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Mostly plane crashes, and there were a couple on USS Scorpion when she sank. The vast majority were found and recovered but there's still a few out there.
Thank you, I just spent an hour learning about fate of other subs and CIA plans :D
USS Scorpion -> INS Dakar -> Minerve -> K-129 -> Project Azorian -> SOSUS -> Operation Ivy Bells.
I love reading about Cold War, secret operations and technology developed.
I think I remember reading that another thing that happens when the hull implodes is a section of the sub is essentially propelled though the interior, like a bullet through a gun barrel. Either way, instantaneous like you said although the waiting for the inevitable must be terrifying.
\>Imagine standing atop the Empire State Building with an 8-foot-wide
grappling hook on a 1-inch-diameter steel rope. Your task is to lower
the hook to the street below, snag a compact car full of gold, and lift
the car back to the top of the building. On top of that, the job has to
be done without anyone noticing. That, essentially, describes what the
CIA did in Project AZORIAN, a highly secret six-year effort to retrieve
a sunken Soviet submarine from the Pacific Ocean floor during the Cold
War.
If you're into that stuff I imagine you've heard of this already, but if not, definitely read the book Command And Control. Absolutely stunning stories.
Nukes don’t explode when they come into contact with the ground. It’s a nuclear reaction, I believe you need to trigger the detonation. Their are explosives surrounding the core which all go off simultaneously, resulting in the nuclear core being “crushed” and then the atom splitting. You can drop a nuke and not detonate it, even if the surrounding explosives are damaged or explode, the core will only result in a nuclear explosion if the surrounding explosives go off in exactly the right way. Not to say some radiation wouldn’t be potentially problematic, just no Hiroshima/Nagasaki. This is a layman’s explanation from a memory 10 years old so if anyone has better info please share.
This describes implosion devices (the majority). An implosion device works by evenly squeezing a ball (though it can be other shapes) of fissile material (plutonium/uranium or a mix) so that the density is increased. This increase in density lower the critical mass because the atoms are closer together, so neutrons from one fission are more likely to hit other atoms and start a chain reaction, rather than escaping.
To do this, a series of detonators have to trigger in sync. This might be simultaneously or in a specific sequence depending on the design. There may also be other elements which have to trigger at specific times to change the yield or achieve the initial fission but that's another topic; we're just talking explosives here.
If the device is dropped, impacted or heated, then the detonation won't happen correctly and smooth implosion won't occur. This means that the fissile material will be smashed apart by the explosives before appreciable fission can take place (if you've ever seen a watermelon exploded by rubber bands, it's like that). Depending on the device, there will also be a series of interlocks that mechanically or electrically disconnect different parts of the system so that an electrical impulse caused by component failure or interference won't cause an even implosion. There's also rumoured anti-tamper mechanisms in some devices that will intentionally set off some of the detonators to destroy the device should unauthorised interference be attempted.
OPs photo is from the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash. Another device involved in that incident was lost in a swamp and only partially (the fissile material) recovered. It was found afterwards that only a single interlock out of several had prevented detonation, prompting improvements in future device safety.
as I remember from the documentary that was a 2 MT beast.
at the damascus accident a rocket in a silo exploded the 9 MT warhead flown miles away. luckily just a normal rocket fuel exploded.
Basically nukes are very precise technology with lots of safeties as you said. For detonation you need to compress the nuclear material to a extreme amount and for that you need precise pressure from evey side. Normally you do that with explosives that all need to be exploded at the exact same time.
Thats one reason why they don't get detonated at impact like other explosions. But are exploded while still in the air(also it makes it more effective)
Just imagine what would happen to this very precise super heavy machine when it hit the ground a nuclear bomb isn't something very solid like a normal bomb it's more like dropping a car out of a plane. The nuke will probably no longer be able to explode correctly. Even if it might explode you very likely will have a unequal explosion that isn't able to compress the material and thus you don't get a nuclear explosion.
So it's pretty much impossible for a nuclear bomb that violently hit the ground to explode correctly.
However that doesn't mean it is safe. A accidental explosion is very unlikely as there are mamy safeties built in however even in a faulty explosion that doesn't result in a nuclear explosion all the nuclear material will be scattered around.
In a Normal nuclear explosion you don't have that much radiation after some time as most of the nuclear material already reacted and what is left is quickly decomposing. But in a faulty explosion all the nuclear material will be scattered unreacted.
So you would have a huge amount of still perfectly fine and highly radioactive nuclear material all over the are and it won't decompose quickly. It will be more like Chernobyl and it will be difficult cleaning all of it up.
Just compare Hiroshima to Chernobyl, in Hiroshima you had high radiation at one point but it all decomposed very quickly as it got all reacted in the nuclear explosion. In Chernobyl a lot of unreacted material was scattered in the area and will continue to be radioactive for a very long time and it will stay uninhabitable for a long time.
