Early nuclear weapons testing photographs

[crustychief]

When We Tested Nuclear Bombs - Alan Taylor - In Focus - The Atlantic

[bivenator]

Fascinating article and pictures, thanks for posting.

[Seahawk]

That is great stuff...many pictures I've never seen. Thanks.

I love the vertical ship in the water column in your OP.

"Set Circle William...nevermind".

[Hugh R]

What is amazing is those were in the kiloton range, they're now in the megaton range. As a kid, one of my Dad's friends was Harold Edgerton, (co-founder of EG&G) who invented the strobe light and I believe the high speed cameras used in the filming of the first milli-seconds of nuclear blasts.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

What is amazing is those were in the kiloton range, they're now in the megaton range. As a kid, one of my Dad's friends was Harold Edgerton, (co-founder of EG&G) who invented the strobe light and I believe the high speed cameras used in the filming of the first milli-seconds of nuclear blasts.

It's funny, Hugh, after my father stopped running around in the boonies, he became a nuke...taught in Idaho and later, as a civilian SES, managed the Savannah River Plant in SC.

We'll have to compare notes...he spent a lot of time at Oak Ridge, Livermoore, Scandia, etc.

[Hugh R]

As a kid I lived in the Boston area, with my Dad at MIT, and we also lived in Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge in my youth. In the early 1960s my Dad had visitors over to our house who were Russian nuclear scientists enjoying an American BBQ. As an 8-10 year old I didn't appreciate the significance of this.

[Scott R]

My grandfather was an editor with National Geographic and was in the viewing bunker for Trinity. Sadly it was also suspected as the cause of his death years later.

[Hugh R]

"Suspected" I know a TV Producer whose father filmed a few nuke blasts in the 1950's he died of cancer at 39. The amount of radiation those observers got was off the charts.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

As a kid I lived in the Boston area, with my Dad at MIT, and we also lived in Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge in my youth. In the early 1960s my Dad had visitors over to our house who were Russian nuclear scientists enjoying an American BBQ. As an 8-10 year old I didn't appreciate the significance of this.

We lived in Boston when my Dad did the MIT nuke masters thing. 1958ish.

He went back to Rangers for a Bragg tour after that...then Idaho.

[flatbutt]

I'm well versed in math and science yet still I'm amazed at the energy released from such a small amount of material.

[UncleRay]

Take a look at Youtube video for "A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto". Watch the months and years ratchet up in the right hand top corner and the country that set it off. This is impressive to say the least. Yea, I was around for all of these but a hand full or two. If someone could attach it to a reply it would help make it easier for others to check out. Not sure how to to do the video attachement thing yet. The video takes a while but well worth the look

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I'm well versed in math and science yet still I'm amazed at the energy released from such a small amount of material.

What is amazing, is how small that material really is...milligrams!

[Tervuren]

Thanks for posting.

Its amazing how these short lived explosions pale in comparison to the constant nuclear reaction millions of miles away that zap us.

[Christien]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

"Suspected" I know a TV Producer whose father filmed a few nuke blasts in the 1950's he died of cancer at 39. The amount of radiation those observers got was off the charts.

That answers one of the two things I've always wondered about these tests from the 50s and 60s. The other is how the radiation released from the bombs hasn't affected anyone over the following years? I mean, Nevada isn't exactly the south pole. Even back in the 50s there must have been 10s of millions of people within a few hundred miles of the desert. In the news lately we've heard about slight increases in radiation in Hawaii, even on the west coast of North America, from Fukushima. Surely wind would've blown really dangerous amounts of radiation from the Nevada desert into populated areas, no?

[RWebb]

quite a few Nevada ranchers say they or their wives had problems, and so did their live stock (mostly sheep)

maybe the worst effects on US civilians from the Atom Bomb program were the "downwinders" in Wash. & Idaho from operations at Hanford -- so far at least (there is still a giant subsurface pool of contamination that is slowly working its way to the Columbia River... )

it's hard to get a real good read on the effects b/c of govt. secrecy, alarmism, and the lack of definitive studies

[Hugh R]

I'm not a nuclear engineer or even anything close. But I did stay at a Hilton last night (not a Holiday Inn). When the Plutonium fissions, it essentially burns (think combustion, but not really) and in the process emits alpha, beta and gamma radiation (think heat from combustion). That is what blasted those observers. Since the fission is not 100% perfect some residual Plutonium, and radioactive daughters, are left over which will drift downwind and continue to emit alpha, beta and gamma radiation. Those radioactive solids are relatively dense, especially Plutonium, and they settle out into the food chain. The radioacitve daughters like Thorium and radioactive (heavy) Iodine, Potassium and Carbon are easily picked up by the body; as was seen with the Japanese nuke accident when people in the USA were trying to buy Iodine supplements for fear of thyroid cancer. There is possibly a measurable statistical increase in cancer in the World from that (as RWebb correctly noted, gubmit security clouds those findings). The exposure/risk drops off relative to a gaussian plume dispersion model. What that means is think of smoke coming from your barbeque, and how that smoke disipates as you get farther away from the BBQ. Its the same sort of dispersion but on a global scale. Which is why they see high concentrations of radiation at the nuke plants in Japan, but not much in Hawaii and even less in Los Angeles. Maybe someone else can explain it better.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

I'm not a nuclear engineer .................................

The radioacitve daughters like Thorium and radioactive (heavy) Iodine, Potassium and Carbon are easily picked up by the body; as was seen with the Japanese nuke accident when people in the USA were trying to buy Iodine supplements for fear of thyroid cancer. There is possibly a measurable statistical increase in cancer in the World from that (as RWebb correctly noted, gubmit security clouds those findings). .

The half life of radioactive iodine (Iodine-131) is 8 days.

Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive element that is abundant in the earth's crust, about 4 times more common than uranium.
In pure form it goes pyrophoric and burns up in air.
They use it to make tungsten filaments and electrodes last longer because of it's high melting point. I have some of it in my garage, in my TIG welding electrodes.


Funny how they don't tell us those kinds of details in the 10 second news sound bites designed to scare the crap out of the uninformed and ignorant.

[tabs]

Daddy during the I LOVE IKE years was part of the development team that made a Atom Bomb simulator. I have the 16mm footage of the test.

Daddy also helped develope a chemical dosimeter.of which I have one lying around here somewhere.

When I was 10 I was part of a tour of a uranium processing plant...I remember a room full of Yellow Cake with some guys inside raking it.

[Hugh R]

As I said, I'm not a nuclear engineer or even anything close. But I did stay at a Hilton last night (not a Holiday Inn).

I'm just giving a layman explanation to a question.

[IROC]

We shipped a spent component of our facility to the Nevada Test Site for burial last week. There's no other place we can send stuff...