DogOnPorch Posted January 20, 2021 Author Report Posted January 20, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dougie93 said: Hypersonic technology is the current Wild West. They remind me of the old SLAM that was to use a nuclear powered ramjet to maintain Mach 2 indefinitely...spewing radiation as it went. It was kind of diabolical in that it was fully automated to take-out 16 targets post failsafe...real MAD. One's only hope was to shoot it down...if you could catch it. Never produced... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile Edited January 20, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 20, 2021 Author Report Posted January 20, 2021 Operation Hardtack I Pacific testing grounds...Hardtack II was in the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hardtack_I Shots Oak and Poplar...two examples. Poplar at the instant of detonation... Oak after it had mushroomed-out. These huge blasts were simply to log the effects of multimegaton nukes on their environs. Both were in the 9 megaton range...give or take a bit. Not much unclassified footage of Oak exists at the moment. Poplar has more examples... Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 23, 2021 Author Report Posted January 23, 2021 (edited) Operation Greenhouse (1951) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greenhouse https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Grnhouse.html Greenhouse had two goals: the shakedown of the two main post WW2 fission bomb designs and the testing of two boosted fission/fusion designs. The fission/fusion devices...George & Item...were unsuitable for weaponization...proof on concept only. But they worked...even if only a fraction of the yield was via fusion. George used a deuterium core while Item used injected tritium. George Shot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_5_nuclear_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_6_nuclear_bomb Greenhouse George 225 kilotons Greenhouse Item 45 kilotons Greenhouse Dog 81 kilotons (Mk VI bomb) Greenhouse Easy 47 kilotons (Mk V bomb) Edited January 26, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 23, 2021 Author Report Posted January 23, 2021 (edited) The Mk 5 & Mk 6 were both implosion devices with plutonium pits...like Fat Man. Plutonium-239's big drawback is its nature to capture a neutron during production from Neptunium, creating Plutonium-240 (anywhere you have Plutonium-239, you also have 240). Spontaneous fission of Plutonium-240 leaves non-fissionable contaminants which can easily render the weapon a dud over time. Or a stray neutron could start a low grade reaction in the Plutonium-239...a fire so to speak. So various reflecting and absorbing layers of Beryllium, Boron, Gold, Polonium, etc, can be in use depending on the device to keep the whole thing stable over a given time. Regular maintenance is needed (low half-life = limited shelf-life)...and in early bombs like these, the entire pit can be removed and stored elsewhere/replaced. The gun style device...like Little Boy...had design limits in that in order to use more U-235 for a bigger yield, the two subcritical masses had to be smashed together that much more quickly to prevent premature detonation...requiring a much longer bomb/gun barrel. Ivy King, as mentioned, got around this limit by using a LARGE hollow thin walled U-235 pit with neutron absorbing chain inserts that were removed just before dropping. Both were VERY dangerous ways to get the job done, frankly... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium Edited January 24, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 24, 2021 Author Report Posted January 24, 2021 The 1957 Rocky Flats Plutonium Fire... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_contamination_from_the_Rocky_Flats_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Flats_Plant Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 24, 2021 Author Report Posted January 24, 2021 Upshot Knothole Ruth & Ray were tests...and fizzles...of the experimental uranium-hydride bomb which used deuterium as a so-called neutron moderator (ie: slow neutrons down but keep the thermal energy). This apparently was so that a nuclear reaction could be caused by using slow neutrons rather than the fast variety. Didn't work... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_hydride_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Upshot–Knothole Parts of the tower even remained...apparently embarrassing to these nuke cowboys. Ruth's tower... Upshot Knothole's most famous event was Atomic Annie...shot Grable. The 280 mm nuclear artillery piece. That worked..... Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 25, 2021 Author Report Posted January 25, 2021 (edited) The Demon Core...a short history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core From: Fat Man and Little Boy: John Cusack as Slotin... Edited January 26, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 26, 2021 Author Report Posted January 26, 2021 (edited) A different view of Greenhouse George. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greenhouse George was almost measurable fallout free...not because it was a particularly clean device. But rather, a near-by typhoon assisted in flushing all the fallout away from the test site and near-by inhabited islands. Earlier shots during Greenhouse were dirtier than expected... Edited January 26, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 27, 2021 Author Report Posted January 27, 2021 (edited) Refueling an RBMK-1000 Reaktor Bolshoy Moshchnosti Kanalnyy, "high-power channel-type reactor" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK This is a Soviet era graphite moderated reactor that uses individual rod cooling chambers, possibly one of Chernobyl's ...kind of weird. But it's the oldest type of reactor still in wide use, apparently. Useful for power production, obviously...and weapons-grade Plutonium production. Scott's video on it... Edited January 28, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 28, 2021 Author Report Posted January 28, 2021 Operation Dominic (1962) had some of the biggest...and best photographed thermonuclear explosions. Better cameras...better filters...better...31 test blasts total. Most were air dropped bombs already in existence...testing was mainly on points of accuracy. Driving the CEP down. Not THAT necessary with these multi-megaton yields. However, the moratorium had ended and the Soviets were testing again...so...you know. Bombs away! