To all Physicists and Military Men.... What Types of Nukes Are at Our Disposal?

Sept. 25, 2001 | me

[oldvike]

Sorry for the Vanity, but I am just curious to know what types of nukes we have in our arsenal to use against the terrorists. I've often heard the phrase "Tactical Nuclear Weapon". Well, just how strong are these weapons in terms of kilotons (I'm pretty sure that a tactical nuclear weapon would not be measured in megatons)? Also, how long is the area of the blast "contaminated"? I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that these weapons do not cause site contamination for as long as some libs would have us believe.

Also, what type of nuclear technology is this? I hear the words "neutron bomb" and "hydrogen bomb" bantied about, but are these the same things? Guys, I'm not too informed when it comes to nuclear technology, but any links or summations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks....

[oldvike]

I guess this thread is designed to inform us less knowledgable FReepers about the ins and outs of nuclear weapons technology.

[An Old Man]

Oldvike, if we tell you , we will have to kill you.

Do you really want to know?

[oldvike]

Oldvike, if we tell you , we will have to kill you. Do you really want to know?

Well, no. Just make something up, okay? Misinformation. LOL

[oldvike]

Thanks, I honestly want to learn about this. I'm sick of being fed B.S. by the media. I grew up in a time when all my highschool teachers told me I was gonna be killed because of Ronald Reagan. I WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH!

[cicero's_son]

If you're interested in a reasonably detailed description of nuclear technology for non-scientists, you might want to check out a book called The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes.

It's a history of the development of contemporary nuclear weaponry and a wonderful layman's treatment of the science involved. It also happens to be a rip-snorting page-turner.

However, it is also around 700 pages long...

[jlogajan]

They hydrogen bomb is not the same as a neutron bomb, and the hydrogen bomb is not a tactical nuke.

The neutron bomb is designed to put out a lot of neutrons. These are like itsy bitsy bullets or shrapnel, if you will. They give you a nice dose of radiation sickness -- knock your DNA and other cellular mechanism all to heck.

Once slowed down by collisions, they can disrupt normal nuclei, and hence can induce radioactivity in materials. So they aren't so clean as the idea that they "kill people but leave buildings standing." The buldings will pick up some radioactivity. Free neutrons themselve only have a half-life of about 8 minutes, so they're mostly gone in an hour or so after the nuke.

[ironman]

Tactical, a couple of kilotons. ICBMs (Peacekeeper, Minuteman, Trident) loaded with warheads on the order of a few hundred kilotons. Older Titan ICBM had megaton class warheads. Certainly we have many gravity bombs and air launched cruise missiles with megaton blast power. Contamination for very long time (many years).

[oldvike]

Thanks guys.

[Benrand]

We got a lot of stuff that releases a lot of energy...without control. I believe the original problem was producing the "fuel", the engineering of the plants to produce the fuel for the first bombs was innovative. I'm not sure how long the process takes, but maybe that moron Hazel O'Leary knows.

[Centurion2000]

H Bomb = Big tactical and strategic nukes. Yield 100 kilotons - 25 megatons

Nuclear artillery shells = dial a yield from 1-50(?) kilotons (very nice)
Neutron bomb - nuclear weapons that uses enhances neutron radiation to kill all the people within a set distance 300-1000 meters and leave most things standing.

Salted nukes - enhanced radiation that will leave extensive fallout over bombed territory. Salted means that it is jacketed with gold (days), zinc or tantalum (months) or cobalt (pretty much forever, half-life 5+ years) and has the lower yield of an atomic (not fusion) bomb.

Here's a couple of really good links for you

FAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS FAQ

Nuclear weapons facts

[oldvike]

Thanks, I have those links saved to my "favorites" files and will be checking them out in the days to come.

[Bill Rice]

I heard the Poles were working on an atomic grenade.

[fourdeuce82d]

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3959a2037ce1.htm

[oldvike]

Damn! I shoulda paid more attention in 2nd semester physics in college. LOL

Thanks for the info.

[oldvike]

Perfect. Here's that link for any FReepers who are reading this thread....

Taking the Pulse: Nuclear Warheads

[wolfman]

The Poles are still working on blowing up vehicles... it seems they keep burning their lips on the tailpipes.

[Dan Day]

H-bomb (15 Megatons), US test, 3/1/54, "Bravo" shot of Operation Castle:

[Dan Day]

A-bomb, 61 kilotons, US test, 6/4/53, "Climax" shot of Operation Upshot/Knothole:

[oldvike]

Wow! Don't know what else I could say other than I wonder what the the diameter of the "kill zone" was?

