24 Unsettling Facts About Nuclear Bombs
These days, cheerful headlines speculate about nuclear war. But ask yourself: what do you REALLY know about nukes?
Whether you want to feel better or just keep yourself up all night, we've gathered the most surprising facts about nuclear bombs!
1.
54% of the US's deterrent nuclear weapons are onboard nuclear-powered submarines capable of prowling the ocean for 70 days at a time, their exact locations are known only to their crews. Their mission is to remain hidden so as to assure second-strike retaliatory capability
-u/penny_can
2.
Don’t use conditioner in your hair in the wake of nuclear particles. It’ll bind the radioactive material to the hair shaft.-u/DubiousAxolotl
3.
-The first one (or maybe the first two) were referred to simply as "The gadget".- An underground nuclear bomb test is thought by some to be responsible for the fastest-moving man-made object in history: A manhole cover. It was used to cover the hole down which the bomb was lowered, and a high-speed camera was trained on it because there was the expectation that it would trail off very quickly.
The camera captured only one frame with the lid in it post-explosion. Calculations are very rough, but if accurate, the lid far exceeded escape velocity, reaching a speed higher than even any spacecraft or probe yet launched, and if it survived intact it will right now be whizzing through space at a ridiculous pace.-u/kiseca
4.
The Castle Bravo test ended up being WAY bigger than the scientists predicted. The video is on youtube and it's crazy.-u/Deim05_gs
5.
They were once used to try and create manmade weaponize tsunamis. Project Seal-u/CaptainBillyum
6.
There was a nuclear missile treaty that a technician describes as “it’s like you have a Volkswagen in your garage. You can never drive it, but you can periodically disassemble it, examine every part, perform maintenance on the parts, ensure that each individual part works as intended, then reassemble it, but you can never start the engine and you definitely can’t drive it.
”There’s also a website where you can superimpose a nuclear blast over various cities. Helps give perspective on the scale of the blast.https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/-u/Thirty_Helens_Agree
7.
During the Cold War, 32 nuclear weapons were lost due to accidents, six of which were never recovered.-u/johndenverspilot
8.
Depending on how high the fallout is it can be blown around the Earth by winds affecting everybody-u/Kittiem85
9.
Fun fact: if one can intercept a nuclear missile the odds of a nuclear explosion is extremely low.-u/Badjib
10.
Once the chain reaction with the uranium is initiated, neutrons bounce around inside the device triggering more atoms to release their energy. Early designs exploded before much of the nuclear material had even been triggered, leading to wasted uranium and smaller explosions. The most effective designs contain this chain reaction for as long as possible like a pressure cooker to maximize the size of the explosion.-u/KnowsHair
11.
That the national weather service has a published response to the question "is nuking a hurricane a viable solution?"-u/WarlikeMicrobe
13.
Operation Crossroads: After the iconic “Baker” shot, Bikini Lagoon was heavily irradiated, as the bomb was detonated underwater. To show how irradiated the water was, army general Stafford Warren caught a fish from the lagoon and used it to expose an X-Ray image of itself on a piece of film. The fish experiment (and subsequent scientific instrument readings of the radiation) led to the eventual cancellation of the third planned test that was supposed to happen.-u/FreeMoCo2009
14.
After a nuclear war, the ozone layer would be burnt off and would take 3-10 years to recover. So if you go outside you’ll get a killer sunburn and possibly blindness and much higher chance of skin cancer. Stay covered up and wear good sunglasses I guess!-u/blue_nowhere
15.
In 1961, a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying 2 Mark 39 3-4 megaton nuclear bombs broke apart while flying near Goldsboro, North Carolina. One of the two nuclear bombs came really came close to detonate as somehow 3 out of 4 triggering mechanisms were triggered when they found the bomb.-u/TheBassMeister
16.
General McArthur and a few other high military uppers wanted to nuke North Korea with something like 34 warheads. President Truman basically told them to p**s off.-u/jajones81
17.
The reason mushroom clouds are as prevalent as they are in SpongeBob is because Bikini Bottom is the sea bed under Bikini Atoll, the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests. It's also a bit of a tourist attraction and the ships there, which include IJN Nagato and USS Saratoga, are diveable wrecks.On a secondary note, water does a very good job of containing radiation.-u/Braith117
18.
If you stick googly eyes and draw a smile on one it seems a lot less threatening-u/arianleellewellyn
20.
There is a distance from any nuclear blast at which a frozen pizza would instantly be cooked to perfection.-u/TheOrdersMaster
21.
This is why the Fallout guy is giving a thumbs up. If the mushroom is larger than your thumb it means you are too close-u/ewokoncaffine
24.
The energy released from fission and Fusion bombs are exponential. If you can keep the materials together for 1 billionth of a second longer, you'll have 50% more yield. At some point it's just easier to pad the bomb with anything heavy (like lead or more Uranium)-u/Pikapetey
25.
Before the first one was detonated, there was some concern that runaway nuclear fission reactions would continue as a result of the bomb, until the Earth's atmosphere was destroyed completely. This was found to be 'unlikely' before the first bomb was tested.-u/Anticyclonic_Comrade
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