The Mushroom Farm
By Joseph Cleveland Brown, III U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, (Retired Civil Works Project Engineer, (Retired) CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1: Einstein’s Legacy.
Chapter 2: The Stars of Nuclear Physics.
Chapter 3: Nuclear Energy Explained.
Chapter 4: Our Race for the Bomb.
Chapter 5: Our Bombs.
Chapter 6: The Weapon Delivery Systems.
Chapter 7: Our Nuclear Warheads.
Chapter 8: Our Missiles.
Chapter 9: Our Nuclear Powered Navy.
Chapter 10: The Anatomy of a Nuclear Explosion.
Chapter 11: U. S. Military Nuclear Safety record!
Chapter 12: The Cuban Missile Crisis!
Chapter 13: Our Testing.
Chapter 14: Our Atomic Power Generation versus the World.
Chapter 15: Our Planned Nuclear Waste Repository.
Chapter 16: Our Cost so far. Chapter 17: How to prepare for the future.
Glossary
References and Sources Introduction OOPS! In 2007 I watched a one hour documentary on TV. I was shocked to learn that our government, Yes, You guessed it, the same government that looses all of our money in the Stock Market and Mortgage Market and puts space shuttles up, launches missiles that attack and kill other missiles and builds Nuclear Submarines so sophisticated that they are impossible to detect underwater has lost a Hydrogen Bomb close to a major American city and can’t find it! And as a middle manager in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers for over 30 years I was never officially informed of this fact! I had to learn of this disturbing event on TV! It was on The Discovery Channel one day and titled, “America’s Lost H- Bomb” and was indeed an eye opener. The title alone got my full attention as I was expecting a show about how we had lost a nuclear device somewhere in the deep oceans of the world. I was surprised to learn that there was a One Megaton Thermonuclear Bomb buried in the mud somewhere near Tybee Island Georgia right here in the good old U. S. of A.! I was further alarmed by the revelation brought out in the show that the weapon went missing in 1958 and has yet to be found. (I sincerely hope someone who wants to do the U. S. harm has not already found it)! The federal agencies looking for it know what it looks like, (12 feet long, weighing 7,600 pounds), they know at what altitude and airspeed the B-47 dropped it from, ( 7,200 feet and 200 knots) and they even know that it was serial number “47782” and had an explosive yield of One Megaton. I spent many years of my adult life and career in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers an not once have I seen an official document mentioning this lost H-bomb! I can only conclude therefore that it was kept secret from the general public and some government agencies until recently. So, if I lived on Tybee Island Georgia I would move at least 500 miles away because there is a 1 Megaton Thermonuclear Bomb sitting in the mud offshore, in the vicinity of Wassaw Sound that may or may not be armed, and is exposed to the corrosive elements contained in the mud and surrounding sea water. The Government says it is safe but can we believe them? I would not stake my family’s life on the assurance of the government knowing their track record in promulgating misinformation. I have in my files a copy of the Official Air Force report dated 12APRIL2001 that says, “The Mark 15 bomb was produced in two versions; the Mod 0 and Mod 2. The Mod 2 version of this bomb type replaced the removable nuclear capsule of the Mod 0 with a non-removable nuclear capsule, thus making the Mod 2 version a self-contained fully functional nuclear bomb”. It goes on to say in the next paragraph, “Concern has been raised as to which version of the bomb was used”. The U. S. A. F. & Department of Energy both concluded that the bomb was a Mod 0, based on the following unsubstantiated investigative conclusions: • Maintenance records for this specific bomb indicate the only maintenance activity during which the Mod 0 to Mod 2 conversion might have been completed took place in July 1956. • Atomic Energy Commission production records indicate Mod 2 conversion kits were not ready until December 1957. • AEC production records indicate Mod 0 to Mod 2 conversions did not begin until March 1958. • As the accident occurred in February 1958, the evidence is inconclusive that the bomb involved was a Mod 0. • Testimony before congressional investigating committees in the aftermath of the “Tybee Incident” left more doubt about the weapon being armed or not and no conclusive evidence was offered as to which version of the bomb was lost!
Chilling, isn’t it? Statements like, “conversion might have been completed,” or “the evidence is inconclusive that the bomb involved was a Mod 0!” I don’t know about you but might and inconclusive are not words I want to see in a report dealing with a lost 1 megaton thermonuclear bomb that is sitting in the mud off of a city that has over 300,000 inhabitants in its’ metro area. Savannah Georgia is a vital city in the Southeastern U. S. and is home to Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Bases not to mention Marine Corps Recruit Depot Paris Island just to the northeast . It occurs to me that maybe the U. S. government is and has been hoping this incident will go away and that the bomb will just deteriorate into the mud.
With the shadow of nuclear annihilation perched on the doorstep of Tybee Island Georgia I sure hope the bomb that is there doesn’t just decide to go off some day (triggered by a random lightening strike) and give us all a dose of reality we are not ready for, or worse yet, some nefarious salvage firm recovers it and sells it to one of our enemies, foreign or domestic. In this age of uncertainty I fear the possibility of the Islamic Extremists and other types of domestic terrorists getting their hands on a suitcase sized nuke. (They exist and are very easy to use)! A suitcase sized nuke may not have enough power to level a large city but it could render Wall Street financial markets a fond memory if our government doesn’t destroy them first. I know in my heart that there are many groups of disaffected U. S. citizens who belong to radical left and right wing groups who would not hesitate to use a nuke to get their point across. I have studied these home grown groups in my years in the military intelligence training I have had and I attended a two week seminar once that was absolutely chilling. The topic was “Domestic Sects, Cults and Deviant Movements”. It was an two week course and I could not sleep well for quite a few weeks after attending it because I had learned just how many groups there are right here living among us that are enemies of the state for whatever misguided reasons they have. Not to mention the religious nut cases halfway around the world who live in a doomsday theology such as radical Islam. I decided right at that moment to write the definitive work on United States Nuclear History without sugar coating it so anyone could have a reference at their disposal to find the historical facts on Nuclear power generation, weapons, technology and the Government organizations that regulate Nuclear energy in this nation. Let me point out that I am no raving anti nuke person nor would anyone who knows me call me a liberal. I am a self described Conservative Libertarian and as patriotic as any American can be when it comes to the defense of my country. I adhere to the Theodore Roosevelt philosophy of, “Talk softly and carry a BIG stick”! That being said, I cannot explain why the United States has ten times more nuclear warheads and bombs than it has means to deliver them. The only plausible answer is like the old frontier scouts used to say “You can’t carry enough bullets in hostile Indian territory when you need them”! Nuclear weapons are not like your typical conventional ammunition. You don’t drop nuclear weapons every day on a city or military facility until you destroy it! It only takes one of sufficient size to do the trick! So, I ask myself. Why do we have so many nuclear bombs? Whatever the reason he has President George Bush will be remembered in history as the Commander in Chief who trimmed our Nuclear Arsenal to a manageable level by ordering the systematic dismantling and storage of thousands of obsolete nuclear weapons and the lethal components they are made from. (This fact is not widely published in the media for obvious reasons). The President thinks this is best for us and I agree that we must do this. We only have enough ships, submarines, aircraft and missiles to deliver 500 to 600 warheads at one time (in an all out combined forces effort of ship/submarine launched, silo launched and aircraft launched weapons). If Iran carries out their threats and does launch a nuke into Israel it will only take 2 medium sized weapons to destroy Israel but it will take 11 warheads to completely destroy Iran. The Israelis have an ample supply of nuclear warheads and delivery systems to accomplish this task. Eleven U. S. Trident ICBM missiles launched from an Ohio Class SSBN within 10,000 miles of Iran would do the trick but would obviously alter world history from that moment forward. Or 11 Nuclear tipped Cruise missiles launched from aircraft, submarines or surface ships would do. If all out Nuclear War breaks out there would be a different scenario. If you combine our delivery aircraft capability with the ballistic and cruise missile fleet in the Navy and the missiles we have in silos ready to launch we can obliterate any threatening nation (or group of nations) ten times over with a virtual storm of bombs and missiles. I know we have to counter the historic potential adversary nations such as Russia and China but as progress in nuclear weapon technology is made we have been and will be the leader in the field for the foreseeable future and not the follower. India, Pakistan, Syria, South Africa as second World Nations and other Third World nations only want to possess nuclear weapons because the big kids on the block already have them and they are tired of being pushed around. They are playing catch up except in the Iran case where they just want to start WWIV to usher in the coming of the 12th Imam to fulfill their doomsday prophesy. As stated in international press releases the delivery system technology of these Second and Third World nations are primitive at best. Although, the Russians have assisted Iran and others, by supplying advanced missile technology, the present Russian nuclear technology lags behind the West in many ways. During the Clinton Administration our own misguided State Department headed by Madeline Albright and one private contractor named LORAL Corp. supplied China with advanced missile guidance technology which enabled China to target anything in range accurately. This was done in a misguided effort to win favor with the Peoples Republic. As proven out in the unsealed records of the Kremlin and by our SALT Treaty Inspectors, during the height of the Cold War the Soviet Union on their best day could only field one third of the nuclear weapons we could and their rocket technology and accuracy was faulty. They were not a “Paper Tiger” but they were not the huge angry Grizzly bear our government hyped them up to be. They were more like an angry clumsy Black Bear. They could have done us great harm but they could not have obliterated us in one attack. Of course if you happened to be in a U. S. city or military installation and one of their shaky missiles or aging bombers actually managed to hit it with a ten megaton nuke it would have still been the end of your world. The Soviets were our prime adversary and are maneuvering to that position again at this writing with their support of Iran and Syria’s ambitious pursuit of nuclear weapons and their resurgence as a dominant power over their former satellite nations such a Georgia. I also think our recent demonstration of our ability to shoot down incoming missiles and orbiting satellites has them excited and feeling left behind. I wrote this book to give a detailed history of our nuclear weapons development and to open a window into the almost insane proliferation of this technology. We have spent virtual mountains of money on the ability to destroy our enemies (and ourselves) in literally a few minutes. The Iranians may cause the end of the world as we know it by striking Israel with a nuke thus causing a nuclear exchange by their political allies but we started the ball rolling in concert with our traditional enemies. As recently evidenced by press releases from the Bush administration, President Bush has directed the nuclear services to stand down aging nuclear weapons and delivery systems and to stockpile unused obsolete weapons. There is the question of what to do with such a huge pile of nuclear weapons. Where do we put them out of harms way that will not endanger us or the rest of the world? The Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the Atomic Energy Commission have decided on Yucca Mountain Nevada. At least President Bush has taken the bold step in reducing the pile and addressing our need for a more streamlined and manageable nuclear weapons program. I have a recurring nightmare of some loony head of some rogue nation (Iran) getting his hands on a nuke and blowing up his country’s historical sworn enemy (Israel). This triggers a response from the other nations in the region and their allies. Let’s face facts here, the Iranian theocratic leadership and other radical Islamic regimes lived hating each other religiously for centuries and many live under a doomsday theology! Their hatred is based on tribal, ethnic, religious and territorial disputes which are ages old. The leadership of Iran is living for the day when they can nuke the Israelis off the map! Their titular leader has said as much. The Iranian ruling council of Islamic clerics actually are the government of Iran. Under the right political climate and if the pushing of buttons starts I fear it will not stop until the earth (form low orbit) will look like a MUSHROOM FARM in full bloom. If everybody has a nuke, someone will use one! History shows that we earthlings just can’t get along with each other and we are incapable of managing our emotions, making it inevitable that someone will target their enemy with a nuke someday. This scenario is scary enough without the added scenario of a possible accident by our own military! Accidents do occur as evidenced by the documentary entitled “America’s Lost H-Bomb” which spent one hour explaining the fact that we lost one there. According to the Air Force Official Report the bomber had been involved in a mid-air collision with an Air Force F-86 Fighter and the B-47 was possibly going to crash and explode. My question here is, if the Bomb was not “Armed” then why was the crew so fearful of it exploding in the crash that they jettisoned it into the shallow waters off of Tybee Island Georgia! The Author Chapter 1:
Einstein’s Legacy.
