Video: Five volunteers stand under an atom bomb as it detonates

Originally posted by BASSPLYR
reply to post by getreadyalready

 

EMP pulse. easiest way back then to make a massive EMP wave was to detonate a nuclear bomb. So if the soviets were flying their fleet of bombers to hit the us, our response would have been to shoot a missile loaded with a small nuke. The missile wouldn't have to hit anything. Just detonate in the middle of the cloud of soviet bombers. EMP pulse. Presto chango no longer bombers flying to nuke our shores just scrap metal fluttering towards the ocean below.

It's the real reason so many small yield nukes were made. It's applicable to a naval fleet or to a squad of tanks coming in. Especially back in the day when people weren't as good at shielding equipment from massive EMP pulses.

edit on 18-7-2012 by BASSPLYR because: (no reason given)

edit on 18-7-2012 by BASSPLYR because: (no reason given)

No, an nuclear explosion like this in the atmosphere with that size would not create a EMP pulse of any military significance. EMP is a property of a very large detonation in the ionosphere and interaction with complex geophysics.

More info on the video. These men were mighty brave and no doubt crazy.

A lot of you wrote in to ask what happened to the five men in the blog post above, who, in 1957 stood under an exploding atomic bomb. Did they get cancer? Did they suffer later on? Are they still with us? We checked, of course. I did find a list of the people who were in the film. Col. Sidney Bruce Lt. Col. Frank P. Ball Maj. Norman "Bodie" Bodinger Maj. John Hughes Don Lutrel George Yo#ake (the cameraman, not seen)

www.northcountrypublicradio.org...

they all lived reasonably long lives 60's and 80's and the bomb was actually at 18,500 instead of the 10,000 ft. it says in the video. camera man is still alive. wow. sounds to me like visiting a bombing was an ok thing to do health wise but seeing them repeatedly, living downwind from them, and working on them, could kill you.

reply to post by grey580


Ahhh, the days before dirty fission, and fusion bombs...

They were never in any danger.
If there was any danger they would have used enlisted men instead of officers

reply to post by schuyler


If a atom bomb makes an EMP pulse, why were the planes that brought it in and the electronic stuff on the groung not affected ?

Hey guys, how would you like to stand under a atom bomb while we let if off ? What the hell were THEY thinking ?

If you look at the video, there was not much time from the time the plane shot the bomb, and the bomb goiung off.

Originally posted by lonewolf10
the U.S. government cares so much for its people.

They were 'volunteers'. You know..something a person decides on their own.

Those guys had to of had just the worst life once all that radiation kicked in...you couldn't pay me all the money in the world to be that stupid! haha. Good for the US military finding people dumb enough to put their lives on the line like that though. Then again, that's nothing new.

S. Bruce. Died 2005 age 86

F. Ball. Died 2003 age 83

N. Bodinger, Still Alive

J. Hughes, Died 1990 age 71

D. Lutrel. Died 1987 age 63

G. Yoshi take. , the camera man, is still alive. He shot video footage of many tests and never had any major ill effects. Though some of his other camera friends were not so lucky.

This was a 2 Kiloton airburst at 18,000 feet. No where near enough to harm the ground crew. The radioactive particles would not have been much due to air burst. Fall Out happens when a bomb has ground-particles to suck up... the brown clouds you saw there was air-dust & condensation from moisture in the air. To little, to thin, for it to fully fall to the ground in amounts dangerous to them.

In fact, the flash probably caused more damage than what little dust might of made it to the surface... but even then, not enough radiation in the flash of a 2kt to cause lasting damage.

In short, nuclear weapons -can- be "safe."

Also EMP is not generated by bombs of this size. It takes a much larger one at a much higher altitude to cause a true EMP.

I can understand why they are excited, it would be awesome to see an explosion that big, but it wouldnt be cool to die from the radiation later.

I wonder if this is where the mythical halo came from? A nuclear device from an ET presence was detonated sometime in our ancient history, and that's why ancient civilizations feared gods and angels so much?

Hey, it's just a thought that occurred to me. Don't hate me for being imaginative.

reply to post by getreadyalready


Typical AA missiles either need contact with the target or close proximity to it to have an effect. With a small nuclear warhead, they could set it to detonate 500 metres or more away from the target and it would still be taken down.

America is so fcking smart. Yes, let's go into the depths of the experience of bombing people. As if that's going to make them reconsider. Man the priorities are so ass backwards..

Originally posted by stealthyaroura
did they even know about the health risk.

They probably did, as the US sent men to analyse the effects of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as soon as they could, to see on the ground the effects of the explosions.

I think I have one of those reports in my e-book collection.

