The Nuclear Age, and the nuclear threat

[TheBeardedDude]

Clearly one of the greatest discoveries over the last century (and some change) is nuclear radiation and radioactivity. It has led to remarkable inventions and has greatly advanced our understanding of the universe. The benefits of it to science may be unparalleled. But, as Spiderman's Uncle Ben might remind us, with great power comes great responsibility.

So, let me show you 2 things that should scare the shit out of you.

First, a time lapse of all nuclear detonations (all known detonations I suppose) since 1945.






It is amazing just how much the world managed to blow-up in a half-century. Now, take the above knowledge along with this:
http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

And realize 2 things.
1) Any of the countries with nukes, clearly has enough power in just a few bombs to alter the course of all life on the planet

and

2) all of these bombs were tested (the first video). Meaning that those fallouts and radiation radii you see, all literally occurred at each locality you see as the focus of a detonation. That is a lot of self-induced nuclear fallout.

[Jackalope]

That is a lot of self-induced nuclear fallout.

A bit of a quibble - underground tests do not create an appreciable amount of fallout, nor do airbursts. There are other concerns, of course, but significant fallout is not one of them.

[Anomalocaris]

That is a lot of self-induced nuclear fallout.

A bit of a quibble - underground tests do not create an appreciable amount of fallout, nor do airbursts. There are other concerns, of course, but significant fallout is not one of them.

Actually, air bursts produces quite a bit of fall out. Where do you think the fission products, unfissioned nuclear material, and neutron activated materials from the bomb goes?

Airbursts that detonate at low altitude (That's probably most of them) produces more fallout by pulverizing the ground and evaporate the water near the hypocenter, and propelling the result into the air just like a ground burst.

Underground tests have low fallout only if well conducted and resulting bomb cavity retains its integrity after the test. Cavities from many early tests subsequently collapse and in the process breach the roof of the cavity, producing delayed fallout at the site of the ground test.

[Jackalope]

Actually, air bursts produces quite a bit of fall out. Where do you think the fission products, unfissioned nuclear material, and neutron activated materials from the bomb goes?

Airbursts that detonate at low altitude (That's probably most of them) produces more fallout by pulverizing the ground and evaporate the water near the hypocenter, and propelling the result into the air just like a ground burst.

Amend my earlier post to read "airbursts where the fireball does not impact the ground". Cases where it does are only marginally different from a ground burst, yes - contingent on how much energy from the fireball interacts with the ground.

As far as the material from the bomb - I would categorize that as insignificant when compared to the volume fallout material produced from a ground burst. I did not say there was *no* fallout.

Underground tests have low fallout only if well conducted and resulting bomb cavity retains its integrity after the test.

"Well conducted" was an unstated assumption.

Cavities from many early tests subsequently collapse and in the process breach the roof of the cavity, producing delayed fallout at the site of the ground test.

That isn't fallout. What force is driving the contaminated material into the atmosphere from where it would fall out?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Don't be such a nervous Nellie. Living with nuclear fallout is no worse than having your chest x-rayed. Over and over and over and over and over and over........

Boru

[TheBeardedDude]

Don't be such a nervous Nellie. Living with nuclear fallout is no worse than having your chest x-rayed. Over and over and over and over and over and over........

Boru

.... And over and over and over and over....

[Anomalocaris]

That isn't fallout. What force is driving the contaminated material into the atmosphere from where it would fall out?

The roof collapse of the cavity compresses the air inside, which then erupts through breaches in the roof of the cavity, entraining the radioactive material from inside the cavity and expel them into the atmosphere.

I don't know what fraction of underground test cavities collapsed. But aerial photos of the Nevada test site certainly shows very large numbers of seriously fragmented collapse depressions over test cavities.

[Jackalope]

That isn't fallout. What force is driving the contaminated material into the atmosphere from where it would fall out?

The roof collapse of the cavity compresses the air inside, which then erupts through breaches in the roof of the cavity, entraining the radioactive material from inside the cavity and expel them into the atmosphere.

I don't know what fraction of underground test cavities collapsed. But aerial photos of the Nevada test site certainly shows very large numbers of seriously fragmented collapse depressions over test cavities.

Could be. I'm not quite sure how to characterize that. My experience with this stuff is from my duties in the military, which included assisting in producing fallout predictions (direction, speed, area and casualties) from nuclear blasts. Charming stuff, that, as you can imagine.

As our models were intended for battlefield use, and were created partially using data obtained from actual historical tests (as well as a high degree of theory), that scenario is not one that I would know much about.

I don't doubt it would throw some material skyward, but I strongly suspect that due to the magnitude of forces involved, that the impact would be substantially less.

In any case, none of this has much bearing on the OP's point that we've detonated a frightening number of the damnable things, and on that point, I certainly can find no argument.