth reminding people that the US still refuses to properly clean up or compensate the Marshall Islanders for this and the 66 other nuclear tests done on their islands.
- ectopod 5y ago
  The US did a half-assed clear up. They dumped tons of radioactive waste into a crater on Runit Island and capped it in concrete, which is now deteriorating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runit_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runit_Island
  - aerostable_slug 5y ago
    The material outside the dome is hotter than the material inside the dome. I agree it was a half-ass cleanup, but OTOH dilution and time are wonderful things. The damage has already been done to the local marine life.
- refurb 5y ago
  They haven’t even cleaned up Navy bases around SF very well.
lastofthemojito 5y ago
Funny timing - I'm reading Topographies, a book of essays by Stephen Benz, and just last night I read a poignant one about visiting a WWII-era atomic testing site in the New Mexico desert. Looks like this link gets you to it in Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=PnfnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT91&lpg=PT91&dq=stephen+benz+alamogordo&source=bl&ots=ZRswlt3tk6&sig=ACfU3U28xV4dZp5-Qsl54ZwKleD9b9mbBA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiVz6SGw_TyAhUPUt8KHf9cAnsQ6AF6BAguEAM#v=onepage&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=PnfnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT91&lpg=P... It's remarkable how world-changing (and potentially world-ending) this technology is and how infrequently most of us think about it.
gibspaulding 5y ago
I believe this is the third nuclear weapon related post I've seen on HN this week. I'm not sure what that means..
- NoGravitas 5y ago
  Probably that people are realizing that the fall of the Soviet Union didn't actually end the threat of nuclear annihilation, just pushed it to the backs of our minds. Now we know we have multiple potential civilization-ending crises hanging over our heads, and it's in the zeitgeist.
- impute 5y ago
  Well, the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs is in August. There's usually some news articles around that. That might spark some interest for people to do more research and then a few weeks later (now-ish) you get some new articles.
failuser 5y ago
Didn’t Soviets test a compact thermonuclear bomb in 1953?
DennisP 5y ago
That's an interesting mistake. Fusion reactor designs today mostly target deuterium-tritium fuel, because it's the most energetic and easiest to get net power. They plan to breed the tritium from a blanket of lithium. Based on this article, it sounds like the bomb scientists were using lithium deuteride fuel just as a solid form of deuterium, and didn't realize the lithium would breed tritium and fuel a more powerful reaction. Now I'm wondering whether this unfortunate event was the seed for today's reactor designs.
- LorenPechtel 5y ago
  They were expecting the lithium-6 to split and contribute to the boom. They were expecting the lithium-7 to be inert. They just didn't consider it worth the isotope separation work to use just lithium-6. Likewise, they didn't realize how much energy the U-238 jacket would add.
msrenee 5y ago
I don't know if anyone else pointed this out, but that fishing vessel got screwed over coming and going. "The crew suffered acute radiation syndrome (ARS) for a number of weeks after the Bravo test in March. During their ARS treatment, the crew was inadvertently infected with hepatitis through blood transfusions." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru
neuroscihacker 5y ago
Nuclear mania! I posted my article in the previous thread about nuclear physics, but I wrote one on the tests in the Marshall Islands as well. https://medium.com/insane-before-the-sun/3-nuked-sinking-the-beautiful-marshall-islands-were-violated-by-the-u-s-and-world-6fb088479518 https://medium.com/insane-before-the-sun/3-nuked-sinking-the...

296 points by omarfarooq 5y ago

Unusual and spectacular failure mode: Loads perfectly, then after loading reloads and displays a 500 error and tells me to find something else to read on Medium :-]

robbedpeter 5y ago
It'd be a shame if anything happened to that article you wanted to read, lol. Dark patterns like this are infuriating.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
enriquto 5y ago
The site actually "de"-grades gracefully, in that with js disabled the experience is objectively better.