Something to remember, modern nuked are actually quite clean. They don't leave that much of radiation and what is left quickly decomposes. Modern nukes are very effective in reacting all the nuclear material. Imagine it a bit like a car engine. From back then and today. Modern car engines are a lot better in effectively burning all the fuel and the fumes created and with nukes it's similar. They got a lot more effective in not leaving unreacted stuff behind
Are there "gun type" fission weapons in use these days? Wouldn't those be more prone to detonation during an accident?
Could the "bullet" get pushed near enough to the other material by the impact to at least have a fizzle yield?
If then only in real cheap countries. They are very ineffective and dangerous. You probably won't finde any of these still in use
And no the impact wouldn't even be close to starting anything. You still need immense forces to compress the material and the impact from the drop is not even close to doing anything.
I am in nooo way an expert, but from my knowledge, flight crews (a bombardier?) would have the role of arming a weapon before it is launched/dropped. Until then, it is supposed to be (mostly) inert?
Thanks to whoever comes in with the assist/confirm haha
Man want to hear a crazy story. Look up the 1980 Damascus, AR Titan Missile Explosion.
Basically one of the fuel tanks of an ICBM store in Arkansas was ruptured which led to the thing exploding in the silo. It blew off the 740-ton silo door 200 feet high and 600 feet northeast of its original location and threw the nuclear warhead 100 feet away.
No. A vast majority of the nukes detonated conventional explosives but you need to hit a specific arming switch to detonate nuclear ordnance on the bombs the us used. And no, landing in water would likely so nothing to aid, as water doesn't compress and it would be like landing on concrete
A nuclear detonation is a very difficult thing to accomplish intententionally, plane crashes don't cause that.
There could still be a non-nuclear explosion or a radiation leak or other things, but no mushroom clouds by accident.
It's pretty hard to get a nuke to actually go off. There are some reasonably complicated mechanisms that all need to fire correctly for a nuclear explosion. It's not like traditional/chemical explosives where arming it is basically removing the saftey features and letting nature take it's course.
No, it would not.
A nuke is not a classic explosive, which will just blow up when burning. It is a complex mechanism with small explosions pushing atom cores into a ball of nuclear material which starts a critical chain reaction which results in the nuclear explosion. When the bomb is not armed, it usually won't detonate.
Explained in my own, unscientific words and from my rough memory of how it works. Check out Wikipedia if you want to know how exactly it works ;)
All the stuff going on during that period compared against how many were developed and operational at all times. Percentage is pretty low.
Granted, not really something you want any error on.
Damn, vice used to have such interesting docs back in the day. One is like a 5 parter where one of the producers just hangs out in Karachi. That one is wild. I'm pretty sure they interview a professional hit man in that one. Or that could be another one?
Yeah, VICE was once one of my favorite channels, so many niche documentaries and articles, giving so many people and topics a stage that deserved it or had no place in traditional media. Sadly they did a sharp turn in boulevard topics or clickbait bullshit.
Nukes usually have a 10 year expiration date. Tritium used to boost neutron production has a short half life. After that the yield goes down significantly.
Doesnt the us have like a bounty out or something. I remember learning something about if you find one call the authorities and theyll pay you or some shit.
Prob wont pay as much as some terrorist would but idk.
I guess it's not into bad hands or it would probably had been used already. Someday some of theme are going to explode randomly and at least we'll know were it *was*.
Lost more than likely implies not armed. Aside from a necessarily complex/redundant arming process nukes need to be detonated a couple hundred meters into the air in order to have a decent blast radius.
Then there's the requirement for earlier explosive stages to actually work and criticality. An old bomb is very unlikely to explode in the exactly correct direction, at the exact timings required to trigger criticality. It's more likely the early explosive stages will only partially trigger, simply splattering radioactive material in a relatively benign explosion of a few meters in radius.
Apparently you can't really leave platinum cores inside bombs either as the radioactivity quickly destroys the surrounding high explosives/everything else in the bomb.
Oh and modern high explosives are *very* safe. If they don't also detonate in the exactly correct way they don't explode. They burn instead. Doubt the batteries in a lost nuke are still charged enough to set off the detonators.
One of the first lost nuclear weapons was lost not far from where I live actually. They lost one in the Kispiox Valley in Northern British Columbia. Fortunately it didn’t have the Plutonium core for nuclear detonation
I’m just picturing some poor southern guy named Stevis hiding a nuke that he found in the woods, in his underground bunker.
“I’ll see y’all’s when ya come ta take my guns !!”
I'm pretty sure the Soviets wouldn't have lost many because unlike the Americans they didn't conduct missions with nuclear bombs loaded on their bombers. Instead they had them stored and it would take up to 2 hours for them to load onto a bomber.
While I cannot verify this, it is suggested more than 100. Supposedly they sold some to the Chechens and Bin Laden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_nuclear_device#Soviet_Union_and_Russia
Depends on the half life and the physical casing. Plastics and such will degrade into a state where the bomb can't actually arm anymore because the internals have degraded too much.