Albert Einstein was a mathematician and theoretical physicist who had lofty ideas and thought in an intellectual realm few venture into. His concepts were new paradigms in every conceivable way. It is most evident to all mankind by now that Albert Einstein was a true genius of galactic proportions. His E=MC2 formula and what it gave birth to forever transformed world thought. He is the most quoted scientist ever. His impact on us all is so immense that many of us will never understand the true depth of his discoveries. He was a pioneer in theoretical physics but he had help. There were many great minds that did yeoman work in the initial stages of mankind’s development of nuclear energy for peaceful as well as harmful usage. I have many to thank for this shadow of doom we all live under. It goes back two thousand years to Democritus, who put forth the theory that matter is made up of atoms. Small particles, so small no one can see them. Then in 1896 Henri Becquerel discovered uranium ore, followed closely by Pierre and Marie Curie’s work on radium. In 1919 in his laboratory Ernest Rutherford bombarded nitrogen particles with alpha particles and produced a split atom. In the 1930’s Ernest Rutherford and Albert Einstein thought that the normal speed of decay of atomic particles could not be improved on. Thus, the release of the energy from atomic decay or half life was thought not feasible to improve on. At this time the great science fiction writers H. G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs were including atomic bombs and radium engines in their stories. When Dr. Leo Szilard started experiments on chain reactions in the lab he said he was influenced by those science fiction stories. In 1932 Sir John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split the atom causing a chain reaction by artificially accelerating particles in a lab. In 1934 Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie found in experiments that stable elements could be induced with alpha particles. At the same time Enrico Fermi was bombarding uranium with neutrons but did not correctly interpret the results. In 1938 German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann published experimental findings in scientific journals. Their experiment produced an isotope of barium. They had an Austrian scientist working with them named Otto R. Frisch who interpreted the results of their experiments to mean they have achieved nuclear fission. It was followed by collaborative experiments performed by George Placzek in cooperation with Frisch which proved fission was possible under properly controlled circumstances. In 1933 Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard postulated his theory that “if any neutron-driven process released more neutrons than those required to, start it, an expanding chain reaction might result”. In chemistry it was widely known that chain reactions were a familiar outcome of combining dissimilar chemicals which resulted in explosions, fires and other extreme reactions. Dr. Szilard postulated in confidence that the chain reaction that could result on a nuclear scale could be in theory used to make a very powerful weapon. Dr. Szilard knew the implications for the world if this information got into the hands of a hostile regime, such as was in power in Germany. Dr. Szilard tried to keep his theory a secret but it was published to the world by the Joliot-Curie group. This set Dr. Szilard on his quest to get Einstein to write to the president so the U. S. could counter and possibly surpass any progress made by the Germans. At the time of these burgeoning discoveries Europe was in turmoil. The Nazi’s were invading Poland and setting off World War II. Most ex-patriot scientists who had fled to Great Britain and the U. S. from the Nazi surge into their former countries feared that any published data on uranium-235 fission would only empower the Nazis. Therefore a loose agreement was made by most of the ex-patriot scientists to curtail any publication of such experimental results. In Europe scientists such as Niels Bohr, George Placzek and John Wheeler had established that the only isotope of uranium suitable for fission was Uranium-235. It was known only 0.7% of the available uranium found in nature was U-235. The ore in most of the world’s uranium deposits was useless uranium-238 which inhibits fission by absorbing neutrons not emitting them. Of course the U-235 was so rare it was virtually priceless. In the United States there were the physicists Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner all Hungarian Jews who were well aware of the progress being made by the German team headed by Werner Heisenberg. Being politically marginalized the scientists sought the help of Albert Einstein who was held in high regard in American academia. Thus the first letter to President Roosevelt was conceived and dictated to Einstein who signed it and sent it to FDR. It took a full month to receive the letter through channels and he acted quickly once the implications were made clear to him. He authorized the creation of “Uranium Committee” under the chairmanship of the National Bureau of Standards chief Lyman Briggs. Since the United States would not officially enter the war until December 7, 1941 work on nuclear fission proceeded at a relatively leisure pace at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. Its chief scientist was Philip Abelson who did work on isotope separation. At this same time Enrico Fermi was making progress in the same field at Columbia University. The U. S. government then placed the program under Vannevar Bush who was the administrator of the National Defense Research Committee. Because most of the Jewish scientists were viewed by the government as extreme leftists most of them were not included in any government tests at that time. So you see the political atmosphere was such that Einstein’s letter was written by a group of concerned scientists who had as their motive the survival of western culture but a culture hopefully sans Nazis. In Einstein’s first letter to President Roosevelt dated August 2nd, 1939 he cautioned Roosevelt that “Some recent experiments by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future”. His letter goes on to say that “This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable – though much less certain – that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air”. Up until this letter arrived on Roosevelt’s’ desk the possibility of nuclear energy had only been speculated about in government circles. In the same letter Einstein goes on to point out that the U. S. has poor sources of uranium ore but that Canada, Czechoslovakia and the Belgian Congo have enough deposits to render fissionable material. On page two of his first letter to FDR Einstein lays out the structure of a program to facilitate the development of nuclear energy under the authority of the president. Since Einstein was a Jew from Wurttemberg Germany, he knew all to well the fate of the world if the Third Reich came possess such weaponry. He wrote in closing, “I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she should have taken such early action might perhaps be understood on the ground that the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, Von Weiszacker is attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute in Berlin where some of the American work on uranium is now being repeated”. In Einstein’s’ second letter to Roosevelt, dated March 7, 1940 he points out the progress that he has been told the Germans are making and urges the addressee to relay the information contained in the letter to the president. He further states in the letter that Dr. Szilard has shown him a manuscript he is preparing to publish in Physics Review and Einstein wants it to be withheld on the grounds that publishing the exact process for creating a chain reaction in uranium atoms should not be made public knowledge. In his third letter dated April 25, 1940, Einstein lays out the outline for organization of the “Manhattan Project” but does not call it that. He states that, “I am convinced as to the wisdom and the urgency the conditions under which that and related work can be carried out with greater speed and on a larger scale than hitherto. I was interested in a suggestion made by Dr. Sachs that the Special Advisory Committee supply names of persons to serve as a board of trustees for a nonprofit organization which, with the approval of the government committee, could secure from government or private sources or both, the necessary funds for carrying out the work. Given such a framework and the necessary funds, it (the large-scale experiments and exploration of practical applications) could be carried out much faster than through a loose cooperation of university laboratories and government departments”. We now know through the archival research in books and biographies of Einstein that he did very few experiments. He was the prototype “Idea Man”! He used his intellect, a blackboard and note pads to formulate theories that were then proven right or wrong through the work of other physicists in laboratories. I have always thought that Einstein was tuned into the universe that few others even know exists on a cosmic level. In the great work “A tale of two Continents” by the eminent physicist Dr. Abraham Pais, who was a contemporary of Einstein at Princeton Dr. Pais recounts his relationship with Einstein in his last few years of life. On the many walks Pais took with Einstein he was in awe of the great mans thinking. He was interested in Einstein’s work on the Grand Unification Theory wherein Einstein tried to establish the relationship of electromagnetic field energy to gravity which in turn distorts time. Dr. Pais was influenced by Einstein and in later years made great strides in Quantum and elementary particle theory. Pais wrote the definitive biography of Einstein and went on to write many influential books on physics. In 1939 when the president appointed Dr. Briggs to head the Special Advisory Committee in September he thus started the U. S. Governments entry into the all out race for nuclear armament. The project seemed stalled to President Roosevelt and he directed the Army Department to get things going. This was followed by the appointment of General Leslie Groves to head the Manhattan Project and the rest is history. I have learned through research that Dr. L. Szilard dictated most of the letters that Einstein sent to the president. Einstein thought in such lofty realms that he had difficulty