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dominic Dominic Bighorn - 7.7 megatons Dominic Yukon - 100 kilotons Dominic Housatonic - 8.3 megatons Dominic Frigate Bird - 600 kilotons (sub launched) Dominic Arkansas - 1.1 megatons A collection... Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted January 29, 2021 Author Report Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) Scott Manley on Weapons Grade Material... Edited January 29, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted February 6, 2021 Author Report Posted February 6, 2021 Recently declassified & released footage of Castle Bravo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo Fun fact: in under a second, Castle Bravo formed a fireball nearly five miles across. Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted February 6, 2021 Author Report Posted February 6, 2021 For a graphic example of what a 5 mile fireball encompasses...we have NukeMap. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted February 7, 2021 Author Report Posted February 7, 2021 Semipalatinsk: The Most Nuked Place on Earth Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted February 11, 2021 Author Report Posted February 11, 2021 Duck And Cover (1951) Let Bert the Turtle save your ass... Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted February 11, 2021 Author Report Posted February 11, 2021 (edited) Thursday...time to nuke something. Redwing Navajo July 10th, 1956 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Redwing 4.5 megaton yield barge shot. The barge sat almost atop the underwater crater from a previous test, Castle Union. By this test, most of the suitable island locations has already been vaporized. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Union This was one of the cleanest shots ever detonated. Over 95% of the massive yield was through fusion rather than fission. The "smaller" size and efficient use of materials were attempts to make the Mark 21 super bomb into an ICBM warhead (W21). While they were well on the way to accomplishing that, this was a dead-end design in that it could not ever be made lighter in weight beyond what they'd already striped away. Newer methods already being studied quickly overtook this bomb in favour of lighter-weight H-Bomb designs. Still...an impressive explosion. Remember that many of these H-Bombs were filmed from over 20 miles distance. The scale can be hard to judge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_21_nuclear_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W21 Edited February 11, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted February 19, 2021 Author Report Posted February 19, 2021 Teapot Turk March 7th, 1955. 43 kiloton yield This was the largest shot of Operation Teapot and the test of the fusion primary for the Mark 27 H-Bomb. That is...the A-Bomb that makes the H-Bomb go boom. The Mark 27 had a 2 megaton yield...plenty big. It was a tower shot done at the NTS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Teapot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_27_nuclear_bomb Initial milliseconds.... Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted February 25, 2021 Author Report Posted February 25, 2021 (edited) Redwing Cherokee May 20th, 1956 3.8 Megaton Yield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Redwing Cherokee was the first test of a deliverable H-Bomb...but the B-36 that dropped it made a navigation error resulting in ground zero being four miles off the mark. This actually exposed numerous personnel to the massive nuclear flash resulting in some eye injuries. The miss was leaked by a technician resulting in a bit of a media circus surrounding the event. He was soundly punished. Cloudy weather obscured some of the test...but nukes don't care about your weather. Temperature inversions...if present...can actually enhance the destructive power of the Mach Stem as they tend to reflect a portion of the already reflected shockwave back onto itself. Edited February 25, 2021 by DogOnPorch Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted March 11, 2021 Author Report Posted March 11, 2021 Teapot Apple II May 5th, 1955 Yield 29 kilotons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Teapot This was the much filmed Doom Town Shot where a fake village was nuked to see the effects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Teapot#Apple-2 Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted August 10, 2022 Author Report Posted August 10, 2022 Test Blast Dominic Chetco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dominic Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted September 20, 2022 Author Report Posted September 20, 2022 Test footage of Plumbbob Hood. Hood was the largest atmospheric test done in the continental USA at 74 kilotons yield. Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted October 6, 2022 Author Report Posted October 6, 2022 Another short film on the Teapot Apple II test shot. Selling you on survival. Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted October 11, 2022 Author Report Posted October 11, 2022 Short but great footage of the Buster-Jangle Easy test...Nov 5th, 1951. 31 kiloton yield. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Buster–Jangle This was the first deployment test of the Mark 7 nuclear bomb. Worked... Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
DogOnPorch Posted October 12, 2022 Author Report Posted October 12, 2022 Uncut footage of Pacific thermonuclear testing (1951) Apparently from the Ivy King test blast. Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.
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