Santosh83 5y ago

And India was hit with sanctions for decades for testing nuclear weapons underground, while one country is so (self-appointed) exceptional it can get away with anything. The article makes for infuriating reading.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
King-Aaron 5y ago
That's a good thing. No one should be testing nuclear weapons.
- Dah00n 5y ago
  If you test and gain knowledge and then work to ban testing you are part of the problem. If the US wants to stop others from testing it needs to share all gained knowledge freely or accept it opened pandora's box and cannot shut it again.
kodah 5y ago
The event in this story took place in 1954 and India was sanctioned in 1998. I'd expect that there's a wealth of information between those two time periods that give evidence that we shouldn't be; you're also talking about post-Cold War time period in which, although non-linearly, the world has been attempting to disarm.
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  > world has been attempting to disarm. evidently not.
  - kodah 5y ago
    It's a challenging task. You're dealing with nations who think a nuclear weapon to their name will give them representation on the world stage. In reality, it doesn't, because there's a lot more factors at play for representation in the global landscape than fission. So, as powers rise the US (and other countries) have attempted diplomacy in various forms to curb deviation from the conclusions we reached at the peak of the arms race. I don't think that'll end, and my prediction is that we'll go through this with state-sanctioned hacking as well.
    - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
      no one thinks having nukes gives them representation on the world stage, people think having nukes keeps the Americans from attacking you if they don't like something you're doing. Of course trying to get nukes will make the Americans attack, so you try to hide it, unless you already are doing stuff that are making the Americans make attacking noises so then you start to ramp up the nuke production because maybe you can get some and stop the Americans or maybe the Americans will back off if you agree to back off with the nuke production. on edit: so in other words, people try to get nukes as deterrents, not as status enhancers. You might want to deter a neighbor of course, like Pakistan and India, but there are countries in almost every region that might want to deter the U.S should it be necessary. I suppose in the near future countries may also wish to deter China.
shartacct 5y ago
Why are you implying that this is a bad thing...? Sanctions are generally not punishing enough, and in this case I think India should have been disarmed. They cannot even figure out basic things like building roads, using the toilet, not dumping garbage into rivers, etc.

Edward0018 5y ago

Your article content is being very much interested, I am very impressed with your post. I hope to receive more great posts. https://www.jcpenneykiosk.bid/ https://www.jcpenneykiosk.bid/

vel11 5y ago

ycuser2 5y ago

The Youtube video is not available here.

eps 5y ago
Yup, same here.
vincnetas 5y ago
Here you go : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2I66dHbSRA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2I66dHbSRA
- qwertox 5y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew064gt2thY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew064gt2thY -- The Castle Bravo Disaster - A "Second Hiroshima" This is a general explanation of what went wrong and its consequences, like a well done amateur documentary.

Synaesthesia 5y ago

Nuclear weapons are utter madness to be "messing around" with, we need to dismantle all of them to make sure no accidents occur.

lolthishuman 5y ago
How would you know they’re all dismantled?
s5300 5y ago
Given the track history of near nuclear accidents, attempting to dismantle all of the existing ones may be statistically more likely to cause an accident, simply in the dismantling process. I'm still mind bogglingly confused at how badly the San Onofre nuclear power plant got butchered that I really think there was sabotage involved. It's hard to believe what happened to the place is all because of sheer stupidity.
- acidburnNSA 5y ago
  Nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors do both leverage atomic nuclei, but they are pretty darn different. Dismantling nuclear weapons is unlikely to cause a radiological accident. Before nuclear detonation, nuclear weapons aren't all that radioactive. Nothing like post detonation. You probably know this, but nuclear reactors, despite how well known various incidents are, are still among the safest, cleanest, and lowest carbon ways to make electricity we know [1] [1] https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy
- Johnny555 5y ago
  Given the track history of near nuclear accidents, attempting to dismantle all of the existing ones may be statistically more likely to cause an accident, simply in the dismantling process. Nuclear weapons don't last forever and need to be dismantled/replaced at some point, so dismantling them all doesn't add additional risk as long as it's done over a long enough period that they would have needed to be replaced anyway.
- lostlogin 5y ago