expressing himself in written language other than theory or mathematics. Near the end of the war in March of 1945 Einstein wrote to Roosevelt at the behest of Dr. Szilard concerning complaints about the level of secrecy the scientists were under who worked for the Manhattan Project. General Groves had a great deal of trouble with the civilian scientists who worked on the project because they were unaccustomed to strict secrecy rules. In academia it is customary to share experimental results with colleagues even if they are employed by your country’s enemies. This is referred to as “Peer Revue” which in a pure academic sense validates experimental results. It was not unusual for them to share their experiment results with the entire world physicist network. It was this lack of security adherence that resulted in the Soviets gaining the knowledge and technology to produce nuclear weapons so soon after we did. I don’t think it was espionage on the part of the nuclear scientists. It was simply the way they had operated for decades. The soviets captured many laboratories in eastern Germany where nuclear experiments were conducted. Along with the information supplied by the physicists network and the lack of security of information the soviets simply added what they found in the labs with the documents and threw in a few captured German scientists and built there own bomb. They did not have to do the early experimental lab work as it was already done and documented. In Einstein’s letters it is apparent that he is hesitant to promulgate such a potentially devastating theory of power to a possibly hostile world. However, he knew that the consequences would be grave for the entire free world if the Germans got their hands on such power. If Einstein had nightmares he may have had ones involving mushroom clouds. I know I did after seeing “Dr. Strangelove” in the sixties at the Atlantic Drive In Theater in Jacksonville Florida. At the end of the movie as the credits begin to roll there is a quick scene of a succession of nuclear detonations one after another which increase in speed to a rapid fire effect of mushroom after mushroom cloud. I had a very vivid dream where I was just stepping out of a movie theater with my Wife and we were bathed in white hot light from a nuclear detonation. As we reeled from the shock we looked at the horizon and as far as we could see were mushroom cloud after mushroom cloud and then we burst into flames. After observing the first nuclear detonation Dr. Oppenheimer is quoted as reciting the line from the Hindu Poem the Bhagavad Gita; “If the radiance of a thousand Suns were to burst at once in the sky that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become Death, the destroyer of Worlds”!
Chapter 2:
The Stars of Nuclear Physics
1. Abelson, Philip-(1913 to 2004), American born Physicist who contributed significantly to the Manhattan Project by the invention of the Liquid Thermal Diffusion isotope separation technique which sped up nuclear weapons grade fuel production. 2. Becquerel, Henri-(1852 to 1908), French born Physicist and Chemist who along with the Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radioactivity in uranium salts via exposure of photographic film. He was awarded the Noble Prize in Physics in 1903. 3. Bohr, Niels-(1885 to 1962), Danish born Physicist who corresponded with Abraham Pais while Pais was in hiding in Holland in WWII. Developed significant contributions to the understanding of atomic structure and quantum mechanics. In 1943 after refusing to assist the Nazi nuclear program he escaped to Sweden, England and America where he played a key role in the success of the Manhattan Project. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. 4. Bush, Vannevar-(1890 to 1974), American born Electrical Engineer and Scientific Administrator. Picked by President Roosevelt to head the NRDC in 1940 and the OSRD in 1941 he was the driving force in the organization of all of our WWII weapons programs. 5. Cockcroft, John Douglas-(1897 to 1967), British Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 for splitting the atomic nucleus and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power. Collaborated with Ernest Walton. 6. Curie, Marie-(1867 to 1934), Polish born French Physicist and Chemist who along with her Husband Pierre and Professor Becquerel discovered radioactivity, and the element Polonium. Awarded two Nobel Prizes, for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911. 7. Curie, Pierre-(1859 to 1906), French born Physicist who co-discovered radioactivity. He pioneered research in crystallography, magnetism and piezoelectricity. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. 8. Democritus-(460 BC to 370 BC), Greek philosopher who postulated the existence of “atoma” which is the root word of our word “atom” which he believed were the imperishable and indivisible units found in all things. 9. Dempster, Arthur Jeffrey-(1886 to 1950), Canadian born American physicist who discovered Uranium-235 while inventing mass spectrometry. He worked on the Manhattan Project with Fermi at the University of Chicago from 1943 to 1946. 10. Einstein, Albert-(1879 to 1955), German Born ethnic Jew theoretical physicist. He is best known as the creator of the equation “E=MC2”. His contributions to physics created many new paradigms still being debated today. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. 11. Fermi, Enrico-(1901 to 1954), Italian Born American Physicist who developed the first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago. His other contributions included quantum theory and statistical mathematics. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938. 12. Frisch, Otto Robert- (1904 to 1979), Austrian Born British Physicist who in 1940 and in collaboration with Rudolph Peierls designed the first theoretical mechanism for the detonation of an atomic bomb. 13. Geiger, Hans- (1882 to 1945), German Physicist best known as the co-inventor of the Geiger counter. He partnered with Marsden to perform an experiment which discovered the atomic nucleus. 14. Groves, Leslie-(1896 to 1979), American Army Corps of Engineers Colonel who after overseeing the construction of the Pentagon was promoted to Brigadier and then Major General as the driving force in charge of the Manhattan Project. He graduated fourth in his class at West Point in 1918. He was the right man for the job at the right time. He epitomized the motto of the Corps of Engineers which is “Essayons” from the French for “We will try”! 15. Hahn, Otto- (1879 to 1968), German born Chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for discovering nuclear fission during the Nazi regime. His biographers claimed that he did not participate in the Nazi nuclear weapons program. Often referred to as “The father of nuclear chemistry”. 16. Heisenberg, Werner-(1901 to 1976), German born Physicist who was the head of the Nazi nuclear program in WWII. Prior to WWII he taught Edward Teller and other notable Physicists. He invented Matrix Mechanics which is the forerunner of Quantum Mechanics. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932. 17. Landau, Lev-(1908 to 1968), Russian born physicist who won the Nobel prize in 1962 for his superfluidity in nuclear gases. He was prominent in Russian nuclear physics and was instrumental in early Russian nuclear developments. 18. Oppenheimer, Robert-(1904 to 1967), American born Theoretical Physicist who was the scientific manager of the Manhattan Project. Although suspected of Communist connections and stripped of his security clearances by the anti communist lunacy of the post WWII era he was later reinstated. He is often referred to as “The Father of the Atomic Bomb”. He was a proponent of sharing nuclear technology with the world. 19. Pais, Abraham-(1918 to 2000), Dutch born Physicist and historian whose writings to Niels Bohr while in hiding in Holland during WWII inspired Bohr. Pais was especially adept at the meson theory of nuclear forces. 20. Peierls, Rudolf-(1907 to 1995), German born British Physicist who had a major role in Great Britain’s nuclear program. He joined the Manhattan Project in 1943 at Los Alamos. In a heroic act he voluntarily assembled the first atomic bomb by hand knowing the danger it posed to his health from radiation exposure. 21. Placzek, George-(1905 to 1955), Czech born physicist who excelled in neutron applications and mathematical equations used to calculate dynamic gasses and liquids. 22. Rickover, Hyman G.-(1900 to 1986), Polish born American Naval Officer who rose to the rank of four Star Admiral. Widely known as “The Father of the Nuclear Navy”. He was the driving force behind the development of naval reactors and saw the building of 200 nuclear powered submarines and 23 nuclear powered surface ships. He served 63 years in the Navy. He is responsible for the stellar safety record of zero reactor accidents in the fleet. 23. Roentgen, Wilhelm Conrad, (1845 to 1923), German born Physicist who in experiments discovered X-rays. He was awarded the First Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. His work also was the basis for the radiation dosage measurement of REM or “Roentgen Equivalent Man”. 24. Rutherford, Ernest-(1871 to 1937), New Zealand born British Chemist and Geologist who taught Hans Geiger, Niels Bohr, John Cockroft, and others. Widely known as “The Father of Nuclear Physics”. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. 25. Seaborg, Glenn T.-(1912 to 1999), American born Nuclear Chemist who co- discovered and named ten new radioactive elements and made advances in trans- uranium elements. Postulated the actinide series of elements. Developed 100 isotopes and most notably discovered Plutonium. He worked on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago with Enrico Fermi in the Metallurgical laboratory where he contributed greatly to the success of American nuclear development. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951. 26. Segre, Emilio G.-(1905 to 1989), Italian born Physicist who discovered anti- protons which are sub-atomic particles. While on a visit to California in 1938 the Fascist government in Italy banned all Jews from holding teaching posts there. As a Jew Segre could not return to Italy so he was offered a job at UC Berkley as a Research Assistant. He helped discover Plutonium-239 which enhanced the “Fat Man” bomb used on Nagasaki and all future nuclear weapons. He postulated that a “Gun Type” bomb using Plutonium would not work as efficiently and insisted on an implosion design which was later perfected. 