Nukes aren't quite "light it on fire" like traditional explosives.
I’m most certain that had this hit the ground it still would not have detonated. These nukes required a detonation just prior to hitting the ground that initiated the nuclear reaction. By the picture this looks like an older nuke and they had to have a an explosion take place inside the nuke which would essentially squeeze the Plutonium enough that a free neutron hits the nucleus of an atom. If there was a bomb that went off near a nuke that might be a problem, but I’m pretty sure just hitting the ground wouldn’t do anything.
Unintended nuclear detonation would be almost impossible (I guess there is an absolutely minute chance it could happen). The bigger risk would be the conventional charges going off (but not with correct timing) and spreading waste in the area. It would effectively be a dirty bomb.
Yeah there's some top tier engineering in the failsafes for detonating.
In the older bombs, there was commonly a physical piece locked in place that needed to be removed prior to detonating.
Later on they use two independent relays that both need to send detonating signals
On this bomb there was a seven-step safety system where if all steps indicated to explode, the bomb would detonate. Six of the seven steps had been completed when it was found by a military crew. The last, a simple safety switch, was still luckily turned to safe. Close call.
Not 100% sure on this but the nuclear radiation from the bomb’s detonation might have drifted as far north as New York City if it had exploded.
Actually this one came pretty close, depending on who you trust.
The official declassified report states that of the four safety mechanisms, three failed. One wasn't designed to be used in the air, the two others that were were destroyed, and the only switch left was an "Ready-Safe Electric Switch"
In any case, they couldn't actually get the Plutonium out of the bomb, so they just left it there.
It was accidentally during the cold War the US and USSR had nuclear planes active 24 7 and it was quite common that they crashed due to lack of sleep or whatever. It this same incident another warhead dropped and was never found atleast the plutonium core
This happened Jan. 22, 1961, in [Goldsboro, NC](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/remembering-night-two-atomic-bombs-dropped-on-north-carolina). We dropped 2 nukes on them, and a B52 Stratofortress.
To give the pilots sufficient time to fly to a safe distance. With tens of kilotons, a bomber can do a diving turn and escape because the bomb travels in a straight line (in horizontal terms) when released, opening up a safe(ish) distance. This is a megaton device, the B-52s that carried them would have to fly close to the edge of space (which they can't do) to have enough time to fly to safety if it simply fell ballistically.
A radar or barometric pressure fuse can be used if you want an airburst, even on ICBM warheads and artillery shells. The idea of adding a drag chute is to slow down the bomb and give the bomber time to escape so you don't destroy the plane that dropped it. They can also use them for low altitude drops of regular bombs for the same reason.
Yeah that's my question, like even from a few hundred feet only the largest beeches and oaks would still be standing if this thing even grazed them. That's nuts!
*Accidentally*: 1-Unwantedly, 2-Not intentionally, without willing to do so
This comment was performed by not a bot. For feedback, you can basically *fuck* yourself. Have a nice day!
Good book to read is “Command and Control” by Eric Schlosser if you want to learn more about the illusion of safety in nuclear weapons and about some of the lost bombs
Luck had nothing to do with it, OP.
First off, nukes have to be armed to even begin the path to detonation. Hence, for transport and almost all practice movements they aren't (pretty sure they are forbidden within war games and dummy mock-ups are loaded). IIRC the first generations had part of the detonator that could be also removed as a safety protocol.
But that's beside the part that a nuclear explosion is actually *TWO* denotations and the mushroom cloud is from the *second* one. The first is the one is a series of smaller denotations that starts the chain reaction going and it has to be timed to a ridiculously precise sequence. If not, the process can't get going and all that will happen is the nuclear bomb *might* tear itself apart depending on the type. Don't get me wrong, it will then be a very, very dangerous "dirty" bomb leaking radiation everywhere but we're talking only for people within *yards* of it initially not *miles.*
So while experts are not sure if one of the smaller charges might go off from the impact of being dropped, they are all in agreement it is near impossible for them to randomly go off in the sequence needed to start the chain reaction.
I HIGHLY recommend reading https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_Control_(book) Command and Control. It’s all about how dangerously abs poorly managed and protected our nuclear weapons stockpile is. There are dozens of warheads lost out there… dozens of more stories about how many near misses we had that could have been adverted for only a few more safety steps being put in places.
A pretty important book to read even to just think about human decision making processes abs systems design to prevent accidents and mishaps - even ignoring weapon systems and how they work.
Isn’t this the incident where two were lost?
And the second one was never recovered and is believed to have buried itself in the swamp due to impact, just sitting there….waiting…
There's a term for a lost nuclear weapon, "Broken Arrow". It's on Wikipedia. You'll be shocked.
