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Here's a timelapse of every nuclear explosion since 1945. It really puts into perspective just how many nukes have gone off for purposes other than to kill peo

Here's a timelapse of every nuclear explosion since 1945. It really puts into perspective just how many nukes have gone off for purposes other than to kill people. It's amazing that only two were used for violence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY According to the video, people have detonated 2053 nukes, and America has the dubious distinction of having detonated over 1000.

sigterm 12y ago
Only two were actually used to kill people. Most of the rest were preparations for it.
- iaw 12y ago
  Other way around. We had the Trinity test, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and then we set off the rest. Unless you meant "preparations" for killing more people with our nuclear weapons, in which case you may be correct.
  - logicallee 12y ago
    (It's completely obvious that's what he meant.)
    - iaw 12y ago
      The latter tests arguably weren't performed to improve the killing capabilities of the bombs but rather to understand the physics and physiological impacts of bomb blasts. Given that it's possible (albeit unlikely) we never see a nuclear weapon used in war again I don't see it as being completely obvious.
    - Confusion 12y ago
      It's completely obvious that it's not completely obvious, as someone honestly misunderstood.
- Houshalter 12y ago
  Arguably most of the nuclear tests were done to prevent war. Each side wanted to show the other they could match and one-up them in nuclear tech. Neither really wanted to ever actually use them to kill people.
  - yardie 12y ago
    Plenty of people on both sides really wanted to use them. Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kissinger, being one of them. Fortunately, cooler heads held the launch codes and we all prevailed.
    - gdy 12y ago
      Is this what you are referring to? http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-03/ff_nuclearwar?currentPage=all http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-03/ff...
      - yardie 12y ago
        This and a few others. Going through the wired archives you'll find many examples of nuclear false alarms and brinkmanship where the only thing stopping annihilation is an officer ignoring or delaying the order to launch [1][2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
    - arethuza 12y ago
      I think a lot of people on both sides were prepared to use them. Fortunately only a very small number of people wanted to use them and were in any position to actually do so.
      - yardie 12y ago
        Pres. Nixon wanted to use them. And you can't get much more capable than the CIC. Luckily, his advisers talked him out of it.
foobarian 12y ago
I appreciate your precise wording. Makes me wonder how many deaths were nonetheless caused by these non-wartime detonations.
- eru 12y ago
  Not too many. Almost none directly from the explosions.
gcb0 12y ago
i wonder if the US tests being all in the west and pacific had anything to do with everyone in project Manhattan being in, well, Manhattan
- daeken 12y ago
  Just FYI, the Manhattan Project did not take place in Manhattan. It was done in Tennessee at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos research facility in New Mexico.
  - TimSAstro 12y ago
    Well, mostly: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/science/30manh.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/science/30manh.html?pagewa...
  - gcb0 12y ago
    it was done all over the place. the most famous one being new mexico. but it started in Manhattan. and the CO was always in NY. as well as most of the researchers families and properties.
madaxe_again 12y ago
There are definitely more than those listed. Vela incident, for instance... I know that this seems deep into tin-foil-hat territory, but do you recall Chelyabinsk? Lots of evidence to point to it being hit by an AMM (probably Gazelle) with a mini-nuke warhead.
- choult 12y ago
  s/seems/is/ Please provide any kind of reputable source as to how the Chelyabinsk meteor was actually a nuke warhead.
  - madaxe_again 12y ago
    What?! Not what I said - the Chelyabinsk meteor was a large ferric bolide, which isn't the kind of meteor which typically airbursts - that's reserved for less dense material. Many of the videos of it breaking up show an object approaching it at huge velocity from the rear the moment before it breaks apart, with many fragments accelerating relative to the previous speed of the bolide - again, not typical break-up behaviour - that would be the Gazelle, automatically intercepting a high speed object entering highly protected military airspace. The Gazelle operates by detonating a highly directional, shaped, small, nuclear warhead, in order to utterly destroy a re-entering MIRV - their primary purpose.
    - arethuza 12y ago
      I would have thought that the detonation of a nuclear weapon near to the meteor (particularly an ABM which typically use "enhanced radiation" warheads) would have made the remnants fairly "hot" due to neutron activation. I haven't seen any reports that the remnants of the meteor are radioactive?
      - madaxe_again 12y ago
        Yeah, they were: 1) Refers to fireball hot enough to blind and cause second degree burns, and references two nature papers which say the energy discharged is inconsistent with airburst models http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/06/chelyabinsk-meteor-russia http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/06/chelyabinsk-m... 2) Residual radiation of fragments wouldn't be expected, as the Gazelle system uses neutron bombs, not uniquely in ABM systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb Fine - it's not definitely the case that this happened, but there's enough information floating about to make it far more than plausible.
nz8877 12y ago
I wonder if it will help us communicating with possible extra terrestrial intelligence. If there is some kind of SETI in other world then I guess it would be easier for them to detect nukes explosions than 1936 olympics. Maybe we'll end up using nukes as kind-of-morse code communication? ;>

sigterm 12y ago

Only two were actually used to kill people. Most of the rest were preparations for it.

