Nuclear tests

[London Geezer]

Hey guys,

Having been in a apocalyptic mood lately, i was online last night and i started looking at nuclear tests information, pics and videos (i love nukes blasts videos, they just fascinate me)...

My main problem with all the tests that were conducted until not too long ago was, how could governments authorise such tests, knowing they totally wreck the surroundings, the weather, the atmosphere, any life in a few miles radius, everything really...

Some tests also went horribly wrong, just for "scientific measuring mistake" (they must have sprinkled a little too much plutonium all over the core, the idiots), and ended up causing even more death than they were "scientifically allowed" to. As a matter of fact, the most powerful blast conducted by the US was a 15Megaton one, purely by mistake cause it was only supposed to be a 6-7Mt one. The fallout of this blast was much bigger than expected and ended up ruining a lot of lives and a lot of the surroundings.

And let's not even start with the tests conducted in Russia, the biggest being a 57Mt one (!!!) in 1961 in Siberia, which is just out of this world, and i have no idea in what shape left those surroundings.

I was in a strange mood last night, and this didn't help.

 

[nutball]

The two space-borne tests (Orange and Teak IIRC) injected high-energy particles into the Earths magnetosphere that lasted for years. When I was doing my PhD I was reading papers by researchers trying to measure the energy spectrum of cosmic rays, and the papers often made reference to Orange/Teak radiation screwing up their measurements (this was years later, the jolly little particles were still there). The tests happened just a few years after the discovery of the Van Allen belts, and hence seriously hampered the attempts to understand them.

They were very pretty though (linky for clickage)

 

[London Geezer]

The two space-borne tests (Orange and Teak IIRC) injected high-energy particles into the Earths magnetosphere that lasted for years. When I was doing my PhD I was reading papers by researchers trying to measure the energy spectrum of cosmic rays, and the papers often made reference to Orange/Teak radiation screwing up their measurements (this was years later, the jolly little particles were still there). The tests happened just a few years after the discovery of the Van Allen belts, and hence seriously hampered the attempts to understand them.

They were very pretty though (linky for clickage)

No pics though.

Anyway, it's just amazing how intelligent (!?) scientists and governments went through with this... I mean, even the Moon would have been a better place, it's not like there's anything useful on there or anyone's ever gonna go there anyway.

 

[CI]

Here's my favourite test pic:

 

[CI]

Oh yeah... 8MB video of nuke tests here... fascinating stuff.

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/nuclearpower.html

 

[London Geezer]

Here's my favourite test pic:
*PIC*

Bloody hell, what is that? i can't really understand the structure of that, it looks like it has "layers" of stuff underneath, but it could be just the environment...

 

[nutball]

No pics though.

Really? I get pics. Maybe the Atomic Weapons Establishment doesn't like you

Anyway, it's just amazing how intelligent (!?) scientists and governments went through with this... I mean, even the Moon would have been a better place, it's not like there's anything useful on there or anyone's ever gonna go there anyway.

Indeed. It was the Cold War though, that screwed up a lot of peoples logic.

Another interesting story, some X-ray detectors work like Geiger counters with the voltage turned down, and these are often filled xenon gas. Xenon extracted from the atmosphere today is weakly radioactive, and causes unwanted background signals in these detectors. This radioactivity in xenon is attributed to man-made nuclear explosions. By all accounts there is a single gas cylinder full of xenon that was salvaged from a U-boat that was sunk pre-Trinity, and is therefore not contaminated. Its contents are much sought after to fill these detectors to give ultra-low background signals.

 

[London Geezer]

Disturbing stuff....

 

[London Geezer]

No pics though.

Really? I get pics. Maybe the Atomic Weapons Establishment doesn't like you

Anyway, it's just amazing how intelligent (!?) scientists and governments went through with this... I mean, even the Moon would have been a better place, it's not like there's anything useful on there or anyone's ever gonna go there anyway.

Indeed. It was the Cold War though, that screwed up a lot of peoples logic.

Another interesting story, some X-ray detectors work like Geiger counters with the voltage turned down, and these are often filled xenon gas. Xenon extracted from the atmosphere today is weakly radioactive, and causes unwanted background signals in these detectors. This radioactivity in xenon is attributed to man-made nuclear explosions. By all accounts there is a single gas cylinder full of xenon that was salvaged from a U-boat that was sunk pre-Trinity, and is therefore not contaminated. Its contents are much sought after to fill these detectors to give ultra-low background signals.

