4 ms·
The reason why is interesting. Since the test ban treaty of the early 1990s, the US can no longer test its nuclear weapons by exploding them. Thus they have to
by dreamcompiler 2mo ago
The reason why is interesting. Since the test ban treaty of the early 1990s, the US can no longer test its nuclear weapons by exploding them. Thus they have to simulate them exploding, nanosecond by nanosecond, to be assured the bombs will work if they are ever needed.
This requires an enormous amount of computer power, and it's the reason why the US DOE labs have for the last few decades had several of the top supercomputers in the world on http://top500.org http://top500.org.
- hammock 2mo agoI wonder if eventually we (globally) could test on the dark side of the moon or something in the future
- dreamcompiler 2mo agoNo, for several reasons: We wouldn't want to pollute the moon. If we needed to resume live testing we could just do it underground the way we used to. The politics of launching a live nuke on a rocket -- even though it's theoretically pointed at the moon -- would be nearly impossible to navigate. Even if you could solve the political problems, the risk analysis prior to launch would stop the project cold. By which I mean "How much of the state of Florida becomes uninhabitable for the next 10,000 years if the rocket blows up on the launch pad?" Talk about a NIMBY problem.