acidburnNSA 5y ago

This was really when people started figuring out how bad fallout from thermonuclear bombs could be. General Fields described it most lucidly: "If Bravo had been detonated in Washington, D.C., instead of Bikini, Fields illustrated with a diagram, that lifetime dose in the Washington-Baltimore area would have been 5,000 roentgens; in Philadelphia, more than 1,000 roentgens; in New York City, more than 500, or enough to result in death for half the population if fully exposed to all the radiation delivered. This diagram was classified secret and received very little distribution beyond the Commissioners." [1] Image reproduced here [2]. Thermonuclear bombs are really terrifying. If one goes off and you're in the fallout zone do not go outside for at least 2 weeks. If you survive the initial blast you have about 10 minutes to get inside where you must stay. If you're still outside and it's 'snowing' ash you're already dead. More tips and tricks in [3]. Though these days, they say it's likely that a single individual or small group can have even worse impact from a basement bioterror lab. [1] Hewlett and Holl - Atoms for Peace and War around pg 181 (free pdf history book) https://www.energy.gov/management/downloads/hewlett-and-holl-atoms-peace-and-war https://www.energy.gov/management/downloads/hewlett-and-holl... [2] https://whatisnuclear.com/img/castle-bravo-if-on-dc.png https://whatisnuclear.com/img/castle-bravo-if-on-dc.png [3] Nuclear War Survival Skills (free pdf book) https://www.oism.org/nwss/ https://www.oism.org/nwss/

gambiting 5y ago
>>If you're still outside and it's 'snowing' ash you're already dead. Are you sure? Even from this article - Pacific Islanders came out and even licked the "snow" curious what it is, yet only a single death is attributed to it. Shouldn't they all have died if it's as bad as you say?
- acidburnNSA 5y ago
  Fine. Correction: You *may be already dead, within 2 weeks from acute radiation syndrome. It does depend how close or far to the detonation site you are. If you're catching the first snow in the nearby vicinity of the detonation, then that's where you're in a fatal dose range, by my understanding. There may very well be snow far away that is less fatal.
- 5y ago

chx 5y ago

I know it's near trivial in comparison but I really understood the power of atomic weapons as a child when I read what happened to the Saratoga, namely the explosion lifted the ship out of the water, more like thrown it out of the water several meters high. How can anything lift a thirty seven thousand ton ship???

fho 5y ago
To be fair if you look at conventional weapons against ships most of them manage to lift ships out of the water (or just break them in half). I think it was that "Not what you think" Youtube channel, saying that today weapon systems are powerful enough that there is no amount of armor that you can put on a ship that would protect it on a direct hit (so ships are actually becoming less armored and more agile to prevent being hit).
- mannykannot 5y ago
  Even by WWII the futility of trying to armor-plate aircraft carriers like battleships was already recognized. The British put some armor on their aircraft carrier flight decks to give some defense against land-based bombers, but in the Pacific, neither the US nor Japan did this, leading to outcomes like Midway.
- aerostable_slug 5y ago
  That's true at least with today's heavy torpedoes. They detonate under the ship, breaking its spine/keel. That will sink a ship. If a ship is properly buttoned up, damage controlmen are squared away, etc. most antishipping missiles will result in a mission kill, but not a quick sinking. Even without active intervention, ships stay up through quite a number of big hits in SINKEXs. However, Mark 48 torpedoes and the like are in a different class, and are generally what are used to bring the festivities to a close. Of course, both torpedos and antishipping missiles can carry nuclear warheads, which rather changes the equation. When a friend worked the Outer Air Battle problem back in the day, a projected worry was a regimental-sized Blackjack raid firing AS-16 diving hypersonic missiles with at least some fitted with 300 kt nuclear warheads (AS-16 was/is the Soviet equivalent to the SRAM). Combine that with missiles from Oscar II submarines and Backfire bombers and you've got a party.

sharmin123 5y ago

Let’s Secure WiFi Network and Prevent WiFi Hacking: https://www.hackerslist.co/lets-secure-wifi-network-and-prevent-wifi-hacking/ https://www.hackerslist.co/lets-secure-wifi-network-and-prev...

coolspot 5y ago

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

Synaesthesia 5y ago

So basically releasing unknown toxins into the atmosphere and sea, I mean, it's freaking outrageous.

