When We Tested Nuclear Bombs

On November 16, 1952, a B-36H bomber dropped a nuclear bomb over a point north of Runit Island in the Enewetak atoll, resulting in a 500 kiloton explosion — part of a test code-named Ivy. (U.S. Department of Defense)

Full photo set – HERE

I think it’s great to have that powerful of weapon technology in our back pocket. I just hope it never comes to a time where we have to use one of these again on a large scale. The fact that we know damn well several other countries have the same or better bombs is very scary.

A relevant XKCD comic on the U.S. Nuclear Chain Of Command:

(source)

 


Comments

6 responses to “When We Tested Nuclear Bombs”

  1. AJ187 Avatar

    Well, I think nukes are one of those terrible inventions we wish we could uninvent. The fact that we can destroy the planet a thousand times over with just one stockpile of a nations nukes is insane. Furthermore, nuclear arms just seems to increase the aggressiveness of American foreign policy since the last 50 years, giving us an excuse to intervene in any country we want if they have a nuclear program. We went into Iraq because of WMD’s and are stuck their for the decision. There’s no telling where our overextended military will end up in an attempt to stop nuclear proliferation.

  2. That one guy Avatar
    That one guy

    You know, Russia had a program called “Nuclear explosions for the national economy” where they investigated a peaceful and mankind benefiting way to use nuclear weapons.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_for_the_National_Economy

    It makes sense. Bury ten nukes of varying degrees of power and chain fire them. An excavation project, like building a port or a dam, that could take months if not years to finish just excavating, could be done in two or three WEEKS.

    Not to mention that you could theoretically use nuclear weapons to disperse atmospheric anomalies like Hurricanes and tornadoes, possibly even wipe out wildfires or drain floodwater en masse.

    Heck, i pity the day we dismantle all our nuclear weapons. ‘Cause some day a big ‘ol asteroid is going to come towards Earth. We could be screwed, or we could shoot a lot of nukes at it to hopefully try and destroy it. Dont say it wont happen, you never know :3

    And mushroom clouds and whatever may result from the explosion is definitely a sight to behold. Heaven forbid we ever see such things outside of a test, they’re still cool things to see. Such awesome power erupting into a work of beauty that nothing else can come even close to producing. Not even operation Sailor Hat with the 500 ton domes made entirely out of explosives (That cost less than a dollar a pound) to simulate a full scale nuclear blast can reproduce it.

    And i’m not a freak about Nukes, i swear. Just warfare in general :P

  3. AJ187 Avatar

    Yeah, guess we might need some to send Bruce Willis and Ben Afleck to drill a hole in a asteroid after all. LOL

  4. Chrome Avatar

    Does anyone else remember Project Orion?

    They were discussing sending a million-ton cruiser to Jupiter in under two weeks using a string of one-megaton shaped-charge nuclear weapons, one blast per second. Because the shock absorber systems transferred the impulses into a steady acceleration, the crew would experience a smooth 1G of “gravity” at all times during the cruise when the engine was operating.

    If we want to reduce our nuclear arsenal, I fully support converting the stocks in question into fuel for the largest, fastest rocket that NASA ever seriously considered building.

    That One Guy, the best way to deal with asteroids via nukes is to keep pounding one spot on its surface with weapons. The energy will cause the rock to boil off and fly away, almost like *rocket exhaust*. If you start soon enough, the tiny fraction of a degree of deflection you manage will cause the rock to miss the Earth by a billion miles, and there won’t be any real debris hazard from millions of relatively small space rocks that are still big enough to reach the surface and cause substantial damage.

    1. That one guy Avatar
      That one guy

      AHA! So there’s merit in my “Launch all the nukes at the exact same spot” theory :D

      Silly Regan and your Star Wars lasers, those wont do jack to space rock :3

  5. lone survivor Avatar
    lone survivor

    I’m not too worried about the USA having nukes, it’s the third world countries, like Pakistan , India, etc. if they get some power-crazed nut in office, who knows what they would do.