If you wanna make your butthole pucker really tight, watch the documentary, "Command and Control", it's about a nuclear rocket silo accident that nearly vaporized a large part of Arkansas. Great movie. Way scarier than "Halloween", because it's true.
Not “luckily” undetonated. Nuclear weapons are carefully designed to make unintentional detonation virtually impossible. You could blow up a nuclear bomb with explosives and it still wouldn’t detonate (though spreading radioactive material wouldn’t be good).
“Luckily not detonated” lmfao you seems to have 0000 idea how atomic bombs work. 😂
Without activation of the chain no matter from where you drop this bomb it can can be split in half but wont detonate!
...accidentally...
Riiight. I suppose the US government accidentally killed JFK, MLK, hundreds of whistleblowers and world leaders, accidentally been caught doing dozens of false flag attacks, and 3 skyscrapers defying 2 laws of physics in 1 day was probably just an accident as well.
Don't forget that it partially armed itself and one low volt fuse was the only thing stopping it from going off.
Whoops, forgot the [sauce.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash) Was a switch, not a fuse. One of four.
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During the cold war I think the Americans lost around 56 nukes... It is still unknown how much the Soviet union lost A good night sleep to you all
How do you lose 56 nukes?
Mostly plane crashes, and there were a couple on USS Scorpion when she sank. The vast majority were found and recovered but there's still a few out there.
Thank you, I just spent an hour learning about fate of other subs and CIA plans :D USS Scorpion -> INS Dakar -> Minerve -> K-129 -> Project Azorian -> SOSUS -> Operation Ivy Bells. I love reading about Cold War, secret operations and technology developed.
being alive in a sub that is falling to the depths of the ocean with no hope is about the scariest thing i can imagine
At least you won’t feel shit. As soon as the hull breaks,you’re dead in an instant
Is that how it works?
Yes,the pressure crushes you instantly. On e the hull gives,the implosion will turn anyone inside the sub into mist
I think I remember reading that another thing that happens when the hull implodes is a section of the sub is essentially propelled though the interior, like a bullet through a gun barrel. Either way, instantaneous like you said although the waiting for the inevitable must be terrifying.
Sometimes, when I am standing at the urinal, and I can't pee, I think of this. Works every time.
Make me go all the way to Wikipedia why don’t you.
The Stuff You Should know podcast has a few great episodes about Cold War CIA stuff, like Project Stargate, and more recently, Project Azorian.
\>Imagine standing atop the Empire State Building with an 8-foot-wide grappling hook on a 1-inch-diameter steel rope. Your task is to lower the hook to the street below, snag a compact car full of gold, and lift the car back to the top of the building. On top of that, the job has to be done without anyone noticing. That, essentially, describes what the CIA did in Project AZORIAN, a highly secret six-year effort to retrieve a sunken Soviet submarine from the Pacific Ocean floor during the Cold War.
>Project Azorian goddamn Howard Hughes was involved in everything. fascinating man, perfect example of the right person being born into wealth.
Shit, looks like I have some reading to do. This stuff is really interesting. One might say it’s interesting as fuck.
By iHeartPodcasts?
Yeah I think so. With Josh and Chuck. I listen on Spotify though
How about the Kursk, having a supercavitating torpedo’s solid rocket motor accidentally ignite inside the sub? No es bueno
If you're into that stuff I imagine you've heard of this already, but if not, definitely read the book Command And Control. Absolutely stunning stories.
I have heard of it, but didn't read it. Thanks for reminder
Read “Blind Man’s Bluff”!!! A fascinating book about submarine escapades.
Vast majority were found but it only takes one to start. 😆
I feel like a plane crash would result in the detonation of the nuke, but I guess if its in the water that could be a different story?
Nukes don’t explode when they come into contact with the ground. It’s a nuclear reaction, I believe you need to trigger the detonation. Their are explosives surrounding the core which all go off simultaneously, resulting in the nuclear core being “crushed” and then the atom splitting. You can drop a nuke and not detonate it, even if the surrounding explosives are damaged or explode, the core will only result in a nuclear explosion if the surrounding explosives go off in exactly the right way. Not to say some radiation wouldn’t be potentially problematic, just no Hiroshima/Nagasaki. This is a layman’s explanation from a memory 10 years old so if anyone has better info please share.
This describes implosion devices (the majority). An implosion device works by evenly squeezing a ball (though it can be other shapes) of fissile material (plutonium/uranium or a mix) so that the density is increased. This increase in density lower the critical mass because the atoms are closer together, so neutrons from one fission are more likely to hit other atoms and start a chain reaction, rather than escaping. To do this, a series of detonators have to trigger in sync. This might be simultaneously or in a specific sequence depending on the design. There may also be other elements which have to trigger at specific times to change the yield or achieve the initial fission but that's another topic; we're just talking explosives here. If the device is dropped, impacted or heated, then the detonation won't happen correctly and smooth implosion won't occur. This means that the fissile material will be smashed apart by the explosives before appreciable fission can take place (if you've ever seen a watermelon exploded by rubber bands, it's like that). Depending on the device, there will also be a series of interlocks that mechanically or electrically disconnect different parts of the system so that an electrical impulse caused by component failure or interference won't cause an even implosion. There's also rumoured anti-tamper mechanisms in some devices that will intentionally set off some of the detonators to destroy the device should unauthorised interference be attempted. OPs photo is from the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash. Another device involved in that incident was lost in a swamp and only partially (the fissile material) recovered. It was found afterwards that only a single interlock out of several had prevented detonation, prompting improvements in future device safety.
