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Diver may have found 'lost nuke'

Cosmik

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540.jpg

Sean Smyrichinsky thought he saw a UFO when he encountered object that may have been abandoned by an American bomber before crash in British Columbia
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/04/canada-lost-nuke-found-cold-war-bomb
 

RayDunzl

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RayDunzl

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Anyone interested in the science and politics of the atom bomb:

"The Making of the Atomic Bomb" - Richard Rhodes 886 pages. 13-788 pages for the actual book part.

"Twenty-five years after its initial publication, The Making of the Atomic Bomb remains the definitive history of nuclear weapons and the Manhattan Project. From the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan, Richard Rhodes’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book details the science, the people, and the socio-political realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb.

This sweeping account begins in the 19th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans’ race to beat Hitler’s Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology—from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence.

From nuclear power’s earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story.

Richard Rhodes’s ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work."

--

Reader Comment: "Rhodes does not ignore any aspect of the process. This book is a scientific history, a political history, a biography, and a technical manual. He begins in the 19th century at the advent of nuclear physics, and walks through the lives of its significant contributors. He goes into (often excrutiating) details about the development of the first nuclear reactors, the early life of Oppenheimer, and the development of the amazing military-industrial complex required to create the small amount of material needed for the three atom bombs detonated during World War II (one test unit and the two used over Japan). Rhodes makes the people involved seem human and manages to mostly avoid social commentary, merely presenting the facts as they were."

--

"Dark Sun" is the companion book that carries on into the hydrogen bomb, but it isn't nearly as engrossing (for me). More backstabbing in that one.

"The making of" covers essentially all of the scientific discoveries necessary before the fission bomb could be envisioned, the work at Los Alamos, the work at Oak Ridge and Hanford, lots of detail, yet, an easy read.
 
OP
Cosmik

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It reminds me of this story:
A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima.

The document, obtained by the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gives the first conclusive evidence that the US was narrowly spared a disaster of monumental proportions when two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on 23 January 1961. The bombs fell to earth after a B-52 bomber broke up in mid-air, and one of the devices behaved precisely as a nuclear weapon was designed to behave in warfare: its parachute opened, its trigger mechanisms engaged, and only one low-voltage switch prevented untold carnage.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961
 

RayDunzl

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With any discussion of bombs, I like to throw up this comparison:

Left, fission, taken from maybe 2-3 miles distance, near Las Vegas
Right, fusion, taken from maybe 40-50 miles distance, somewhere in the South Pacific

upload_2016-11-4_15-56-43.png
 

Thomas savage

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With any discussion of bombs, I like to throw up this comparison:

Left, fission, taken from maybe 2-3 miles distance, near Las Vegas
Right, fusion, taken from maybe 40-50 miles distance, somewhere in the South Pacific

View attachment 3784
Well I'm going to end up with over cooked steak with either of them..
 

amirm

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I went to the Atomic Bomb (?) museum in Hiroshima years back. I have to tell you, it will leave you changed forever. What is remarkable is this building that is still left standing at the epicenter. A walk around it and the horrors of what went on after the bomb was dropped haunts me forever.

The most remarkable thing is how friendly Japan is toward Americans. To see a nice lady greet me in the lobby with a bow and then go on to see what our bomb did to them, simply does not compute. I hope all nations have the ability to forgive as they have.
 

RayDunzl

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The most remarkable thing is how friendly Japan is toward Americans.

I did some drinking with an old lady that ran "The Business Hotel" next door (literally) to one little back alley Snack Bar we frequented. She must have been young during the Occupation.

There was some conversation about the war and she blurts out "I love MacArthur!"

Oh, here she is, on the left, on a different night. Snack Bar Mama-san on the back right.

2011-03-13_2113.png
 

RayDunzl

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Not all, just a few scanned.

I wish I'd had a digital camera back then... My trips were in 1986, 1992, and 1998...