27. Somervell, Brehon B.-(1892 to 1955), American born Army Officer. Graduating sixth in his class at West Point in 1914 he later became the Commanding General of Army Quartermaster Corps and in charge of Army Logistics in WWII. He was the master builder and money scrounger under Army Chief of Staff George Marshall. Responsible for funding and supply of the Pentagon and Manhattan Projects among many before, during and after WWII. 28. Szilard, Leo-(1898 to 1964), Hungarian born Physicist who with Einstein’s collaboration convinced President Roosevelt to establish a research and development group to explore nuclear weapons at the beginning of WWII. He conceptualized the atomic chain reaction in 1933 after reading an article by Ernest Rutherford in London. In 1938 Szilard moved to Manhattan for a professorship at Columbia University. While there Szilard and Fermi came up with a patented design for a nuclear reactor using uranium. Szilard was directly responsible for the Manhattan Project because of the letters he dictated to Einstein for delivery to President Roosevelt. Along with Fermi he moved to Chicago and achieved the first chain reaction in 1942 in the lab at the University of Chicago under the sports stadium. 29. Taylor, Geoffrey Ingram-(1886 to 1975), English born Physicist/Mathematician and expert on fluid dynamics and wave theory. As part of the British delegation to the Manhattan Project he contributed to blast wave projections of the nuclear explosive force of the first two bombs “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”. 30. Teller, Edward-(1908 to 2003), Hungarian born American Theoretical Physicist known widely as “The Father of the Hydrogen Bomb”! Teller played a key role in development of nuclear weapons at the institute he co-founded which is Lawrence Livermore Labs at Berkley during the Manhattan Project. 31. Truman, Harry S.-(1884 to 1972), American born 33rd President of the United States. Who, while playing poker on the Presidential Yacht in the Potomac River near Washington DC was handed a note from General Groves in early August 1945 stating that the Atomic Bomb was ready, he scribbled on the back of the note his permission to execute the mission in less than one minute. Having been an Artillery Officer in WWI he knew that the Japans’ ability to wage war had to be destroyed as soon as possible to save lives. 32. Von Weizsacker, Carl Friedrich-(1912 to 2007), German born Physicist who performed nuclear weapons research under the Nazi regime in Germany during WWII. With Werner Heisenberg he pursued the development of nuclear power. 33. Walton, Ernest-(1903 to 1995), Irish born British Physicist best known for his work with John Cockcroft on atom smashing experiments in the 1930’s at Cambridge University. Co-invented the first particle accelerator with Cockcroft. He was instrumental in discovering carbon dating techniques. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 along with Cockcroft. 34. Wheeler, John-(1911 to 2008), Florida born physicist best known for development of the S-matrix which was an essential part of particle physics. He is also credited with coining the phrase “black hole” and “wormhole”. He worked with Einstein at Princeton. 35. Weisskopf, Victor-(1908 to 2002), Austrian born physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. He was instrumental in formulating the concepts of particle physics. 36. Wigner, Eugene-(1902 to 1995), Hungarian born American born Physicist and Mathematician who postulated and proved the theories used in quantum mechanics and in testing atomic nuclei at Princeton. He collaborated with the Princeton Physicists to push for the Manhattan Project at the beginning of WWII. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963.
This is by no means a complete list of all of the contributors to our nuclear world. I included foreign scientists because in academia many ideas and theories are shared and debated amongst peers. It was common in the pre WWII era for nuclear physicists to share data across borders. The impetus for much of the parallel research done worldwide was often a letter from a colleague across the pond. I know from my research that many of these men and women had second thoughts about the possible implications of their discoveries. Some saw the inhumanity displayed throughout history to be an indication that in some way this newly discovered power would be used for destruction. Chapter 3:
Nuclear Energy Explained.
Nuclear Physics/Chemistry terminology is a deeply technical subject with many obscure terms only used in the world of Nuclear Engineering. Many terms need clarification. I will attempt to do that in this chapter. I hope I don’t put you to sleep with this technical stuff like I fell asleep in Physics class in Duncan U. Fletcher High School in the early sixties.
The Atomic Structure All substances that make up our carbon based world are composed of elements made up of Atoms. Atoms are the smallest substances and can not be broken down further. Those tiny Atoms are composed of Electrons, Protons and Neutrons. These particles are different from each other. Electrons are very light particles that have a negative (-) electrical charge. Protons are much heavier than Electrons and have positive (+) electrical charge. Neutrons are heavy like Protons but have no electrical charge (neutral). All Atoms are made up of a combination of these elemental particles in different configurations. An example would be an Atom of Hydrogen. A Hydrogen Atom is made up of 1 electron and 1 proton. Since a Proton is charge positive (+) and an Electron is charged negative (-). This opposite charge causes the electron to circle the proton much like the Earth circles the Sun. This phenomenon is caused by the magnetic properties as in two magnets attracting each other but spinning keeps them apart due to centrifugal force. The particles in an Atom remain in movement at all times. An Electron is constantly spinning around the center of the Atom (Nucleus). Hydrogen Atoms are so small that 20, million would fit into a two dimensional line one millimeter long. Protons and Neutrons act like billiard balls. The Electron has the properties of a pulsating light wave. In the electrically neutral Atom the positively charged Protons are always balanced by an equal number of negatively charged Electrons. Hydrogen is the simplest Atom as it only has one Proton and one Electron. A more complicated atom is Helium. Helium atoms have two Protons and two Electrons spinning around the Nucleus. To balance the Nucleus which has two Protons of the same charge two Neutrons are included in the Nucleus to keep the Protons from pushing apart because they are the same charge. Since Neutrons have no charge they act as Nuclear Glue to hold the Nucleus together. As you add Electrons, Protons and Neutrons the Atom grows larger. An Atom of any substance is measured in two ways; by using the Atomic Number (Z) or using the Atomic Mass Number. The Atomic Number describes the number of Protons in a Nucleus. Since the Atomic Number denotes the number of Protons in a Nucleus there is always a same number of Electrons as Protons. The Atomic Mass Number tells you the number of Protons and Neutrons in a Nucleus. So, the Atomic Mass Number of Hydrogen is 1 and the Atomic Mass Number of Helium is 4.
IONS and ISOTOPES Some Atoms can have a positive (+) or negative (-) electrical charge. If an Atom gains Electrons it becomes negatively (-) charged. If an Atom loses Electrons it becomes positively (+) charged. An Atom that carries an electrical charge is an ION. The number of Protons and Neutrons does not change so the Atomic Number does not change. The number of Neutrons can change. Thus, two Atoms with different numbers of Neutrons are called ISOTOPES. An example is an Isotope of Hydrogen in which the Atom contains 1 Neutron this element is called Deuterium. Since the Atomic Mass Number is the number of Protons plus the number of Neutrons it serves that two Isotopes of an element will have different Atomic Mass Numbers but the Atomic Number will remain the same. Example: Deuterium is Atomic Mass 2 and Atomic Number 1. Nuclides
Nuclides come in many different configurations. The term Nuclide was not widely accepted in the Physics community until 1950. Nuclides were also referred to as Isotopes. Nuclides with equal mass numbers but different Atomic numbers are called Isobars (equal in weight). Isotones are Nuclides of equal Neutron number but of different Proton numbers. A Nuclide is a nuclear species which is characterized by the number of Protons and Neutrons that every Atomic Nucleus of this species has. A Nuclide can be used to distinguish Isotopes among Nuclei as well as other uses.
• Isotopes have an equal Proton number. • Isotones have an equal Neutron number. • Isobars have an equal mass number. • Mirror Nuclei the Neutron and Proton number are exchanged. • Nuclear Isomers occupy different energy states.
There are approximately 270 stable and about 70 unstable (radioactive) Nuclei in nature. The three main types of Radioactive Nuclides or Radio-nuclides consist of these groups. 1. The first group is characterized by their half –lives of at least 10% of the age of the Earth. They are the remnants of the Neucleosynthesis that occurred in Stars before the formation of our Solar System. An example is Uranium 238 which is common in nature as opposed to Uranium 235 which is an Isotope of Uranium 238 and is rare. 2. The second group is made up of Isotopes of Radium which is formed in the decay chain reactions of Uranium and Thorium. 3. The third group is made up of Nuclides such as Carbon (radiocarbon) that are made by cosmic-ray bombardment of other elements. Over 1000 Nuclides have been artificially produced in a lab. Actinides or Actinoids
There are 15 radioactive chemical elements in this series. Beginning with Actinium (Ac), Atomic Number 89 and ending with Lawrencium (Lr), Atomic Number 103. Included in this group are Uranium (U) and Plutonium (Pu). During the Manhattan Project Glenn T. Seaborg experienced difficulty isolating Americium and Curium. Seaborg wondered if these elements belonged to a different chemical classification. In 1945 he went out on a limb to insist that Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of Elements be changed. Only Thorium and Uranium exist naturally in the Earth’s crust in more than trace amounts. Neptunium and Plutonium show up in Uranium deposits occasionally in trace amounts which are caused by radioactive decay or cosmic ray bombardment.