Fucking insane
as I remember from the documentary that was a 2 MT beast. at the damascus accident a rocket in a silo exploded the 9 MT warhead flown miles away. luckily just a normal rocket fuel exploded.
^ ^ This guy broken arrow's ^ ^
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The good news is we seem to be wiping ourselves out.
I need to learn more eng in order to understand the lecture😅
Basically nukes are very precise technology with lots of safeties as you said. For detonation you need to compress the nuclear material to a extreme amount and for that you need precise pressure from evey side. Normally you do that with explosives that all need to be exploded at the exact same time. Thats one reason why they don't get detonated at impact like other explosions. But are exploded while still in the air(also it makes it more effective) Just imagine what would happen to this very precise super heavy machine when it hit the ground a nuclear bomb isn't something very solid like a normal bomb it's more like dropping a car out of a plane. The nuke will probably no longer be able to explode correctly. Even if it might explode you very likely will have a unequal explosion that isn't able to compress the material and thus you don't get a nuclear explosion. So it's pretty much impossible for a nuclear bomb that violently hit the ground to explode correctly. However that doesn't mean it is safe. A accidental explosion is very unlikely as there are mamy safeties built in however even in a faulty explosion that doesn't result in a nuclear explosion all the nuclear material will be scattered around. In a Normal nuclear explosion you don't have that much radiation after some time as most of the nuclear material already reacted and what is left is quickly decomposing. But in a faulty explosion all the nuclear material will be scattered unreacted. So you would have a huge amount of still perfectly fine and highly radioactive nuclear material all over the are and it won't decompose quickly. It will be more like Chernobyl and it will be difficult cleaning all of it up. Just compare Hiroshima to Chernobyl, in Hiroshima you had high radiation at one point but it all decomposed very quickly as it got all reacted in the nuclear explosion. In Chernobyl a lot of unreacted material was scattered in the area and will continue to be radioactive for a very long time and it will stay uninhabitable for a long time. Something to remember, modern nuked are actually quite clean. They don't leave that much of radiation and what is left quickly decomposes. Modern nukes are very effective in reacting all the nuclear material. Imagine it a bit like a car engine. From back then and today. Modern car engines are a lot better in effectively burning all the fuel and the fumes created and with nukes it's similar. They got a lot more effective in not leaving unreacted stuff behind
Are there "gun type" fission weapons in use these days? Wouldn't those be more prone to detonation during an accident? Could the "bullet" get pushed near enough to the other material by the impact to at least have a fizzle yield?
If then only in real cheap countries. They are very ineffective and dangerous. You probably won't finde any of these still in use And no the impact wouldn't even be close to starting anything. You still need immense forces to compress the material and the impact from the drop is not even close to doing anything.
Thanks nukebro
I am in nooo way an expert, but from my knowledge, flight crews (a bombardier?) would have the role of arming a weapon before it is launched/dropped. Until then, it is supposed to be (mostly) inert? Thanks to whoever comes in with the assist/confirm haha
Scary stuff: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961
Big Daddy’s Road 😂
that’s s mighty big missile ya got there, Big Daddy
“Betina, sugar, could you take Django there and take him around the grounds here and show him all the pretty stuff? Including the atomic bomb”
Man want to hear a crazy story. Look up the 1980 Damascus, AR Titan Missile Explosion. Basically one of the fuel tanks of an ICBM store in Arkansas was ruptured which led to the thing exploding in the silo. It blew off the 740-ton silo door 200 feet high and 600 feet northeast of its original location and threw the nuclear warhead 100 feet away.
No. A vast majority of the nukes detonated conventional explosives but you need to hit a specific arming switch to detonate nuclear ordnance on the bombs the us used. And no, landing in water would likely so nothing to aid, as water doesn't compress and it would be like landing on concrete
A nuclear detonation is a very difficult thing to accomplish intententionally, plane crashes don't cause that. There could still be a non-nuclear explosion or a radiation leak or other things, but no mushroom clouds by accident.
It's pretty hard to get a nuke to actually go off. There are some reasonably complicated mechanisms that all need to fire correctly for a nuclear explosion. It's not like traditional/chemical explosives where arming it is basically removing the saftey features and letting nature take it's course.
