Nuclear tests from 1945 - 1998

Crapaud

I found this while following a series of unrelated links.

It documents 2,053 nuclear explosions conducted in various places around the world, and it doesn't even cover the tests made by North Korea

It's a bit slow to start, but worth staying with (IMO). Not surprisingly, the 'Merkins have been the most entheusiastic. It's surprising that there is anything left of the south east USA.

Scary.

GiantMike

A lot of the US stuff was underground testing in Nevada.



I've flown over it a few times and you can see where the land has just sunk.

Akirasho

... an interesting aside... the US quit making "super bombs" (the former Soviets made a handfull) when it was discovered that from tactical POV, the extra energy in their explosion was essentially wasted and caused no more damage to a target area than a smaller one...

... an intersesting aside part deux. Most nuclear powers these days forego actual testing because of the earlier testing data... evidently, nuclear devices are fairly predictable and consistent little nuggets of tech... no "new" data has been revealed and computer simulations seem to do the trick (insert tab A into Slot B... wait .03 nanoseconds and voila).

Crapaud

Some more scary stuff:

[url=http://vimeo.com/15382750]Professor Chris Brusby, Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk[/url] wrote:

"The global death yield of the nuclear age to 1992 has been horrifying. According to objective calculations by the European Committee on Radiation Risk (using weapons fallout radiation exposure) there have been (up to 2003) 61 million cancer deaths; 1,600,000 infant deaths; 1,880,000 fetal deaths. There has been a loss of life quality of 10% (in terms of illnesses and ageing effects). The blame for this can be squarely placed at the door of those scientists and administrators (WHO, UNSCEAR, ICRP) who developed and supported the scientific risk models. This is a war crime far greater in magnitude than any that has occurred in recorded human history."

How is it that this stuff doesn't make it onto the news / into the papers?

Bozman

My uncle was present at the tests in the pacific, hands over your ears and turn your back to the blast, he's had bowel cancer but you can't really prove it was down to that.

ben@31

Crapaud wrote:

I found this while following a series of unrelated links.

It documents 2,053 nuclear explosions conducted in various places around the world, and it doesn't even cover the tests made by North Korea

It's a bit slow to start, but worth staying with (IMO). Not surprisingly, the 'Merkins have been the most entheusiastic. It's surprising that there is anything left of the south east USA.

Scary.

The amazing emotional thing about this video is the fact it was made as somebodies art project.

They used no words, just a map, dots of light and universally understood numbers to provoke thought. So simple and it does it so well.

Half way through the video I was stunned by the amount of detonations going on, especially by the USA. But at least the yanks had the decency to test them on their own soil and not in someone else's country far far away.

ben@31

The best thing that happens in the video... 1962 the UK nukes part of the USA. "Take that Ronald McDonald ! "

rick_chasey

Akirasho wrote:

... an interesting aside... the US quit making "super bombs" (the former Soviets made a handfull) when it was discovered that from tactical POV, the extra energy in their explosion was essentially wasted and caused no more damage to a target area than a smaller one...

MIRVs with subs are what it is all about nowadays on the nuclear front.

Seems once they came up with MIRVS nuclear armament development slowed down a fair bit. Trident II is broadly the same idea they had by the '70s. Beyond that nuclear weapons are a bit irrelevant. OK - so you can annihilate the world - even if your nation has already been annihilated itself. Why evolve that further?

They have no military purpose.

The reason it seems you still have them is that the MAD doctrine still exists. You try this and you WILL be annihilated, even if we are too.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5o8d62bFUA

eh

Don't believe anything Chris Busby says, he doesn't properly understand the science and is basically out to scare monger and for his own pubilicity.

sungod

ben@31 wrote:

<...>
But at least the yanks had the decency to test them on their own soil and not in someone else's country far far away.

the people of bikini atoll would differ with you on that one!