Neutron Capture This is the Nuclear Reaction process where an Atomic Nucleus collides with one or more Neutrons to form a heavier Nucleus. In Neutron Capture the Nuclei of mass greater than 56 can be achieved that could not be formed in a Thermonuclear or Fusion Reaction.
Fissile Nuclides include; • Uranium-235, which occurs in natural and enriched uranium. • Plutonium-239, which is made from Uranium 238 by the Neutron Capture. • Plutonium-241, which is made from Plutonium-240 by the Neutron Capture. • Uranium-233, which is made from Thorium-232 by the Neutron Capture. Fissile
1. Fissile, a fissile material is capable of sustaining a chemical chain reaction during which thermal (heat) or slow neutrons or fast neutrons predominate. In other words, it can be used as fuel in: • A thermal reactor, with a neutron moderator. • A fast reactor, with no moderator. • A nuclear explosive.
Fissionable
“Fissionable” elements are any material with Atoms that can undergo Nuclear Fission. “Fissile” is defined to be materials that are “Fissionable” by Neutrons with zero Kinetic energy. All “Fissile” materials are “Fissionable”, not all “Fissionable” materials are “Fissile”. In general, Isotopes with an odd number of Neutrons are “Fissile”. Most Nuclear Fuels have an odd number of Protons and Neutrons. But also have an even number of Protons. Isotopes with an odd number of Neutrons and an odd number of Protons are short lived because they can Beta decay to an Isotope with an even number of Neutrons and Protons.
The Mining and processing Uranium Ore. Uranium ore is found in the highest concentrations in the Great Bear Lake region of the Northwest Territory of Canada. Other deposits have been found in Australia, Germany, England, South Africa and the United States. The highest grade of Uranium Ore has been found in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan Canada. The ore when found in its’ raw state is referred to as “Pitchblende” which is a derivative of a German Mining word. Uranium Ore or Uranite (Uranium Dioxide) is commonly found in close proximity to silver deposits and other rare earth minerals. In the United States it is found in marketable amounts in the states of New Hampshire, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Connecticut and North Carolina. When found in its’ raw state it appears as a black or brown crystalline rock.
Uranium Ore Processing. Typically the ore in the form of crystalline rocks or Uranite are crushed to the consistency of course sand and this product is called “Pulped Ore”. To process out the usable Uranite the process then reduces the ore to the consistency of a fine powder. The fine powder is the color of dark brown and is referred to as “Yellow Cake” due to the German mining terminology of calling it that. The fine powder is then put through a “Leaching” process where Acids, Alkali and Peroxide solutions wash out the impurities and leave solids which are 70 to 90% pure Tri-uranium Oxtocide (U3O8) by weight. Out of this processed powder are made un-enriched nuclear fuel rods for use in reactors for producing electrical power through steam generation. This “Yellow Cake” can be enriched to nuclear weapons grade by further processing by converting it to uranium hexafluoride gas by the process of isotope separation. This is done in a gaseous diffusion plant using gas centrifuges. Recently a 550 pound cache of “Yellow Cake” was removed from Iraq by the U. S. Army and flown to the U. S. for safe keeping. It was discovered in Iraq during the 2003 invasion. I guess this evidence lends some level of credence to the often used “Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction” excuse put forth by the Bush administration.
Nuclear Fuel Any “Fissionable” Nuclear Fuel must; • Be in the region of the binding energy curve where a fission chain reaction is possible. (above Radium) • Have a high probability of fission on Neutron Capture. • Release two or more Neutrons on average per Neutron Capture. • Have a reasonably long half life. • Be available in suitable quantities. Thermal Chain Reactions involving Uranium-235 releases binding energy by the absorption of a Neutron which is greater than the critical energy for fission, therefore Uranium-235 is a “Fissile” material. The binding energy released by Uranium-238 absorbing a thermal Neutron is less than the critical energy, so additional energy must be possessed by the Neutron for “Fission” to be possible. Consequently, Uranium-238 is a “Fissionable” material.
Uraniun-235
Uranium-235 is an Isotope of Uranium that differs from the element’s other common Isotope Uranium-238, by its ability to cause a rapidly expanding fission chain reaction. It has a half-life of 703,800,000 years. It is the only fissile Isotope found in any useful quantity in nature. At least one Neutron from U-235 fission strikes another Nucleus and causes fission and then the chain reaction will continue. If the chain reaction will sustain itself it is said to have reached “Critical Mass”. A critical chain reaction can be achieved by low concentrations of U-235 if the Neutrons from fission are moderated to lower their speed since the possibility of fission is greater with slow Neutrons. A fission chain reaction causes intermediate mass fragments to further decay causing the release of more thermal energy (heat). Some of them produce Neutrons called delayed Neutrons which contribute to and help sustain the chain reaction. In Nuclear Reactors this reaction is kept under control by the insertion of control rods into the reactor chamber. The control rods are made of materials such as Boron, Cadmium, or Hafnium which absorb great quantities of Neutrons. In a Nuclear Weapon the chain reaction is uncontrolled and the large amount of thermal energy released causes the explosion. Only 7/10ths of one percent of natural Uranium is U-235 most natural Uranium is U-238. The composition of U-238 is not suitable for sustaining a nuclear chain reaction in a Light Water Reactor. Therefore Enrichment of the Uranium-238 must take place by the removal of the U-238 which results in a usable quantity of U-235.
Light Water Reactor or (LWR) A LWR or Light Water Reactor uses regular water (H2O) as its Neutron Moderator. This type of reactor uses U-235 enriched to 3% for fuel. The most common type of LWR are Pressurized Water Reactors, (PWR).
Heavy Water Reactor, (HWR) An HWR or Heavy Water Reactor uses Deuterium Oxide (D2O) or heavy water as the Neutron Moderator. Deuterium is an Isotope of Hydrogen that has a Proton and a Neutron which makes the atom heavier, thus heavy water. The advantage to a HWR is that the Uranium fuel does not need to be enriched. In Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors un-enriched Uranium can be used as fuel. Uranium that has been processed to boost its’ U-235 content is called Enriched Uranium which is used for different applications such as weapons in which the yield of the explosion is reached by different levels of enrichment. The fissile Uranium in a Nuclear Weapon usually contains 85% or more U-235 which is known as “Weapons Grade”. But for a crude inefficient terror weapon only 20% enrichment is necessary. 20% enriched U-235 is called Weapons Usable. The “Little Boy” Atomic Bomb used on Hiroshima was fueled by enriched Uranium-235. Most modern nuclear weapons arsenals use Plutonium as the fissile component. However many U-235 fueled primitive weapons still concern us due to the simplicity of the design and the relative ease of construction. Therefore, with a little help from mischief makers such as North Korea and Russia the Iranians, Syrians, and other rogue nations will have a nuclear device soon if someone does not take out their nuclear facilities or pressure them into giving up their designs. I believe that is why we are developing the so called “Robust Earth Penetrating Nuclear Weapons” now in development just for such a scenario. Uranium-238
U-238 is the most common Isotope of Uranium found in Nature. When bombarded with a Neutron it becomes U-239 which is an unstable Isotope that decays into Neptunium-239 an then in turn decays into Plutonium-239. Almost 99.3 % of all natural Uranium is U- 238 which has a half-life of 4.46 billion years which is equivalent to the age of the Earth. U-238 can be used to breed Plutonium-239 which is a weapons-grade nuclear fuel. In point of fact in a typical reactor up to one third of the thermal energy created in fission comes from the fission of Plutonium-239 which does not exist until transmuted from Uranium-238.
Lithium-6 Is an isotope of Lithium used in nuclear weapons to enhance the rapid fission that occurs when the chain reaction is started by the trigger mechanism.
Tamper This is the device in an implosion type bomb that compresses the core of fissionable material inward in an implosion to cause criticality and a resulting chain reaction explosion.
Pit The Fissile material, (usually Plutonium) with the Tamper attached is the “Pit”. This unit initiates the implosion that causes the nuclear chain reaction.
Trigger The trigger mechanism can be a series of electrical relays that detonate the spherical charge surrounding core. There are many types such as the delayed arming mechanism in Independent Reentry Vehicle type warheads that only arms after the weapon reaches a critical point in its flight such as decent form a certain altitude or atmospheric pressure change. Gravity bombs must be armed or enabled prior to release. Triggers usually run on an internal power source or time delay. The Permissive Action Link or “PAL” is designed to render the warhead or bomb safe until a series of switch maneuvers are conducted and all of the safety devices are removed. In military parlance this is called making the weapon “Hot” or arming the weapon. In the original “gun type” weapons a plug of Uranium was fired down a barrel into a core of Uranium causing critical mass and only a simple set of arming switches were involved. In the newer model weapons the weapons officer or aircraft commander has to go through a series of arming protocols to arm a weapon and usually the National Command Authority (read Commander in Chief) is involved. Terrorists, of course just set them off by whatever means expedient to them even if they are sitting on a nuke so they can fulfill their religious or political goals.
