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The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

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Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#81

Post by daeken »

gcb0 wrote: post #78
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 According to the video, people have detonated 2053 nukes, and America has the dubious distinction of having detonated over 1000.

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

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.

Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#83

Post by justincormack »

photorized wrote: post #61

This reminds me of my visit to Centralia, PA, where the underground fire has been burning since 1962. Took lots of interesting pictures. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

Burning mountain has been on fire for 6,000 years... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Mountain

Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#84

Post by gambiting »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #39
source99 wrote: post #4

The US and Russia cooperated on a program to do this in space in order to stop a asteroid from destroying the planet. Bruce Willis led the mission.

HN doesn't tolerate jokes well because they are usually a disruption to the conversation. If you want to make a joke here you can, but you have to ask yourself whether the joke is lame and a distraction or original and funny enough to derail the conversation momentarily. If your joke gets downvoted into oblivion that's a sign that people feel it's the former.

I generally feel that jokes on HN are acceptable if they are contained within an otherwise useful comment. If you make a comment just to make a joke that's what's not acceptable.

Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#85

Post by iSnow »

TTPrograms wrote: post #74
sjtrny wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A golden age of nuclear waste? It's not a silver bullet.

For modern fast reactors it really is. Nuclear waste paranoia is one of the main things that holds back feasible cheap green energy in the modern world.

You cannot simply brush aside this issue. Even if we have 100% safe reactors, generating waste that is deadly in a thousand years is simply not a good idea, no paranoia involved.

Besides: nuclear had its chance - they blew it because of greed and sloppiness, the usual thing that happens when large organizations deal with complex issues. I am 100% sure that even with novel reactor designs the same "human factor" would generate accidents like we have seen with the old designs.

Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#86

Post by yardie »

Houshalter wrote: post #68
sigterm wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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.

Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#87

Post by madaxe_again »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #20
BrandonMarc wrote: post #3

... as well as once in 1968, twice in 1972, and once in 1981. 0.o The USSR had a whole program to investigate peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs), called Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. [1] Sadly, some of these experiments went rather wrong, unexpectedly releasing lots of radioactive nasty near populated areas. The US also did this sort of thing from 1961 to 1973, and the program was cancelled in '77. [2]…

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 According to the video, people have detonated 2053 nukes, and America has the dubious distinction of having detonated over 1000.

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.

Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#88

Post by kalms »

girvo wrote: post #67
sjtrny wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A golden age of nuclear waste? It's not a silver bullet.

Honestly, I'd rather deal with nuclear waste than I would what we're currently doing to our environment.

Fire that crap into the sun and be done with it.

Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#89

Post by choult »

madaxe_again wrote: post #87
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 According to the video, people have detonated 2053 nukes, and America has the dubious distinction of having detonated over 1000.

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.

s/seems/is/

Please provide any kind of reputable source as to how the Chelyabinsk meteor was actually a nuke warhead.

Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

#90

Post by gdy »

yardie wrote: post #86
Houshalter wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Is this what you are referring to? http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-03/ff...
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