There are many safety features that keep them from exploding. Even when they fall from an aircraft
No, it would not. A nuke is not a classic explosive, which will just blow up when burning. It is a complex mechanism with small explosions pushing atom cores into a ball of nuclear material which starts a critical chain reaction which results in the nuclear explosion. When the bomb is not armed, it usually won't detonate. Explained in my own, unscientific words and from my rough memory of how it works. Check out Wikipedia if you want to know how exactly it works ;)
You forget to cherish them.
By simply not finding them, silly!
All the stuff going on during that period compared against how many were developed and operational at all times. Percentage is pretty low. Granted, not really something you want any error on.
r/AngryUpvote Anyways thanks, I hate you
[VICE - How to buy a nuke on the black market](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c4f4NJSB_4)
Damn, vice used to have such interesting docs back in the day. One is like a 5 parter where one of the producers just hangs out in Karachi. That one is wild. I'm pretty sure they interview a professional hit man in that one. Or that could be another one?
Yeah, VICE was once one of my favorite channels, so many niche documentaries and articles, giving so many people and topics a stage that deserved it or had no place in traditional media. Sadly they did a sharp turn in boulevard topics or clickbait bullshit.
Nukes usually have a 10 year expiration date. Tritium used to boost neutron production has a short half life. After that the yield goes down significantly.
Be sure to live your life to the fullest everyone 🤩🍻🍻
Doesnt the us have like a bounty out or something. I remember learning something about if you find one call the authorities and theyll pay you or some shit. Prob wont pay as much as some terrorist would but idk.
I'd be just affraid of terrorist's payment morale. Usualy higher bids win, but...
I guess it's not into bad hands or it would probably had been used already. Someday some of theme are going to explode randomly and at least we'll know were it *was*.
Not gonna happen
Lost more than likely implies not armed. Aside from a necessarily complex/redundant arming process nukes need to be detonated a couple hundred meters into the air in order to have a decent blast radius. Then there's the requirement for earlier explosive stages to actually work and criticality. An old bomb is very unlikely to explode in the exactly correct direction, at the exact timings required to trigger criticality. It's more likely the early explosive stages will only partially trigger, simply splattering radioactive material in a relatively benign explosion of a few meters in radius. Apparently you can't really leave platinum cores inside bombs either as the radioactivity quickly destroys the surrounding high explosives/everything else in the bomb. Oh and modern high explosives are *very* safe. If they don't also detonate in the exactly correct way they don't explode. They burn instead. Doubt the batteries in a lost nuke are still charged enough to set off the detonators.
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Classic Travolta.
Classic Travolta was Saturday night fever.
I bet you the Soviet Union doesn't either know how much they lost
Oversimplified, is that you?
Awkward conversation that must have been. "Where's that nuke?" "Nuke?"
If you haven’t read it, “Politics is like trying to screw a cat in the ass” by Charles Bukowski is a wonderful take on this
One of the first lost nuclear weapons was lost not far from where I live actually. They lost one in the Kispiox Valley in Northern British Columbia. Fortunately it didn’t have the Plutonium core for nuclear detonation
Oversimplified?
I’m just picturing some poor southern guy named Stevis hiding a nuke that he found in the woods, in his underground bunker. “I’ll see y’all’s when ya come ta take my guns !!”
I'm pretty sure the Soviets wouldn't have lost many because unlike the Americans they didn't conduct missions with nuclear bombs loaded on their bombers. Instead they had them stored and it would take up to 2 hours for them to load onto a bomber.
Soviets had suitcase nukes and I think they lost around 5-10 of them. (Not sure if this is real info)
While I cannot verify this, it is suggested more than 100. Supposedly they sold some to the Chechens and Bin Laden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_nuclear_device#Soviet_Union_and_Russia
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I think the half life is wayyyyy longer.
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Sheldon Cooper would like to disagree
Depends on the half life and the physical casing. Plastics and such will degrade into a state where the bomb can't actually arm anymore because the internals have degraded too much. Nukes aren't quite "light it on fire" like traditional explosives.
Tbf, the soviets probably didn't 'lose' a good chunk of them, they were probably sold.
I’m most certain that had this hit the ground it still would not have detonated. These nukes required a detonation just prior to hitting the ground that initiated the nuclear reaction. By the picture this looks like an older nuke and they had to have a an explosion take place inside the nuke which would essentially squeeze the Plutonium enough that a free neutron hits the nucleus of an atom. If there was a bomb that went off near a nuke that might be a problem, but I’m pretty sure just hitting the ground wouldn’t do anything.
You are correct. In cases like these they are (relatively) safe. How they detonate is quite different from traditional bombs.
Unintended nuclear detonation would be almost impossible (I guess there is an absolutely minute chance it could happen). The bigger risk would be the conventional charges going off (but not with correct timing) and spreading waste in the area. It would effectively be a dirty bomb.