Breeder Reactors U-238 can be used as a source material for the creation of Plutonium-239 in a Breeder Reactor. Breeder reactors carry out the process of transmutation of U-238 into P-239. Given the known quantity of U-238 in the world there is enough fertile U-238 to supply fissile Plutonium for at least 10,000 years or longer. That means that there is enough U- 238 to fuel power plants literally forever. Breeder Reactor Technology has been used in several reactors. As of recently the only breeder reactor in operation in the world is the 600 Megawatt plant at Beloyarsk Russia. Since the Russians are chummy with the Iranians I get a chill knowing this. The Japanese have notified the UN that they plan to restart their shut down Monju Breeder Reactor which was secured in 1995. Another chilling fact is that the Chinese and the Indians have recently announced intentions to build Breeder Reactors. U-238 is often used as a shielding agent in controlling nuclear reactions by absorption of Gamma and X-rays. U-238 emits Alpha rays which are weak and do not penetrate steel but the heavy atomic mass of U-238 absorbs the lethal Gamma and X-rays. Depleted Uranium is being used as an alloy in the construction of shielding around nuclear emitters such as reactors as it is five times more effective in absorbing deadly radiation as lead. A depleted uranium enhanced shield is thinner and less heavy than a lead shield and thus easier to engineer. Detection and protection from Ionizing Radiation.
Detection Radiation can not be detected by human or animal senses. It can only be detected by special instrumentation. These instruments are variants of the original Geiger-Mueller radiation detectors. They are equipped with a dial and an audible alarm which warns if radiation is present. These instruments are battery powered and portable. The come equipped with a hand held probe used to sweep (move back and forth) over a person or object to detect radiation. If radiation is present in sufficient quantities the needle on the dial will register it and a slow clicking sound, a more rapid clicking will occur if the probe is swept over an object with radiation present. These types of detection units are readily available on the World Wide Web. Protection The deeper underground you go the more dense material you have between you and the source of the radiation the better. Remember though, you must have clean air, water to drink, long lasting food, sanitary facilities, a valuable commodity such as gold or silver for trading and guns and ammunition to protect what you have. If there is an all out nuclear war there will be anarchy of the worst possible kind after the fallout settles. No one will be safe until civil authority is restored if ever. If you have seen the movies such as the “Postman” or “The Day After” or “The Sum of All Fears” you will understand. If you need help deciding to panic or not go to www.radshelters4u.com and learn all you care to know. Survival depends greatly on where you live.
Your location in the United States is critical. If you are in a large city you need to get to the countryside where you can build an underground type shelter. As seen on the above listed web site. If you live near a large military installation it will be a target for all types of enemy weapons including, Biological and Chemical. Remember, terrorists could place a WMD in a truck, on a ship or aircraft and deliver it to a spot close to a military base or port and detonate it. We have virtually no defense against such a scenario. Our borders are porous and only 10% of all freight containers coming into our ports are inspected. We are the proverbial “Sitting Duck”! Chapter 4:
Our Race for the Bomb.
The all out effort by the scientists in the U. S. did not get off to a good start. There were diverse teams in various universities working separately and communication with each other only on special occasions. Even the British group which was called “MAUD” had difficulty getting data to the teams in the U. S. because of bureaucratic malaise. In March of 1941 the British team sent a report to the American Uranium Committee headed by Lyman Briggs. No word was given back to the British about the report so the British sent “MAUD” Committee member Mark Oliphant across the pond in an RAF Bomber to find out what had become of the report they had sent. Oliphant was astounded to find out that the report had been locked in a safe by Lyman Briggs and never shown to the scientists. Since the Uranium Committee made up of mostly scientists was under the prevue of Briggs and the Office of Scientific Research and Development. It was obvious that pressure would have to be used to get the program on the fast track. After all the British had been at war for a year and needed our help. Oliphant went to see the chairman of the National Defense Research Committee which was a war department branch and with the help of Enrico Fermi, Arthur Compton and a copy of the MAUD report a deal was made to snatch the program from the OSRD. Then with much pressure being brought to bear on congress and high ranking department heads the National Academy of Sciences proposed an all out effort to build a feasible nuclear weapon. Roosevelt authorized an all out effort by November 1941. A new committee was formed and named “The Top Policy Group”. Its purpose was to keep Roosevelt informed of the progress made in bomb development. On December 6th, 1941 the committee met to reorganize efforts and consolidate results. By early 1942 things were happening fast. Arthur Compton had established the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory to study plutonium and fission pies and Compton asked J. Robert Oppenheimer of the University of California at Berkley to take over research on fast neutron calculations. Experiments at both institutions were coordinated and fruitful. Plutonium was a new element and very little was known about it. Plutonium was created and discovered by Glenn Seaborg and his team. Plutonium is created by uranium-238 absorbing a neutron which has been emitted from the fission of a U-235 Atoms. The scattered scientists in America who were working on the “Bomb” decided to have a conference and put their heads together. UC Berkley was chosen as the site and they all met there. There, they came up with many different ways to cause a mass of fissionable material to go critical and start a chain reaction. The simplest design was to shoot a plug much like a bullet into the sphere of active material. They explored many shapes and designs even autocatalytic methods and spheres involving implosions. At the Berkley conference physicist Edward Teller urged for a discussion a “Super Bomb” which would use a fission bomb to set off a fusion bomb thus causing a much larger explosion. This theory was discovered by physicist Hans Bethe before the war and was put forth to Teller by Fermi. In this process the blast wave from the fission explosion would fuse the deuterium and tritium nuclei and produce more energy than fission alone. Thus, was born the “Hydrogen Bomb” but at the time only in theory. At this conference Teller brought forth the idea that the detonation of an “Atomic Bomb” might ignite the very atoms that compose the atmosphere. Physicist Hans Bethe refuted the idea by proving in theory that the atmosphere was made up of dissimilar atoms and therefore could not ignite. Teller went on to regret his folly as this theory of igniting the atmosphere took off and was hard to prove otherwise to the general non-physicist populace. The general public latched onto the idea that an atomic bomb would ignite the atmosphere and destroy all of mankind and it was the panic topic of the early days of WW II. Once the project came under the control of the OSRD headed by Vannevar Bush the need for military control of the project became clear to Bush because of the war use of the proposed weapons. Vannevar Bush brought his concerns to Roosevelt and he in turn asked Secretary of war Stimson and Army Chief of Staff George Marshall to make it a priority. General Marshall gave the assignment to the Corps of Engineers. The Commanding General of the Corps of Engineers chose Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell. Somervell was a career engineer officer who had been a rising star since he graduated sixth in his class at West Point in 1914. Somervell had been the head of the Army Construction Branch of the Quartermaster Corps. At the outbreak of WWII Somervell’s job was transferred to the Corps of Engineers and was placed in charge of the building of the Pentagon. Somervell was passed over to become the Chief of Engineers in favor of Brigadier General Eugene Reybold. At that time he was Army Chief of Staff George Marshall’s G-4, (Logistics Officer). On February 28th, 1942 there were sweeping changes made in the structure of the Army and the War Department. Somervell was swept up in the melee and came out as the Commanding General of Services and Supply with the rank of Lieutenant General. Many of his former superiors were now his subordinates. Thus the Army Corps of Engineers was answerable to Somervell and he only answered to the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Undersecretary of the Army. Since all Army special projects fell under Somervell he chose the name, “Development of Substitute Materials” as the official name of the project. Colonel James Marshall was chosen by Somervell to ramrod the Oak Ridge Tennessee site construction but proved to be too cautious and slow. He was replaced by Colonel Leslie Groves in the summer of 1942. Groves wasted little time in getting the project organized and appointed Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer as the civilian head of the scientists. It was widely known that Oppenheimer was a devotee of the Soviet form of Marxism but was considered a genius by most so his political aspirations were overlooked. Groves named the project “The Manhattan Project” because the practice in the Corps of Engineers had always been to name districts after the city the district headquarters was located in. Since Groves was connected to the Manhattan District he chose the name. Within one week of his assignment Groves had solved many of the complex problems facing the start up of the nuclear weapons program. Groves was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General so he would have the clout to deal with the bureaucracy. In December of 1942 Enrico Fermi and his group had pulled off the first sustained chain reaction in a controlled reactor under the bleachers in the laboratory at Stagg Field on the campus of the University of Chicago. The Fermi group sent a telegram in code to Oppenheimer informing him of their success and the race was truly on and would never stop. Subsequent experiments and massive amounts of money would cause the building of many sites dedicated to the production of nuclear weapon technology. 130,000 people were employed in this venture at its peak. The sites of the various component laboratories were chosen for unique characteristics. The Oak Ridge site was chosen due to the ready availability of cheap electrical power from the Tennessee Valley Authority hydroelectric system. The Hanford Washington site was chosen due to the availability of flowing water in vast quantities which would be used to cool the reactors. The Los Alamos site was previously an abandoned boy’s ranch that was very remote and only accessible via few unimproved roads. In Oak Ridge the site encompassed more than 60,000 acres. In order to produce enough U-235 the machinery at Oak Ridge consumes one sixth of the total electricity produced in the continental United States. It was so secret that the Governor of Tennessee was unaware of its existence for many months. As the sites grew in size and complexity the Hanford site developed to more than 1,000 square miles in area. Hanford was our primary plutonium production center utilizing breeder reactor technology. There were many different sites under the umbrella of the Manhattan Project. There were three primary sites and seven sites of lesser importance to the project. This was a vast and complex network of sites and plant as the following list shows.