Thorentis 5y ago

For those who haven't read A Canticle for Leibowitz, I highly recommend it.

dustintrex 5y ago

The bikini, as in the swimsuit, was named after the devastating effect of these explosions. It's one of the sad ironies of history that it's now virtually impossible to read a line like "We left Bikini and have wandered through the ocean for 32 years" without snickering, because sexy ladies amirite hurr durr.

jeffrallen 5y ago

War is not only boring, but stupid.

andylynch 5y ago

It’s worth reminding people that the US still refuses to properly clean up or compensate the Marshall Islanders for this and the 66 other nuclear tests done on their islands.

ectopod 5y ago
The US did a half-assed clear up. They dumped tons of radioactive waste into a crater on Runit Island and capped it in concrete, which is now deteriorating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runit_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runit_Island
- aerostable_slug 5y ago
  The material outside the dome is hotter than the material inside the dome. I agree it was a half-ass cleanup, but OTOH dilution and time are wonderful things. The damage has already been done to the local marine life.
refurb 5y ago
They haven’t even cleaned up Navy bases around SF very well.

lastofthemojito 5y ago

Funny timing - I'm reading Topographies, a book of essays by Stephen Benz, and just last night I read a poignant one about visiting a WWII-era atomic testing site in the New Mexico desert. Looks like this link gets you to it in Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=PnfnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT91&lpg=PT91&dq=stephen+benz+alamogordo&source=bl&ots=ZRswlt3tk6&sig=ACfU3U28xV4dZp5-Qsl54ZwKleD9b9mbBA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiVz6SGw_TyAhUPUt8KHf9cAnsQ6AF6BAguEAM#v=onepage&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=PnfnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT91&lpg=P... It's remarkable how world-changing (and potentially world-ending) this technology is and how infrequently most of us think about it.

gibspaulding 5y ago

I believe this is the third nuclear weapon related post I've seen on HN this week. I'm not sure what that means..

NoGravitas 5y ago
Probably that people are realizing that the fall of the Soviet Union didn't actually end the threat of nuclear annihilation, just pushed it to the backs of our minds. Now we know we have multiple potential civilization-ending crises hanging over our heads, and it's in the zeitgeist.
impute 5y ago
Well, the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs is in August. There's usually some news articles around that. That might spark some interest for people to do more research and then a few weeks later (now-ish) you get some new articles.

failuser 5y ago

Didn’t Soviets test a compact thermonuclear bomb in 1953?

DennisP 5y ago

That's an interesting mistake. Fusion reactor designs today mostly target deuterium-tritium fuel, because it's the most energetic and easiest to get net power. They plan to breed the tritium from a blanket of lithium. Based on this article, it sounds like the bomb scientists were using lithium deuteride fuel just as a solid form of deuterium, and didn't realize the lithium would breed tritium and fuel a more powerful reaction. Now I'm wondering whether this unfortunate event was the seed for today's reactor designs.

LorenPechtel 5y ago
They were expecting the lithium-6 to split and contribute to the boom. They were expecting the lithium-7 to be inert. They just didn't consider it worth the isotope separation work to use just lithium-6. Likewise, they didn't realize how much energy the U-238 jacket would add.

msrenee 5y ago

I don't know if anyone else pointed this out, but that fishing vessel got screwed over coming and going. "The crew suffered acute radiation syndrome (ARS) for a number of weeks after the Bravo test in March. During their ARS treatment, the crew was inadvertently infected with hepatitis through blood transfusions." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru

neuroscihacker 5y ago

Nuclear mania! I posted my article in the previous thread about nuclear physics, but I wrote one on the tests in the Marshall Islands as well. https://medium.com/insane-before-the-sun/3-nuked-sinking-the-beautiful-marshall-islands-were-violated-by-the-u-s-and-world-6fb088479518 https://medium.com/insane-before-the-sun/3-nuked-sinking-the...