https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/magazine/nuclear-strategy-proud-prophet.html
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Get ready for this kind of shit to become the norm.
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Wow… it’s radium water all over again!
A technician at Bruce Nuclear Power found an old radium water jar at an antique sale a (long) while back. He decided to take it into work to test it. The jar set off the portal scanner from 30 feet away.
It might have been a useful PSA to describe “survey” studies as a place to go for summaries; minor quibble.
The DIY cloud chamber is cool. I totally failed to pull that one off in grade 7 using a peanut butter jar, despite the instructions from Scientific American’s amateur scientist (shattered the jar trying to drill a hole using the tools at the high school shop; the drill press was probably the wrong choice, learned a bit about clamping glass). My best enemy made one the next year, though…
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I was training mainly for the aftermath of the yellow blob
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Endless fun! Doing marches in protected gear and stuff! In the summer!
(Ugh, had to correct the year. 1985 was basic training.)
Anyway, the upshot was that when Chernobyl happened, we had the gear at hand to check the fallout. Turned out our are had practically nothing. So we had that going for us, which is nice.
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Would you please explain this a bit more? Looks fascinating but puzzling.
It’s from the NYTM article linked above.
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Thanks, I’ll have to read that on something bigger than a cell phone screen.
I can’t tell whether the archive link is complete or just a stub.
Very interesting anyway. Especially as some of Russia’s ICBM still use liquid fuels.
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Apart from all the obvious “sorry, this is just a little bit too insane to be seriously considered” arguments that can be made, there is a spot between 400 and 500 Mt where the atmosphere above the bomb sort of becomes the weak spot and then every Mt that’s added basically just vents into space. Not that this wouldn’t have effects, some of which would be felt back on Earth far, far away from the blast site.
But make no mistake, Teller would have built it if he had been given the resources. Eddie was just this kind of guy, you know?
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Because apparently the US hasn’t enough subs to sell surplus ones.
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The thing is… we already knew that. As soon as that pusillanimous little wanker Morrison announced the deal, standing between two men who couldn’t even remember his name, and the details became clear, everyone who knew anything about military procurement were saying that it couldn’t possibly work.
The newspapers and the Death Industry trade publications (like Foreign Policy) were all over how much of a game changer it was, and how it was aimed at destabilising China, and some pointed out that France was absolutely furious. The newspapers almost immediately started talking about the US “giving” nuclear subs to Australia. This was, of course, a lie. In fact, it was a lie twice over, because not only were we buying the subs, but the details said that we would buy them “if it didn’t impact the capabilities of the US naval forces.” And it was known to those whose job it was to know such things then that the US was behind on their submarine program, and almost certainly wouldn’t be able to keep up with their own projected needs.
So from the get-go, we were being told to anger another nation, change all our laws regarding nuclear non-proliferation, set up nuclear waste sites, all for the promise of buying submarines that probably couldn’t exist and we don’t have the industries to support or the training to man.
Morrison was sold a third-of-a-trillion dollar pup.
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Back in the mid-90’s, an ex-
submariner friend of mine was very enthusiastic about 
getting Upholder / Victoria class submarines. He called them “90% of the capability of a nuclear sub at a fraction of the cost”. As the Wikipedia article documents, the subs haven’t quite been the deal we hoped for.
Our south-of-the-border cousins have actually blocked in the past from purchasing nuclear submarines.
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