iaw 12y ago
Other way around. We had the Trinity test, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and then we set off the rest. Unless you meant "preparations" for killing more people with our nuclear weapons, in which case you may be correct.
- logicallee 12y ago
  (It's completely obvious that's what he meant.)
  - iaw 12y ago
    The latter tests arguably weren't performed to improve the killing capabilities of the bombs but rather to understand the physics and physiological impacts of bomb blasts. Given that it's possible (albeit unlikely) we never see a nuclear weapon used in war again I don't see it as being completely obvious.
  - Confusion 12y ago
    It's completely obvious that it's not completely obvious, as someone honestly misunderstood.
Houshalter 12y ago
Arguably most of the nuclear tests were done to prevent war. Each side wanted to show the other they could match and one-up them in nuclear tech. Neither really wanted to ever actually use them to kill people.
- yardie 12y ago
  Plenty of people on both sides really wanted to use them. Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kissinger, being one of them. Fortunately, cooler heads held the launch codes and we all prevailed.
  - gdy 12y ago
    Is this what you are referring to? http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-03/ff_nuclearwar?currentPage=all http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-03/ff...
    - yardie 12y ago
      This and a few others. Going through the wired archives you'll find many examples of nuclear false alarms and brinkmanship where the only thing stopping annihilation is an officer ignoring or delaying the order to launch [1][2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
  - arethuza 12y ago
    I think a lot of people on both sides were prepared to use them. Fortunately only a very small number of people wanted to use them and were in any position to actually do so.
    - yardie 12y ago
      Pres. Nixon wanted to use them. And you can't get much more capable than the CIC. Luckily, his advisers talked him out of it.

foobarian 12y ago

I appreciate your precise wording. Makes me wonder how many deaths were nonetheless caused by these non-wartime detonations.

eru 12y ago
Not too many. Almost none directly from the explosions.

gcb0 12y ago

i wonder if the US tests being all in the west and pacific had anything to do with everyone in project Manhattan being in, well, Manhattan

daeken 12y ago
Just FYI, the Manhattan Project did not take place in Manhattan. It was done in Tennessee at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos research facility in New Mexico.
- TimSAstro 12y ago
  Well, mostly: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/science/30manh.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/science/30manh.html?pagewa...
- gcb0 12y ago
  it was done all over the place. the most famous one being new mexico. but it started in Manhattan. and the CO was always in NY. as well as most of the researchers families and properties.

madaxe_again 12y ago

There are definitely more than those listed. Vela incident, for instance... I know that this seems deep into tin-foil-hat territory, but do you recall Chelyabinsk? Lots of evidence to point to it being hit by an AMM (probably Gazelle) with a mini-nuke warhead.

choult 12y ago
s/seems/is/ Please provide any kind of reputable source as to how the Chelyabinsk meteor was actually a nuke warhead.
- madaxe_again 12y ago
  What?! Not what I said - the Chelyabinsk meteor was a large ferric bolide, which isn't the kind of meteor which typically airbursts - that's reserved for less dense material. Many of the videos of it breaking up show an object approaching it at huge velocity from the rear the moment before it breaks apart, with many fragments accelerating relative to the previous speed of the bolide - again, not typical break-up behaviour - that would be the Gazelle, automatically intercepting a high speed object entering highly protected military airspace. The Gazelle operates by detonating a highly directional, shaped, small, nuclear warhead, in order to utterly destroy a re-entering MIRV - their primary purpose.
  - arethuza 12y ago
    I would have thought that the detonation of a nuclear weapon near to the meteor (particularly an ABM which typically use "enhanced radiation" warheads) would have made the remnants fairly "hot" due to neutron activation. I haven't seen any reports that the remnants of the meteor are radioactive?
    - madaxe_again 12y ago
      Yeah, they were: 1) Refers to fireball hot enough to blind and cause second degree burns, and references two nature papers which say the energy discharged is inconsistent with airburst models http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/06/chelyabinsk-meteor-russia http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/06/chelyabinsk-m... 2) Residual radiation of fragments wouldn't be expected, as the Gazelle system uses neutron bombs, not uniquely in ABM systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb Fine - it's not definitely the case that this happened, but there's enough information floating about to make it far more than plausible.

nz8877 12y ago

I wonder if it will help us communicating with possible extra terrestrial intelligence. If there is some kind of SETI in other world then I guess it would be easier for them to detect nukes explosions than 1936 olympics. Maybe we'll end up using nukes as kind-of-morse code communication? ;>