How many H Bomb tested in the atmosphere

[Baron von Richthofen (Vaclav)]

How many H Bomb tested in the atmosphere were there, cant find it on the net, some reports say they stopped because they were worried about a chain reaction with the atmosphere, dont know if this is true

[Enchilada]

Originally Posted by Baron von Richthofen

How many H Bomb tested in the atmosphere were there, cant find it on the net, some reports say they stopped because they were worried about a chain reaction with the atmosphere, dont know if this is true.

If you really want to be frightened out of your wits, you should watch the 1997 film "Trinity and Beyond-Atomic Bomb Movie" narrated by William Shatner.

These crazy air testing went between just 1945 and 1963 - and 92 minutes worth in the film!
You can read something about the film it at;
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/VCE.html

Awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time.

The largest NW was a Soviet 57 Megaton bomb called Tsar Bomba blown on 30th October 1961. Its fireball measured 8-kilometers in diameter and produced some 10^24 (5,240,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Watts of power and outshone the sun for a few nanoseconds! It destroyed 3,848 square kilometres! ( See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba )

A nice movie of it is at; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxD44...response_watch

and another at;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfoQsZa8F1c

As for number, I think it has been about 650 bomb blown all together!

ABSOLUTELY NUTS!

[Baron von Richthofen (Vaclav)]

Total Madness
The Insanity

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Man is awesome and stupid at the same time!

[matt]

The music in that video's soooo dramatic, it's hilarious

Cool vid.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Here's the specs for the Tsar Bomba

Decent sized explosion...considering a power output of 1.4% of the Sun's for that 39 nanoseconds is the equivalent of a K5 class star's entire energy output for that same time

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

From what I remember, according to the end-credits in "Trinity and Beyond" its somewhere in the HUNDREDS, many more than I thought.
Have to rummage for the DVD and find out.
The second half of the DVD, devoted to the men who photographed the tests is really very interesting. Well worth a watch.

[RAJAH235]

Don't know about the total but...
One of our Radio Yacht club members was actually at both the GB
ones at Christmas Island in 1957/58.
He made a DVD of his adventures.
Very interesting but stupid.
They weren't issued with any protective equipment.....just had their normal clothes/uniforms to wear.
Better him than me.
L..

[xelasnave]

Why worry ..they know what they are doing...dont they???
alex

[Baron von Richthofen (Vaclav)]

If you want nightmares read this
Scary


http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question...ns/q0268.shtml

[xelasnave]

Yes but nothing major just a few opperational problems and a little collateral damage so I still see no reason to abandon NP if it can save the planet from a rapid human induced climate change...
alex

[Ian Robinson]

The first one was one too many.

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

The US conducted 331 atmospheric tests according to the film.
Referring to my old PoliSci research notes (during the Regan - Chernenko/Andropov era) suggested about 172 Soviet atmospheric tests and China about 18
So around 500 all tolled that can be verified or the research material at the time indicated.
Deduce about 5-8% that cannot, you're left with a significant number. Thats a lot of Cesium & Stontium floating about. Fortunately the earth's a big place so there's about one 1 milli-billi-microgram per 10,000 sq. klicks or something.
This, apparently, is the surest way to tell if an old master is forged. ALL paintings done since 1946 will have small small trace of radioactive material in the paint (very, very, very, small - so don't throw out your kids finger paintings).
I got the last bit out of a big book so you know its true.
PJH

[sjastro]

Slighty off topic but still relevant to the thread.

A few years when I worked for a major Japanese automotive company, we purchased an X-ray spectrometer to analyse the presence of heavy metals in car components that might get into the environment.

As a side issue and a bit of fun I decided to have one of my baby teeth that I kept analysed. To my horror I found the tooth had significant amounts of radioactive thorium.

I decided at the companys' expense (although they didn't know about it) to have the tooth retested at an analytical laboratory. (For the technical boffins out there they used the much more accurate ICP for testing). They confirmed the presence of thorium in the tooth.

A bit of research revealed the thorium most likely came from the British nucleur testing at Maralinga and Montebello Islands in the 1950s.