That's so stupid. This Xenon thing might be a small thing in the eyes of.. everyone except you and other scientists, but the point is that they changed forever the shape of this planet, all because of selfish power-trips.
I don't get it, but at the same time i'm totally fascinated by this, on a scientific level.

 

[Neeyik]

Here's my favourite test pic:
*PIC*

Bloody hell, what is that? i can't really understand the structure of that, it looks like it has "layers" of stuff underneath, but it could be just the environment...

Look at the wave break along the left; you're looking down a bank of little islands, connected together by a regions of sand.

Edit: LB - what is it with you and your anti-science views at the moment?

 

[London Geezer]

Look at the wave break along the left; you're looking down a bank of little islands, connected together by a regions of sand.

Errr... Oh.

 

[nutball]

This Xenon thing might be a small thing in the eyes of.. everyone except you and other scientists, but the point is that they changed forever the shape of this planet, all because of selfish power-trips.

I wouldn't say I regard it as a little thing, the effects all these tests had, but what's done is done, you can't unscramble eggs. What I would get more worried about is a resumption in nuclear testing, and I'm not convinced that that isn't going to happen.

 

[London Geezer]

This Xenon thing might be a small thing in the eyes of.. everyone except you and other scientists, but the point is that they changed forever the shape of this planet, all because of selfish power-trips.

I wouldn't say I regard it as a little thing, the effects all these tests had, but what's done is done, you can't unscramble eggs. What I would get more worried about is a resumption in nuclear testing, and I'm not convinced that that isn't going to happen.

Well the french were doing it until a few years ago... But really, as if we dont have enough weather probs already, they need to start testing again??
I would agree to it if the make britain a tropical country, but still...

 

[Druga Runda]

Here's my favourite test pic:

I have to say that this pic is amazing!

 

[London Geezer]

What's that huge taurus-shaped thing? i've never seen something like that in other blasts...

 

[London Geezer]

Edit: LB - what is it with you and your anti-science views at the moment?

Me?! Have i posted many things that sound anti-science lately? I didn't realise if i did :?
Oh god now i can't even remember what i say...

If anything, i've always been pro-science, even this thread is "pro-science" but "anti-stupid-scientists-and-governments"... Or the one KILER opened a few days ago about "the stupidest thing a scientist could do"...

Maybe u're mistaking me for someone else? (which would be unexcusable!! )

 

[Guden Oden]

What's that huge taurus-shaped thing? i've never seen something like that in other blasts...

Ok, layman analysis of the pic:

Looks like a groundblast; closest to the earth there is a wall of debris (and perhaps seawater) that's been disturbed and pulled up by the shockwave. The vertical column is likely also debris; pulled up by convection air currents. The torus formation is created by moisture in the atmosphere condensing into droplets when the shockwave compresses the air. It seems to hide the "mushroom" part of the explosion by the way.

It's worth noting one can see the curvature of the earth in that pic; light from the explosion shines down on the ocean that reveals a slight bow-effect...

Scary image. Shows how crazy dumb we were back then. Well, we still are really, we just hide it slightly better. :?

 

[PC-Engine]

The two space-borne tests (Orange and Teak IIRC) injected high-energy particles into the Earths magnetosphere that lasted for years. When I was doing my PhD I was reading papers by researchers trying to measure the energy spectrum of cosmic rays, and the papers often made reference to Orange/Teak radiation screwing up their measurements (this was years later, the jolly little particles were still there). The tests happened just a few years after the discovery of the Van Allen belts, and hence seriously hampered the attempts to understand them.

They were very pretty though (linky for clickage)

No pics though.

Anyway, it's just amazing how intelligent (!?) scientists and governments went through with this... I mean, even the Moon would have been a better place, it's not like there's anything useful on there or anyone's ever gonna go there anyway.

Why do you think the moon is disposable? Because we don't know much about it?

 

[nutball]

It's worth noting one can see the curvature of the earth in that pic; light from the explosion shines down on the ocean that reveals a slight bow-effect...

I think that might be just a combination of the lighting and barrel distortion in the lens.

 

[mito]

Oh yeah... 8MB video of nuke tests here... fascinating stuff.

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/nuclearpower.html

Can the file the downloaded?