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Nukes of Hazard (2013)

newyorker.com

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Re: Nukes of Hazard (2013)

#11

Post by lotsofmangos »

runarb wrote: post #9

Nuclear bomb security may have be less advanced than we were lead on to believe. For example British nuclear bombs were armed by turning a bicycle lock key: "British nukes were protected by bike locks" - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7097101.stm . If one puted that in a movie plot I think few would believe it.

Is much the same now, the UK doesn't have launch codes and operates the whole thing as a sort of dead-man's switch, apparently partly based on if the Today program has been broadcast on Radio 4.

edit - we also used to rely on the AA's radio network - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/in-the-eve...

Re: Nukes of Hazard (2013)

#12

Post by NamTaf »

lotharbot wrote: post #3

The article claims that a nine-megaton blast would wipe out "most of the state of Arkansas". Wikipedia claims the lethal radius on a bomb of that size is about 20 miles for thermal effects ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B53_nuclear_bomb#Effects ), which is around 2% of the area of Arkansas; other effects are described as having an even smaller radius. I suspect, but cannot prove, the wikipedia number is more likely t…

Castle Bravo [1], [2] was a 15Mt yield set off on Bikini Atoll, notable because it was predicted to be 6Mt but was almost 2.5x that. Considering how much of the Bikini Atoll is left ([3], with pin on the location of detonation) and that the command centre for Castle was on the Atoll, I'd say that Arkansas is ok.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Castle [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo [3] https://goo.gl/maps/thGe6

Re: Nukes of Hazard (2013)

#13

Post by mootothemax »

runarb wrote: post #9

Nuclear bomb security may have be less advanced than we were lead on to believe. For example British nuclear bombs were armed by turning a bicycle lock key: "British nukes were protected by bike locks" - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7097101.stm . If one puted that in a movie plot I think few would believe it.

Nuclear bomb security may have be less advanced than we were lead on to believe

The launch code for US nukes was 00000000 for 20 years:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/launch-code-for-u...

Re: Nukes of Hazard (2013)

#15

Post by InclinedPlane »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #4

From reading the article, I get the sense that the best thing working in our[1] favor was having a series of relatively steady, not crazy hands on the nuclear football, on both sides. It's still incredibly frightening that the annihilation of the human race was literally placed in the hands of two people at any given time, but a testament to the capability of the Soviet Politburo and the American political system to…

Realistically, human civilization would still have survived a full scaled thermonuclear exchange during the height of the Cold War. Things would not have been great, but humanity would still have survived.

Re: Nukes of Hazard (2013)

#16

Post by Rapzid »

"...the American public was regularly frightened by warnings about the dangers of a nuclear attack that was always made to appear imminent"

Not much has changed.

Re: Nukes of Hazard (2013)

#17

Post by myrandomcomment »

How hard is it to report facts.

"The plane split in two, the base was evacuated, and the fire burned for two and a half hours. But the explosives in the warhead didn’t detonate; that would have set off a chain reaction."

This statement seems to imply the bomb would have went off, which is just not true. The physics just do not work that way.

Re: Nukes of Hazard (2013)

#18

Post by axman6 »

Rapzid wrote: post #16

"...the American public was regularly frightened by warnings about the dangers of a nuclear attack that was always made to appear imminent" Not much has changed.

But the terrists are real. Did you already forget 9/11, the greatest tragedy ever inflicted by man upon itself?

Re: Nukes of Hazard (2013)

#19

Post by sspiff »

naz wrote: post #7

> Mathias Rust had flown a rented Cessna, an airplane about the size of a Piper Cub, from Helsinki to Moscow and landed it a hundred yards from Red Square Are there people that know how big a Cub is, but don't know how big a Cessna is?

I had to look up what a Piper Cub was, whereas I believe almost everyone knows what a Cessna looks like. It's only the most common air plane ever built.
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