Manhattan Project Nuclear Production Sites: 1. THE OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE SITE included: a. Enriched Uranium production plant, (K-25). b. Plutonium production research plant, (X-10). c. Graphite reactor research plant. d. Electromagnetic separation uranium enrichment plant, (S-50). e. Gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment plant, (Y-12) . f. Thermal diffusion uranium enrichment plant, (S-50). 2. THE LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO SITE included: a. The bomb research laboratory. 3. THE HANFORD WASHINGTON SITE included: a. The plutonium production plant. b. Numerous breeder reactors along the banks of the Columbia River, (B-Pile, C- pile, D-pile, F-Reactor. c. 4. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SITE included: a. The primary experimental reactor dubbed CP-1 for Chicago Pile.
5. THE PROJECT TRINITY SITE IN ALAMOGORDO NEW MEXICO INCLUDED: a. First test range with observation bunkers and buried sensors and remote cameras.
6. THE RADIATION LABORATORY AT BERKELY CALIFORNIA included: a. Electromagnetic separation enrichment research laboratory.
7. THE PROJECT ALBERTA SITE AT WENDOVER UTAH AND TINIAN ISLAND included: a. Preparations for the delivery of the bomb to the target.
8. THE PROJECT AMES SITE IN AMES IOWA included: a. The production of raw uranium metal.
9. THE DAYTON PROJECT IN DAYTON OHIO SITE included: a. The research and development of polonium refinement and industrial production of Polonium for nuclear weapon triggers.
10. PROJECT CARMEL AT INYOKERN CALIFORNIA included: a. The research into high explosives and non-nuclear engineering for the Fat Man.
11. THE ROCHESTER NEW YORK SITE included: a. The laboratory for studying the health effects of radiation exposure. USACE General Leslie Groves presided over a vast empire. He was solely responsible for locating the sites, directing the direction that the research should go in and procurement of materials. His authority was absolute and all encompassing. He was possessed of a great facial scowl and a look that would melt you in your shoes if you crossed him. His choice of Oppenheimer as civilian head of the scientists was controversial and was criticized far and wide. Oppenheimer proved to be the right man in the long run as he was able to keep all the brilliant minds and personalities of the scientists under control and focused on the outcome. It was the sheer drive of General Groves that made the project work. He drove everyone to the point of exhaustion because he knew the fate of the free world depended on his projects success. At the end of the war his authority was transferred to the newly created Atomic Energy Commission and Groves was stripped of his command. Before he retired he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts. We, in the United States were not the only nation in the race. In the Soviet Union in 1941 Igor Kurchatov was making strides due to information passed to him via sources in the Manhattan Project Scientific Cadre that were working on the Manhattan Project such as Klaus Fuchs and Theodore Hall who were known communists. Many others including Oppenheimer had past Communist ties and were viewed with skepticism and even lost their security clearances for a while. The proof that the Manhattan Project secrecy was compromised lies in the fact that the Soviet Union reached nuclear capability very quickly! After the war we discovered how well the espionage ring at Los Alamos was organized and operated. The British and their MAUD project were stumbling due to lack of laboratories and materials. There was also a lack of cooperation between our teams due to the methods of communication being compromised. The Axis powers of Germany and Japan developed cursory programs and were making some minor progress but did not put forth the effort to make it a national priority. Many German scientists expressed surprise when we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They said at the end of the war that so much of their industrial infrastructure was destroyed they had nothing to work with. The German effort nominally led by Heisenberg did succeed in partially completing a research reactor which was discovered by the allies at the end of the war. Examination proved that the German fixation on heavy water to regulate fission was the wrong road to take. The Germans were in fact unable to finish the reactor due to bombing and advancing allied armies. Heisenberg never realized that graphite control was feasible for controlling the fission reaction. Until his death Heisenberg expressly stated that the German effort never was directed toward a weapon but to energy production only. The culmination of the United States effort was the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. The Hiroshima bomb was called “Little Boy”. It was a simple gun type weapon and scientists were so certain that it would work that no testing was performed prior to its first use on Hiroshima. The gun type trigger was abandoned in favor of the much more powerful implosion trigger. This type of weapon employed uranium-235 only and was referred to as the uranium bomb. The second weapon used on Japan was a plutonium type called “Fat Man”. It was composed of plutonium-239 which is a synthetic element made from uranium-238. The scientists were not sure of the trigger method and tested the first type of this weapon on July16 1945 at the Trinity Site. The implosion method uses a shaped charge (Lens or Facets, similar to the shape of a geodesic dome but completely encircling the core) of high explosive to fire inward into a ball of plutonium causing it to reach critical mass. The Nagasaki bomb had a much higher yield in its explosion due to using plutonium. The temperature is hotter and the fireball is larger in a plutonium explosion. Of course, it doesn’t occur to the people at ground zero whether they are being vaporized by a bomb that reaches the temperature of the Sun or higher. They still cease to exist in horrifying pain. Once we destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki we became the big bad kid on the block and everyone else scrambled to catch up. We did not have a conquering mind set at the time. We just wanted to convince Japan to surrender or else. We established our willingness to only use nuclear weapons in defense early on in our history. We were urged to use them on the Chinese when they invaded North Korea in the early stages of the Korean War. The possibility of using the bomb on the Chinese was discussed in the White House and in the Pentagon. General McArthur was for using the bomb to stop the Chinese hordes from overrunning our positions in Korea. Calmer heads prevailed at the time and McArthur was eventually sacked by President Truman for his public insubordination. The United States has developed many types of warheads over the past 63 years. Some weapons were large and some small. Many were adapted for specific purposes were configured to ride on the tip of a missile, a torpedo, or to be air dropped from a bomber or fighter aircraft. There were even aircraft built specifically to carry a certain type of weapon for a specific global scenario. The list is long and complex and illustrates the research and development of engineering disciplines applied not to mention the vast public funds spent. The height of the cold war brought forth the height of the furious effort to one up the soviets in nuclear explosive yield and deliverability. We took a step forward and so did the Soviets. Our efforts were broadcast all over the world at the same time the soviets controlled media only broadcast what the Government in Moscow wanted. There was a lot of disinformation promulgated on both sides. When the soviets launched “Sputnik” in 1957 we here in the U. S. were shocked that the Soviets could do such a thing. We all knew that if they can put a satellite in near Earth orbit then they can use missiles to deliver nuclear weapons. I remember the shock wave that passed through the U. S. citizenry as having a stunning effect. The successful launch of “Sputnik” sent the Pentagon into a frenzy of activity and put the U. S. Defense industry into high gear! Money flowed like water into the military industrial complex and the Arms Race! General Groves only had to ask his bosses for something vital to the Manhattan Project and his every need was fulfilled. Large tracts of land were gathered up by the U. S. Government via “Eminent Domain” procedures where the legal land owner was given only what the Government considered “Fair Market Value” and not what was customary and reasonable. A good example of the power of the government through “Executive Order” fiats decreed in the name of “National Security” was the taking of private property for the construction of the Mayport Florida Naval Station in 1941. The property in question was owned by Elizabeth Worthington Stark an émigré from Great Britain whose late husband was a famous British citizen. Her former home is the present day “Bay View Officers Club” at Mayport Naval Station in Duval County Florida.
The Manhattan Project Timeline: 1942 June 18th, Army corps of Engineers takes charge of the Manhattan Project. September 17th, USACE Colonel Leslie Richard Groves takes over command. September 18th, Groves orders 1250 tons of Uranium ore from Belgian Congo. September 19th, Groves purchases 52,000 acres of Eastern Tennessee land. September 23rd, Groves promoted to Brigadier General. September 26th, Groves is given highest “AAA” purchasing authority. October 15th, Groves selects Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer to head Project “Y”. November 16th, Los Alamos Site selected. December 1st, Reactor “CP-1” completed. December 2nd, Reactor “CP-1” goes critical. 1943 January 18th, Groves purchases 780 square miles of Washington State. March 3rd, Los Alamos personnel start arriving. August 22nd, uranium enrichment begins and plutonium is produced. November 4th, Reactor “X-10” goes Critical at Oak Ridge TN. 1944 January 23rd, “K-25” Gaseous diffusion plant developed problems in TN. April 5th, First Oak Ridge plutonium arrives at Los Alamos. April 15th, Decision is made not to use plutonium for first bomb. May 15th, British design team arrives at Los Alamos. May 24th, Weapon implosion instability problem solved by modifications of trigger. June 3rd, Decision made to add another uranium enrichment plant. June 18th, Groves orders “S-50” built at Oak Ridge to feed other enrichment plants. July 4th, Decision to use “Gun” assembly on first bomb made. July 20th, Reorganization implemented to change to plutonium implosion bomb design. August 9th, Groves asks Army Air Corps to modify B-29’s to deliver nuclear weapons. September 26th, First plutonium reactor “B-Pile” goes on line at Hanford. October 27th, Oppenheimer approved plans for test run at Alamagordo Bombing Range. December 12th, Implosion design found suitable for bomb using plutonium. December 17th, The “D-Pile” reactor on line and producing plutonium at Hanford. 1945 January 18th, Experiment creates world’s first critical assembly of critical neutrons. February 19th, Plutonium begins arriving at Los Alamos. February 28th, Design of plutonium bomb finalized. March 5th, Explosive lens design completed. April 3rd, Recently captured Tinian Island prepared to assemble Bombs for B-29 use. April 11th, Optimal performance achieved with scale model implosion device. April 12th, President Roosevelt Dies. April 13th, President Truman told of existence of Atomic Bomb. April 25th, Truman briefed in depth about Manhattan Project. April 27th, Target committee meets for first time choosing seventeen Japanese targets. May 7th, Test using 108 tons of radioactive laced TNT used to test instruments at Trinity. May 8th, V-E DAY, Germany surrenders. May 9th, Operational orders are written for delivery of the first Bomb. May 10th, Target committee selects Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama and Kokura. May 15th, “Little Boy” Made ready for combat use without core inserted. May 25th, Operation Olympic (invasion of Kyushu Island) set for November 1st. May 28th, Target committee meets and decides on Kyoto, Hiroshima and Niigata. May 30th, Secretary of War Stimson rules out Kyoto as target because of cultural history. June 10th, B-29’s begin arriving on Tinian. June 24th, Critical tests prove implosion core design is satisfactory in scale models. June 28th, Army Air Corps says “all major Japanese cities would be destroyed by Oct. July 3rd, The U-235 gun assembly casing is complete for “Little Boy” unit. July 7th, Implosion lens castings were made for Trinity. July 10th, Best of lens castings selected for assembly of Trinity. July 11th, Assembly of “Gadget” the first Atomic Bomb began. July 12th, “Gadget” plutonium core and parts shipped to Alamagordo from Los Alamos July 14th, “Gadget” device hoisted to top of detonation tower and assembled. “Little Boy” parts shipped from San Francisco on U. S. S. Indianapolis. First full scale implosion trigger core tested and failed. July 16th, “Gadget” detonated as first atomic explosion in history with yield of 20-22 Kt. July 24th, “Little Boy” parts and casing arrives on Tinian Island and is assembled. July 28th, “little Boy” Target mass arrives on three separate cargo planes from the U. S. “Fat Man” parts arrive on Tinian Island via Cargo Planes and modified B-29’s. July 31st, “Little Boy” is fully assembled and ready for combat use. August 1st, First Nuclear bombing mission postponed due to approaching Typhoon. August 2nd, “Fat Man” Core Triggers and lens casings arrive on Tinian Island. August 4th, First Nuclear bombing mission set for execution in two days. August 5th, Pilot Paul Tibbets renames B-29 Number 82 the “Enola Gay”.