[Jean S]

If you reply to this thread, please remember Loose Lips Sinks Ships.

[Poohbah]

If he has $399 burning a hole in his pocket, he can go to Chuck Hansen's Emporium of More Nuclear Weapons Data than You EVER Wanted to See and buy the 8-volume microfiche or CD-ROM of damn near every declassified nuclear weapons document to date...

[Husker24]

If that was 15 megatons Id hate to see that Russian 57 megaton mother go off!

[oldvike]

Hey JeanS, I would imagine that most of this is declassified.

[Poohbah]

There's a movie called "Trinity and Beyond" that has that shot in it. To quote Keanu Reaves from The Matrix, "Whoa."

[BurkeanCyclist]

For comparison with all these figures, I believe the yield of the Hiroshima bomb was around 20 kilotons.

[lowbridge]

What Types of Nukes Are at Our Disposal?

The exploding type.

[pile o poo]

Amen!!!! Cringing

[Poohbah]

Actually, Trinity and Nagasaki were 20 kilotons. Hiroshima was "only" 12 kilotons.

[Jean S]

Hey JeanS, I would imagine that most of this is declassified.

I agree. But we need to be concerned about any information that is not declassified that may be posted here.

[BurkeanCyclist]

I stand corrected.

[Nogbad]

The largest I ever heard of was a Russian test of a 57 megaton bomb in Novaya Zemlya.

Yes, that, I believe, was ordered by that lunatic buffoon, Krushchev (the guy who put missiles in Cuba).

I believe he hoped to have 100 megaton and 200 megaton bombs tested as well.

I can't remember the reason for this, he was in a tantrum about something,
they didn't let him visit Disneyland, something like that.

(I always thought that's where he belonged.)

[Poohbah]

It's a triple-point question in "Trivial Pursuit, the Armageddon Edition"

[labusiness]

Why does a nuke create a "mushroom cloud"?

[PrairieDawg]

BIG

ones!

And boy are they

LOUD!!!!

And just for Osama, we have added the bacon grease option.

Hope this helps. :-)

[Dan Day]

I always liked this picture:

Operation Hardtack II, "Lea" shot, 1958.

What's cool about it is:

1. This was taken just a few milliseconds after detonation, the fireball is only a few dozen feet across.

2. The "spikes" are due to the fact that the bomb was detonated at the top of a tower. The spikes are the wires which hold up the tower, vaporizing.

[Fester Chugabrew]

"If that was 15 megatons I'd hate to see that Russian 57 megaton mother go off!"

No shirt.

[Dan Day]

Why does a nuke create a "mushroom cloud"?

For the same reason that a big, hot conventional explosion will also (you can sometimes see Hollywood special-effects fireballs making little mushroom clouds).

The reason is that hot air rises (and really hot air rises really rapidly), but as it rises higher it starts to cool, and the rate of ascension slows down.

So an explosion that produces a lot of heat will cause a continuous column of rising air (the "stalk" of the mushroom), which as it gets higher cools and slows down, staying put as more rising air plows into it -- this makes it spread wider instead of rise farther, thus making the "head" of the mushroom.

[Zathras]

The W-87 (300kt) was the warhead used in the short-lived Peacekeeper (MX).
All newer designs were based on the W-88 which is the design reported stolen by the Klinton-China connection.
The W-88 was most likey a lighter version of the W-87 with similar yield. Most 1Mt+ weapons have been decomissioned as they were only useful in city-busting.

[Bill Rice]

One time in WW2, the germans had the Poles surrounded.
The poles were desperate, and started throwing grenades.

But the germans were pulling the pins and throwing them back.

[Bill Rice]

I remember reading about how the blast at either Hiroshima or Nagasaki was channeled by the valleys, and how it caused much more widespead damage than they estimated.

Do we have cruise missles that carry a fuel/air bomb?

[Styria]

Just to be comprehensive, how do EMP weapons work?

Also, here's a good webpage I found on how nuclear explosions work: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/2742/numbers.htm

[oldvike]

I thought that an EMP was a natural effect of ANY nuclear explosion and would disable any electronic equipment within the area. I may be wrong, though.

[labusiness]

Thank you. You, and those like you, are the reason I am addicted to FR.

[Styria]

I think that EMP is mainly a result of upper atmosphere or space explosions. But I want to know why.