[OT]Declassified high speed footage from nuclear airburst test

[lowchi]

WOW! [X(] Very scary but amazing footage!

https://gfycat.com/HeartfeltGlossyClumber
https://gfycat.com/HardFlawlessKite
https://gfycat.com/GreedyHiddenFieldmouse
https://gfycat.com/GoodnaturedAnnualGalapagostortoise

released from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLvG ... YbNlgQyz84

Links from Reddit user Ayy_2_Brute.
Link to the thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasf ... shows_the/

[tk208]

Nice find!

[Dysta]

I bet someone will pay tons of fortunes for record a nuclear blast with 1 trillion FPS camera, which is fast enough to capture laser in visible motion.

[StellarRat]

Let's just hope they'll never be used. That was a "small" one, BTW.

[mikkey]

It looks impressing but as StellarRat says...

[HalfLifeExpert]

I looked it up, it was 43 Kilotons. Hiroshima was 15 KT, Nagasaki was 21 KT. So yeah, its a small one.

The youtube playlist linked in the OP has bigger blasts, the largest I have seen so far is 8.3 MT.

[lowchi]

humanity dodged many bullets during the cold war. lets hope that this will also be the same in the future

[peterc100248]

The Cold War devolved into a doctrine called Mutually Assured Destruction. The premise was that somewhat sane people would not risk that kind of retaliation in the furtherance of their national political and military ambitions.

Today the world is a far more dangerous place. Too many so-called world leaders are not rational, sane individuals. Neither are terrorists. The actual risk of nuclear exchange is probably higher than almost any time during the Cold War. Is it any wonder why some people are purchasing old Cold War missile silos and turning them into homes?

Just for information, Teapot was a series of 14 test shots, not just one 43kt shot. The 43kt shot was called "Turk" and was detonated atop a 500ft tower. Look here for details:

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Teapot.html

[ultradave]

Impressive videos, in a horrific sort of way.

[Dysta]

Another OT: my presumption of rearming Cold War weaponries in recent years is because the increasing capability of anti-nuclear assets. Like BMD, laser, and stealthy weapon to destroy nuclear launchers. And the economically rising countries seeking for global campaign by acquiring dual-use nuclear programs for both energy, and defensive deterrent by convert them into nukes.

[ultradave]

It's harder and harder for countries these days to have what you would call a dual use program. With uranium enrichment discouraged, the opening of the IAEA fuel bank, and the conversion of most research reactors to LEU rather than HEU, the ability to covertly either create a store of HEU or extract weapons usable Pu is greatly reduced these days, beyond the countries that today have nuclear weapons, and Iran, who has been severely curtailed.

Emerging economies that have the technology, such has say, Argentina and Brazil to take one good example, long ago entered into mutual agreements to forsake nuclear weapons and enter into mutual monitoring agreements. There are some other countries that certainly have the technology - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, to pick the most capable, however, I'd have to believe there would be a concerted effort by the US to discourage such a destabilizing event, (in spite of Pres. Trump's ignorant (IMO) pronouncements about other countries developing nuclear weapons.

All this is just my opinion of course, but I've spent time working in this field.

[peterc100248]

The danger today is the sale of materials, or even complete weapons on the black market. North Korea comes to mind. I think it might be a dangerous stretch to assume Iran's nuclear capability has been curtailed in any way. After all, our previous president seemed driven to deliver money to Iran.

Countries without navies - specifically SSBNs, are going to have a very difficult time presenting a credible nuclear threat. Submarines remain the single most effective way to deliver strike or counter-strike. Manned bombers are still effective, but are vulnerable on bases. During the Cold War, a percentage of the strategic manned bomber forces was always airborne. Defending a large number of targets against MIRV type submarine missiles is going to take a considerable percentage of a countries GNP. I spent a bunch of years in that field.

[Dysta]

And nuclear waste isn't as regulated as new fuel form of radioactive material. Mafias are keep dumping them illegally which also becomes an opportunity to other countries who'd use them for making tard-bombs. It doesn't have the power of explosion, but to contaminate the target with radioactivity is just as destructive as proper nukes.

All the scary things can runs behind the light, no matter how cooperated the regulation globally. This is one of the reason why nuclear disarmament is very difficult to agree in common terms.

[mikmykWS]

I've always felt like you can't really stop anybody from getting the bomb if there is a will to do it. Better off with peace through deterrence which has worked. Peter explained MAD nicely.

Agree with Dysta though in that nobody should be helped by folks not taking care of their business. You can look at pictures of many Kola ports and have a good idea of how contaminated and loosely guarded these places are. Anybody want to be that in many cases the contamination is probably doing the guarding:)? You can probably make the assumption that there are lots of old airfields and munitions dumps throughout the old empire that are probably like this.

Mike

[peterc100248]

Yes...It makes you ill to take a Google Earth tour of all the old Soviet navy bases. Abandoned ships and subs - many nuclear, just rusting away.