Here's the Abiko Plant, Fuji in the background, which we could see from the window a couple of times... The hallway in the Hotel aligned with a view of Fuji. Came out of my room one crisp morning, and there it was...

This is why you wouldn't want to be a Firmware Engineer back there, back then...

2011-02-18_1904.png
 

Sal1950

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The most remarkable thing is how friendly Japan is toward Americans. To see a nice lady greet me in the lobby with a bow and then go on to see what our bomb did to them, simply does not compute. I hope all nations have the ability to forgive as they have.
You seem to forget they attacked us, all the men that died at Pearl Harbor, and on both sides of WW II in the aftermath of their attack.
I don't believe a nation has ever treated a conquered enemy as well we as we did Japan, going so far as to let the Emperor remain in place at his palace.
Compare that to the Russians treatment of post war Germany.
The US well earned the respect of post war Japanese.
 

amirm

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You seem to forget they attacked us, all the men that died at Pearl Harbor, and on both sides of WW II in the aftermath of their attack.
I don't believe a nation has ever treated a conquered enemy as well we as we did Japan, going so far as to let the Emperor remain in place at his palace.
Compare that to the Russians treatment of post war Germany.
The US well earned the respect of the Japanese.
Not only have I not forgotten, that was front and center in my mind as I made my post. We have not forgiven them for what they did. They have forgiven us for what we did.

That kind of forgiveness doesn't come to me easily. I know I don't have it in me to forgive an enemy that had burned over a 100,000 of my fellow civilians to a crisp and horror of radiation in Hiroshima alone. When you hear the voice recordings of the survivors, you wonder, you really wonder, how they have managed to forgive.

In all, a war is a horrible thing for both sides. No judgement can be done on that. All I can do is reflect on my personal experience in that museum. I wish everyone would have a chance to go and visit.
 

Thomas savage

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Not only have I not forgotten, that was front and center in my mind as I made my post. We have not forgiven them for what they did. They have forgiven us for what we did.

That kind of forgiveness doesn't come to me easily. I know I don't have it in me to forgive an enemy that had burned over a 100,000 of my fellow civilians to a crisp and horror of radiation in Hiroshima alone. When you hear the voice recordings of the survivors, you wonder, you really wonder, how they have managed to forgive.

In all, a war is a horrible thing for both sides. No judgement can be done on that. All I can do is reflect on my personal experience in that museum. I wish everyone would have a chance to go and visit.
It's horrendous, there is a argument that says the Japanese would never of given up and more life's could of been lost in the pre longing of the conflict if not for the dropping of the bombs...

Ironically the Japanese seemed to idealise American culture going into the 50's..

Fortunately the thought of dropping nuclear bombs on innocent civilians is a distant one these days..
 

Sal1950

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Fortunately the thought of dropping nuclear bombs on innocent civilians is a distant one these days..
If only that were true Thomas
Only the next one will more likely be carried in a suitcase.
 

RayDunzl

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I thought this an interesting statistic, and exculpatory for some of the continued intransigence of the citizenry:

"The US Air Force estimated that North Korea’s destruction was proportionately greater than that of Japan in the Second World War, where the US had turned 64 major cities to rubble and used the atomic bomb to destroy two others. American planes dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea -- that is, essentially on North Korea --including 32,557 tons of napalm, compared to 503,000 tons of bombs dropped in the entire Pacific theatre of World War II."

UN troops made it all the way to the northern border (Chinese border), whereupon China let loose 300,000 troops to push back.

General MacArthur wanted to nuke them (maybe), but President Truman declined (maybe), and ended up telling MacArthur "You're fired!" (for sure).
 

amirm

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American planes dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea -- that is, essentially on North Korea --including 32,557 tons of napalm, compared to 503,000 tons of bombs dropped in the entire Pacific theatre of World War II.
It is hard to comprehend numbers like this. 635,000 bombs dropped??? :eek:
 

RayDunzl

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Tons of bombs.

I find a mention for 7,000,000 tons in VietNam.

That will probably remain the record.
 
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