If you were born in the late fifties/early sixties there is a good chance you might have briefly been walking around with a radioactive cocktail in your body.

Steven

[Enchilada]

Originally Posted by sjastro

Slighty off topic but still relevant to the thread.

A few years when I worked for a major Japanese automotive company, we purchased an X-ray spectrometer to analyse the presence of heavy metals in car components that might get into the environment.

As a side issue and a bit of fun I decided to have one of my baby teeth that I kept analysed. To my horror I found the tooth had significant amounts of radioactive thorium.

I decided at the companys' expense (although they didn't know about it) to have the tooth retested at an analytical laboratory. (For the technical boffins out there they used the much more accurate ICP for testing). They confirmed the presence of thorium in the tooth.

A bit of research revealed the thorium most likely came from the British nucleur testing at Maralinga and Montebello Islands in the 1950s.

If you were born in the late fifties/early sixties there is a good chance you might have briefly been walking around with a radioactive cocktail in your body.

Steven

Thank you very much for this highly relevant point.

It highlights the dangers of atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs, and the serious nature of its terrible consequences.

I still remember the random tests in schools after this period, where radioactivity was monitored in children - often done either with urine tests, blood tests and bone samples. The problem of course was with Strontium-90 and milk, as it is absorbed with calcium into bone tissue. It has a half-life of 29 years - about the same time as Saturn's orbit (which my science teacher in Year 9 science taught us), and about one-third of it is still active in soils in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Although it is beta decay radioactivity, it can cause real problems in dense bone over long periods. (It was a significant problem in Chernobyl.) It is significantly useful in trace amounts for medicine, but pretty nasty is higher concentrations.

I was not told much about it as a kid, but was terrified to learn of it in the early 1980's.

Not something to joke about…

[kinetic (Steve)]

Originally Posted by Waxing_Gibbous

This, apparently, is the surest way to tell if an old master is forged. ALL paintings done since 1946 will have small small trace of radioactive material in the paint (very, very, very, small - so don't throw out your kids finger paintings).
I got the last bit out of a big book so you know its true.
PJH

I was once told by a lab geologist/assayer/chemist...not quite sure
of her title, but it's in there somehwere, that all gold has a
radioactive signature and therefore you can identify which mine
it was dug out of.
I was working at a remote minesite which had a small gold
output as well as the main concentrates of Copperand Uranium.
The chemist said that the gold from the mine had a Polonium
signature and therfore, no matter where in the world this gold
ever ended up, jewelry etc, you could find out the origin
of the gold due to this unique signature.

Does that sound like a tall story or is it true?
I think she just told me so I wouldn't pinch any

Steve

[Enchilada]

To add to my response below, these tests were made by the Australian Radiation Laboratory in 1973, being the Department of Health. Before this time, the responsibility radioactive fall-out was investigated from the Department of Science.

A 'final' report was produced in 1981, much of which I assume is classified, though the report concluded that radioactivity exposure "were safe and within recommended levels."

These conclusions were argued against during 1983, (mostly by the CSIRO biochemist Hedley Marston (around 1956) and his published book) leading to the detailed investigations of the British tests. the general history of radioactive waste in Australia is given at the Library of Australia's Parliamentary Library. (Sobering reading!!)

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/o...ctiveWaste.htm

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by kinetic

I was once told by a lab geologist/assayer/chemist...not quite sure
of her title, but it's in there somehwere, that all gold has a
radioactive signature and therefore you can identify which mine
it was dug out of.
I was working at a remote minesite which had a small gold
output as well as the main concentrates of Copperand Uranium.
The chemist said that the gold from the mine had a Polonium
signature and therfore, no matter where in the world this gold
ever ended up, jewelry etc, you could find out the origin
of the gold due to this unique signature.

Does that sound like a tall story or is it true?
I think she just told me so I wouldn't pinch any

Steve

You find trace amounts of polonium and gold together. Most rocks contain uranium and lead, and polonium is usually associated with these elements. Because gold is quite common in these rocks also, you can get the two together.

It's one of the elements which causes radiation damage in biotite crystals (fission tracks).