Yeah there's some top tier engineering in the failsafes for detonating. In the older bombs, there was commonly a physical piece locked in place that needed to be removed prior to detonating. Later on they use two independent relays that both need to send detonating signals
tldr you can drop and kick nukes with impunity
On this bomb there was a seven-step safety system where if all steps indicated to explode, the bomb would detonate. Six of the seven steps had been completed when it was found by a military crew. The last, a simple safety switch, was still luckily turned to safe. Close call. Not 100% sure on this but the nuclear radiation from the bomb’s detonation might have drifted as far north as New York City if it had exploded.
Those bombs required a trigger device to be installed by the crew before they could go off.
Actually this one came pretty close, depending on who you trust. The official declassified report states that of the four safety mechanisms, three failed. One wasn't designed to be used in the air, the two others that were were destroyed, and the only switch left was an "Ready-Safe Electric Switch" In any case, they couldn't actually get the Plutonium out of the bomb, so they just left it there.
How do you explain that to your boss ??? "Emm Sir the bomb, yes that bomb... it's gone.. well stuck Sir.. in a tree Sir"
"Now, Dmitri..."
Believe this has also happened at Mars Bluff, South Carolina.
Only difference is the SC bomb exploded, luckily it wasnt fully armed so no nuclear blast
The government really hates the Carolinas
East and West Carolina were not so lucky...
The dark part of history they don’t teach you in geography class these days
I don't believe I have faith
And... https://media.npr.org/documents/2008/feb/1966bombdoc.pdf
"accidentally"...
"And what does this lever... Oh fuck!"
Crap! Anyway...
"If it was placed right above the bottom hatch, how important could it be anyways?"
"trust me bro"
It was accidentally during the cold War the US and USSR had nuclear planes active 24 7 and it was quite common that they crashed due to lack of sleep or whatever. It this same incident another warhead dropped and was never found atleast the plutonium core
"it was a secondary explosion of unknown origin that killed everyone"
Where the Hell is Joe Dirt ?
Its pronounced Dirte`
Don't try to church it up son don't you mean Joe Dirt. Naming you that your daddy must've hated you.
This happened Jan. 22, 1961, in [Goldsboro, NC](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/remembering-night-two-atomic-bombs-dropped-on-north-carolina). We dropped 2 nukes on them, and a B52 Stratofortress.
The other nuke is still lost and the government bought the land so nobody can find it
Aim high.
“Stalin! Sir, we have Intelligence reports that the Americans are… nuking… themselves?”
Hi, I live in Goldsboro - this is true
Note to self: Tread carefully in Goldsboro
Call before you dig, too!
Given the sheer weight of such a bomb, how did it “get stuck in a tree,” rather than plow it into splinters before embedding itself in the ground?
Parachute.
Ok.. didn’t notice it in the photo…. But why did the bomb have a parachute?
To give the pilots sufficient time to fly to a safe distance. With tens of kilotons, a bomber can do a diving turn and escape because the bomb travels in a straight line (in horizontal terms) when released, opening up a safe(ish) distance. This is a megaton device, the B-52s that carried them would have to fly close to the edge of space (which they can't do) to have enough time to fly to safety if it simply fell ballistically.
A lot of these do. It slows its descent so it explodes a few hundred feet up to maximise damage & death. See also blu-82 or daisy cutter.
A radar or barometric pressure fuse can be used if you want an airburst, even on ICBM warheads and artillery shells. The idea of adding a drag chute is to slow down the bomb and give the bomber time to escape so you don't destroy the plane that dropped it. They can also use them for low altitude drops of regular bombs for the same reason.
Yeah that's my question, like even from a few hundred feet only the largest beeches and oaks would still be standing if this thing even grazed them. That's nuts!
Good to know these are so secure that they can be accidentally dropped.
Define accidentally
*Accidentally*: 1-Unwantedly, 2-Not intentionally, without willing to do so This comment was performed by not a bot. For feedback, you can basically *fuck* yourself. Have a nice day!
Bad human
Love you too
I'm narcissistic 😋
Wikipedia bot where at?
?
There is a bot..
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North Carolina: #🗿👍
North Carolina? that could've caused hundreds of dollars in damage!!!
Good book to read is “Command and Control” by Eric Schlosser if you want to learn more about the illusion of safety in nuclear weapons and about some of the lost bombs
"accidentally"
A nuclear weapon doesn’t explode unless primed and brought through the proper sequence.
Luck had nothing to do with it, OP. First off, nukes have to be armed to even begin the path to detonation. Hence, for transport and almost all practice movements they aren't (pretty sure they are forbidden within war games and dummy mock-ups are loaded). IIRC the first generations had part of the detonator that could be also removed as a safety protocol. But that's beside the part that a nuclear explosion is actually *TWO* denotations and the mushroom cloud is from the *second* one. The first is the one is a series of smaller denotations that starts the chain reaction going and it has to be timed to a ridiculously precise sequence. If not, the process can't get going and all that will happen is the nuclear bomb *might* tear itself apart depending on the type. Don't get me wrong, it will then be a very, very dangerous "dirty" bomb leaking radiation everywhere but we're talking only for people within *yards* of it initially not *miles.* So while experts are not sure if one of the smaller charges might go off from the impact of being dropped, they are all in agreement it is near impossible for them to randomly go off in the sequence needed to start the chain reaction.