Edit: it's this one.

Originally posted by Foxe

This was a 2 Kiloton airburst at 18,000 feet. No where near enough to harm the ground crew. The radioactive particles would not have been much due to air burst. Fall Out happens when a bomb has ground-particles to suck up...

It's actually misleading to say that airbursts don't make fallout. This was said for a long time, but it isn't really the case. Yes, you get more for a groundburst, as you get neutron activation of the ground, but a large fraction of the danger from the fallout is just plain fissioned uranium & plutonium, and it's proportional to fission yield.

the brown clouds you saw there was air-dust & condensation from moisture in the air. To little, to thin, for it to fully fall to the ground in amounts dangerous to them.

What is 'air-dust"? The bomb parts vaporize and condense, and they're really radioactive. t

In fact, the flash probably caused more damage than what little dust might of made it to the surface... but even then, not enough radiation in the flash of a 2kt to cause lasting damage.

In short, nuclear weapons -can- be "safe."

It probably had about 1/6th the yield and 1/6th the fallout of Hiroshima.

Also EMP is not generated by bombs of this size. It takes a much larger one at a much higher altitude to cause a true EMP.

edit on 19-7-2012 by Foxe because: (no reason given)

Agreed.

reply to post by mbkennel


Are you sure about your figures there?? I'm no nuclear physicist so I can't check myself but I'm not sure the yield works out in fractional figures like that for radiation/ fall out. in explosive force yes it would be 1/6th, but as far as I've read up radiation/fall out is a little different to calculate, and as others have stated altitude makes a huge difference.

Originally posted by Ilyich
reply to post by mbkennel

 

Are you sure about your figures there?? I'm no nuclear physicist so I can't check myself but I'm not sure the yield works out in fractional figures like that for radiation/ fall out. in explosive force yes it would be 1/6th, but as far as I've read up radiation/fall out is a little different to calculate, and as others have stated altitude makes a huge difference.

edit on 7/19/2012 by Ilyich because: (no reason given)

The fallout which comes from nuclear fission is directly proportional to the yield from fission, because it is the fission products themselves, the nuclei formerly known as uranium and plutonium, and the yield is governed by the number of such nuclei undergoing fission.

Lower to the ground you have additional neutron activation causing more hazardous secondary nuclei compared to the neutrons scattering off air.

In retrospect, the 'enemy of the day' Soviets were prepared for the effects of EMP type weapons on their aircraft. A Soviet pilot defected to the west in the 60's complete with his MIG25 and all the electronics on board were found to be EMP resistant with vacuum tubes and a Faraday shield unlike the more 'modern' solid state designs being used by the 'good guys'. Let's just be thankful that the 'cold war' remained cold.

reply to post by grey580


The joy of the experience really comes through as they give us the play by play. Insane.

CJ

A 2KT detonation is minimal in comparison the majority of test complete by the US. Three major values come into play when minimizing radiation exposure, "Time, Distance and Shielding. "

The gentlemen in the video had time and distance to help minimize exposure, 10,000 - 18,000 ft. of distance with minimal time spent within Ground Zero.

Gamma exposure would be minimal, as would be the threat of airborne fallout particulates. Witnesses of Shot Grable during Operation Upshot-Knothole or that of the Trinity Test would be more at risk that the five gentlemen in the video.

No discernible EMP threat existed from this small a weapon either, at least not at the height it was detonated. An EMP relies very heavily on the atmosphere to disperse properly. This is evident by the Starfish Prime and Operation Dominic Tests.

The AIR-2 "Genie" was actually in the US and Canadian Nuclear Arsenal all the way to the mid-1980's all based on the premise of massive formations of Russian Heavy Bombers proceeding in a one-way attack on the CONUS, even with the advent of the NIKE Missile and other AAA assets the AIR-2 was still a viable and useful asset.

As far as knowledge of radiation hazards and sickness in the 1950's it was quite in-depth, especially after the incidents involving Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotin both being exposed when a critical release of hard neutron radiation by the "Demon Core" occurred during the Manhattan Project. This same core was used weeks later as Able Shot during Operation Crossroads.

Most assume that our Nuclear Programs of the time was merely lots of men playing around with isotopes, when in fact Metallurgy, Nuclear Physics, Theoretical Physics, Quantum Mechanics and many other fields had been in exsistance for quite some time. We had some of the brightest minds aiding in the development of the designs and weapons, many of who were captured or defected German scientists (Operation Paperclip).


We must also remember, EVERYTHING gives off radiation of a sort. I think anyone interest in Nuclear Physics or anything related to Nuclear Weapons or Radiation should look into this Youtube account and it's associated website.