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fallout

this example serves to show the importance of getting the lowest possible neutron background and of assembling the core with the maximum velocity…

Example for the effects of a nuclear explosion:

The high speed photography series of a test house (below) shows a wood-frame house exposed to a nuclear blast at the Nevada Test Site. The test was Upshot-Knothole Annie, a 16 Kt tower shot, on 17 March 1953. The house is 1100 meters from ground zero. The blast over pressure was 5 psi, and the blast wave created surface winds of 160 mph.

Dr. Strangelove is a 1964 movie that was produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is a black comedy whose story line is remarkably close to the much more serious movie Fail-Safe.  Dr. Strangelove is based on the serious novel Red Alert by Peter George. Kubrick decided to turn the story into a comedy.

Peter Sellers plays three people in this film. He's Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and German born scientist Dr. Strangelove.

The story shows the absurdities of the nuclear arms race and officials of both The United States and The Soviet Union are presented almost as comic caricatures of highly placed government bureaucrats.

The story opens with Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), Commanding General of Burpelson Air Force Base ordering his B52 bombers, which are at their fail safe points, to attack the Soviet Union. He then orders his base sealed off and all outside communications cut off.

Meanwhile, on board the B52 Leper Colony, Major Kong (Slim Pickens) is reading Playboy and napping when he's informed by the radio operator that they'd just gotten a message of their CRM-114 receiver that decoded as Wing Attack Plan R. At first the Major doesn't believe it but soon verifies the message himself.

One person to look for in the airplane scenes is James Earl Jones in his first movie role. He plays Lieutenant Luthar Zogg, the bombardier.

President Merkin Muffley meets with generals and other government officials in the War Room. One of the more interesting characters in the movie is Air Force General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott). He admits to the president that, while there seems to be a slight flaw in Plan R, the plan itself is basically sound. He continues to defend the policies and procedures of the armed forces even while the planes are on their way toward the Soviet Union. He advises the president to send in even more planes since there doesn't seem to be any way of recalling the first group.

The president orders the army to attack Burpelson Air Force Base and to get General Ripper to call him. Since the base is on Condition Red, it is defended by security personnel against any and all attempts by any unit to gain entry to the base. General Ripper himself pulls a machine gun out of a golf bag and orders Group Captain Mandrake to help him repel the army attack. Mandrake, meanwhile, tries to get Ripper to tell him the recall code for the bombers but Ripper refuses.

The president, while talking to the Soviet Premier, discovers that the Russians have built a doomsday machine that will automatically trigger itself in the case of nuclear attack, spreading Cobalt Thorium G around the world, killing all plant and animal life. The Soviet Ambassador explains that they built it because they'd read in The New York Times that the U.S. was working on one and they were afraid of a doomsday gap. The president assured him that it wasn't true.

The army took over Burpelson Air Force Base. Mandrake has figured out what the recall code is and he contacts the president ant the Pentagon he and his generals have been trying to help the Soviets shoot down the bombers. The recall prefix is OPE, a variation of Purity of Essence that General Ripper was so worried about. He felt that the communists were sapping the precious bodily fluids of everyone in the country through the fluoridation of water.

The recall code works for all the bombers except the Leper Colony. A missile exploded near the plane, causing the CRM-114 to self-destruct. Since the officials know where it's going, they assume they can knock it down. They don't know that the plane is losing fuel and has to divert to the nearest target of opportunity. Naturally, they get through and drop a nuclear bomb.

Dr. Strangelove suggests a plan where they could preserve the human race by building a community of a few hundred thousand people in a space created in one of our deepest mine shafts where they would have to live for 100 years. General Turgidson, still worried about the Russians, suggests that they can't allow a mine shaft gap.

Trinity - the first atomic explosion in the world

Trinity, (code name for Jornada del Muerto, south New Mexico), 16th of july, 1945. The time is 05:29 h 40 sec am. In the control center, 900 meters away from the tower that carries the trinity bomb, Sam Allison is counting: 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 -

ZERO - it was only a cry - then there was this silence, that seem to last an infinity. And in this millionth second of silence, you only heard the love whisper of the toads of Trinity...

Then a gleaming light flashed across the darkness, a flaming lightning shoots up into the sky and turned to a blinding bell of fire. It was exactly 5:29:45. For a split of a second, the light of this fireball was brighter than all suns; the temperature in its center was 10.000 times higher than the sun surface. The pressure, that acted on the ground was more than 100 billion atmospheres, the strongest pressure ever generated on earth.

Within a millionth second the fireball catched the earth; after 25 milliseconds is was as large as the Washington Monument, and after 8 tenth of a second, the white gleaming ball attained the high of the Empire State Building.

The power of 20.000 tons TNT got free in this moment. At an altitude of 200 meters, the foaming ball that was still shooting up into the atmosphere turned into red-yellow, than blood-red color. At an altitude of 4.500 meters, the fireball broke through the cloud cover - first orange-red, then in a darker getting pink color. A few seconds later, it attained an final altitude of 12.000 meters and started to flow into a giantic ring of grey ash. The surrounding air was ionzed and crowned the ring with the shine of a crimson halo. As the cloud finally got some peace, the smoke pillar was driven to the north and a pink glow colored the sky over Trinity.

The Ivy Test Series: First thermonuclear explosion on the Enewetok Atoll 1952

The test series conducted to demonstrate high yield weapon designs.

Ivy Mike

Ivy Mike detonated on 10/31/1952. It was a 10.4 Megatons two stage thermonuclear surface burst, the first H-Bomb that was ever tested. Test area was the island of Elugelab/Flora on the Eniwetok atoll, Marshall islands. The explosion caused a crater, 6240 feet across (= 1.5 kilometers) and 164 feet deep (=53 meters), Elugelab/Flora was destroyed by the test.

    Ivy Mike before the detonation: The weight of this bomb was 65 tons and it had to be constantly cooled down on a very low temperature.

   Explosion of Ivy Mike

  View of Elugelab before and after the explosion

home delivery

In memory of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima, 6th of august 1945, 09:15 h am: Tom Feerebee in the aircraft "Enola Gay" drops the bomb "Little Boy". It detonates after 45 seconds 600 meters above the town. For more than 6 hours, Hiroshima is in flames. More than 98.000 humans die.

Nagasaki, 9th of august 1945, 12:01 h am: "Book's Car" falls 9000 meters on Nagasaki. Approximate 100.000 Japanese are killed or multilated in the firestorm. The bomb strikes a crater of one and a half square kilometers into the town, exterminates factorys, temples and houses with an explosion-wave of never before seen violence. Still after 12 hours, Nagasaki is a sea of flames, enveloped in sharp smoke, that rises slowly above the town.

On the 2nd of september 1945, Japan capitulates.

If in Germany, the 2nd World War would have lasted 3 month longer, these bombs would have been determined for Hamburg or Berlin.

The nuclear age has started with dead and ruin; for many survivals of the attacs from Hiroshima and Nagasaki it meant a painful infirmity...

breakfast is included...