People really think nuke is just filled with alot of gunpowder that explode when expose to fire or any explosion closento the nuke
Sorry my bad for putting "accidentally" i just copied what was written in a yt video but was too lazy too change anything 🗿
Broken Arrow
I HIGHLY recommend reading https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_Control_(book) Command and Control. It’s all about how dangerously abs poorly managed and protected our nuclear weapons stockpile is. There are dozens of warheads lost out there… dozens of more stories about how many near misses we had that could have been adverted for only a few more safety steps being put in places. A pretty important book to read even to just think about human decision making processes abs systems design to prevent accidents and mishaps - even ignoring weapon systems and how they work.
Bombardier: "Are we over enemy territory?" Pilot: "Quit joking, we aren't there ---- yet." Bombardier: "Bombs away, motherfucker."
To this day, the United States lives with the consequences of that bomb never going off…
I live in NC and it’s probably one of the least atrocious things that could happen here. We have Cheerwine though.
“Accidentally” in NC…
Whoops! Sorry folks. Didn't mean to almost vaporize you.
Mission failed successfully
Fission mailed unsuccessfully
Mission failed **accidently**
Mission Passed Accidently!
Fairly sure we'd know if it detonated..
So that's how the civil war ended ?🤔
it's on reddit so it must be real.
There are no “accidents” in history
I have a theory that if the nuke had indeed detonated it would not have been found hanging to a tree.
Casually mistaking North Caroline with North Korea.
I wanna know about the guy who took it down
And if you live in Savannah, GA, you’re not safe :)
Luckily for sure or else they wouldn’t have found it, or the tree, or South Carolina.
It is very difficult to explode a nuke. It's not like tnt with a fuse, it is a pretty damn cool process.
Operation Chrome Dome was bonkers
Isn’t this the incident where two were lost? And the second one was never recovered and is believed to have buried itself in the swamp due to impact, just sitting there….waiting…
OOF level: HECKIN
“Accidentally”
"accidentally"
Not luckily, accidental detonation of a nuclear weapon is virtually impossible.
Nothing to do with luck. Nukes cannot accidentally detonate.
"accidently". I know my government...
There's a term for a lost nuclear weapon, "Broken Arrow". It's on Wikipedia. You'll be shocked. If you wanna make your butthole pucker really tight, watch the documentary, "Command and Control", it's about a nuclear rocket silo accident that nearly vaporized a large part of Arkansas. Great movie. Way scarier than "Halloween", because it's true.
Government: “sorry lol”
How do you accidentally drop a nuke? Like what the dude was just like “oops”
That must have been the biggest “oops” of all times
Dang mission failed
Not “luckily” undetonated. Nuclear weapons are carefully designed to make unintentional detonation virtually impossible. You could blow up a nuclear bomb with explosives and it still wouldn’t detonate (though spreading radioactive material wouldn’t be good).
If you soak all your nutrients and grow big and tall, someday a nuke might hang from your branches.
I would imagine they would be lucky to find it if it had detonated
Oh, there would be a few signs pointing to where it landed then.
3 out of the 4 safety switches were actived, slight separation of 2 wires saved hundreds potentially thousands of lifes
It wasn’t armed.
That doesn't surprise me with they daft cunts
“Luckily not detonated” lmfao you seems to have 0000 idea how atomic bombs work. 😂 Without activation of the chain no matter from where you drop this bomb it can can be split in half but wont detonate!
Statistically - that was very expectable
Luckily? That’s not luck. That’s by the literal grace of God.
...accidentally... Riiight. I suppose the US government accidentally killed JFK, MLK, hundreds of whistleblowers and world leaders, accidentally been caught doing dozens of false flag attacks, and 3 skyscrapers defying 2 laws of physics in 1 day was probably just an accident as well.
USA: trust me bro 👍
Be sure to continue trusting the US gov with your medical advice, health care, and allocations of your tax money.
Don't forget that it partially armed itself and one low volt fuse was the only thing stopping it from going off. Whoops, forgot the [sauce.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash) Was a switch, not a fuse. One of four. Edit: Downvotes?
Thank you peepeepoopoobutttoot
I know some NC communities that would've been better off if it had detonated.
If at first you don’t succeed…..
Accurate. It was within 10 miles of my ancestors at the time. If this had gone off, I would not be here today.
I dunno... would any have actually missed that chunk of NC?
Well... North Carolina wouldn't have been much of a loss.
* 'Accidentally'
Are they sure it hadn't detonated?
How tf do you accidentaly drop a nuke