Use off “Little Boy” August 6th, Time: 0001 hours, final briefing held. 0245 hours, “Enola Gay” begins takeoff roll. 0730 hours, “Little Boy” is armed. 0850 hours, “Enola Gay” is “Feet Dry” at 31,000 feet above Japanese coast. 0916 hours, “Little Boy” detonates at an altitude of 1916 feet above Hiroshima. Use of “Fat Man” August 8th, “Fat Man” loaded into bomb bay of “Bocks Car”. August 9th, Time: 0347 hours, “Bocks Car” takes off from Tinian Island bound for Kokura Japan. 1044 hours, “Bocks Car” arrives at “Feet Dry” point on Japanese coast near Kokura in overcast and diverts to secondary target of Nagasaki. 1102 hours, “Fat Man” detonates at altitude of 1650 feet above Nagasaki. The drop was off target but right on top of the Mitsubishi Heavy Arms Plant. Several days later, Japan Surrenders. It was noted that in both of these uses the height above ground of the blasts kept the fallout to a minimum.
“Sorrow”
Nagasaki Japan was a very beautiful city and was thought of by the Japanese people as almost sacred in that it played a great part in the ocean borne commerce development of Japan in the 18th and 19th and early 20th centuries. Many noble borne Japanese called Nagasaki home and the mountains around the port were dotted by large mansions and estates of noble families. It was chosen as the second nuclear bombing site because of it’s cultural and historic significance to the Japanese. An Ironic twist of fate in the aftermath of the Nagasaki bombing was the fact that the half American and half Japanese son of the real life “Madame Butterfly” was so emotionally devastated by the destruction of his beloved birth city that he hanged himself 16 days after the explosion in his New York apartment. His name in Japanese meant “Sorrow”. Although very sad, I get great enjoyment from opera as it not only tells a story but does so with such beautiful music. “Madame Butterfly” is a sad and mournful tale based on real life. If you ever have the chance to attend that Opera you will understand. CHAPTER 5:
Our Bombs.
On August 6th, 1944 the B-29 (Enola Gay) piloted by Army Air Corps officer Paul Tibbets dropped the first nuclear weapon ever used in anger by the human race on Hiroshima Japan. In that flash the world of geo-politics, diplomacy and warfare changed forever. The bomb used was a Uranium 235 weapon with a gun type trigger device which means a plug of Uranium 235 is fired down a gun barrel at very high velocity and smashes into another wad of Uranium 235. The yield from the Hiroshima bomb was puny compared to bombs and missile warheads developed later in the various programs around the world. By today’s standards the weapon used on Hiroshima was primitive and of relatively low yield. The “Little Boy” bomb was the equivalent of our present day military tactical nuclear weapons used on Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles, (approx. 15 to 20 KT) and on some artillery rounds and cruise missile warheads. In contrast the “Fat Man” bomb dropped on Nagasaki by the B-29 “Bock’s Car” two days after the Hiroshima event was a far more sophisticated weapon. The “Fat Man” weapon used Plutonium in an implosion which is a man made element. Plutonium is used to enhance the yield of a nuclear blast. The “Fat Man” bomb was the first time an implosion type device was employed. Meaning a ball of compressed Uranium enhanced by Plutonium was further compressed by a conventional explosive sphere blasting inward a mass of U-235 and Plutonium to induce critical mass. The yield from the Nagasaki device was different in that it produced a more intense blast of higher heat concentration at ground zero. Both weapons were detonated above ground or “Airburst” where the blast effect is much more widespread and inflicts maximum destruction but relatively mild fallout. Since the initial use of these weapons in 1945 the world has seen a vast quantity and variety of weapons made by the nuclear powers detonated in tests in a global contest to see who could build the biggest, most accurate and scariest nuclear weapon. The U. S. Army Air Corps was the agency who delivered the first two weapons so when the U. S. Air Force that was created in 1946 from the Army Air Corps they had the expertise and means to deliver the few weapons the United States possessed at that time. The following accounting is gleaned from declassified U. S. Department of Defense Documents under the Freedom of Information act. Keep in mind that I only have detailed data on U. S. nuclear weapons. We do not have the same access to French, British, Russian, Chinese, Indian, Pakistan, South African or Israeli weapons. With that said I remind you that there are still many things I as a researcher are not allowed access to. There is a rumor afoot presently in global security rumors that indicate the U. S. government has developed a Ground Penetrating Low Yield Nuclear Weapon specifically designed to take out underground nuclear weapon manufacturing plants that are subterranean in such places as Iran. It is not enough to conventionally destroy a nuclear facility because it can be rebuilt. If you destroy it with a nuclear device then the radiation renders the destroyed site too “Hot” to rebuild. The following data shows what the U. S. military industrial complex has accomplished since 1945.
U. S. Air Force and Navy Gravity Bomb Nuclear Weapons:
In my research I counted a total of 20,590 U. S. nuclear weapon devices built from 1945 to the present! Why did we need all those bombs you ask? Let’s explore the history.
1. The MK-1/MK-II bomb was the “Little Boy” Hiroshima bomb. It was a crude but effective unit weighing 8,900 lbs. with a Highly Enriched Uranium core, of the six built in 1945 five of these were retired in 1950. These weapons had an explosive yield of 15- 16 Kilotons and were fused for airburst only. Due to their weight the only aircraft in the U. S. military that could carry this weapon was the B-29 and the B-50 variant of the B-29 heavy bomber. 2. The MK-II bomb was a theoretical design and was cancelled during the design stage and incorporated into the “Little Boy” design in 1945 3. The MK-III bomb was the “Fat Man” Nagasaki bomb. It had a Plutonium Implosion type core and weighed 10,300 lbs. with an IFI (In Flight Insertion) trigger mechanism that would be incorporated in all subsequent designs for safety. It worked exceptionally well so this design was adopted as the production run model. They were built from 04/1947to 04/1949. All 120 of them were retired in late 1950. These weapons had an explosive yield of 18 to 49 Kilotons and were fused for airburst only. The one dropped on Nagasaki was the prototype which all future nuclear weapon designs in the U. S. arsenal would be based. Due to their weight these bombs were only carried by the B-29, B-50 and the newly introduced B-36 bombers. 4. The Mk-4 bombs were improved MK-III designs with the IFI (In Flight Insertion) fusing designed in. These units were 10,800 to 10, 900 lbs. depending on the core yield design. The yield was controlled by altering the PU/HEU (Plutonium/Highly Enriched Uranium) core. They were produced from 03/1949-05/1951. Of the 550 units made all were retired between mid 1952 and mid 1953. These weapons had an explosive yield of 1 to 31 Kt and were fused for airburst only. Many of these cores were recycled and used again in future models. Due to their weight the only aircraft capable of carrying them were the B-29, B-50 and B-36 heavy bombers. 5. The MK-5 bombs were much improved versions of the MK-4. They were much lighter in weight, (3,025-3,175 lbs.) and had a 92 lens implosion ball. Upon detonation it produced a thermonuclear blast with a much wider thermal blast zone. These units were designed with automatic IFI (In Flight Insertion). These units had an explosive yield of 6 to 120 Kt and were fused for airburst or contact. They were produce in 1952. Of the 140 units made all were retired between 1952 and 1963. Due to their weight these weapons were only carried by the B-29, B-50 and B-36 heavy bombers. 6. The MK-6 bombs were much improved higher yield modifications of MK-5 units. These units weighed 7,600 -8500 lbs. They incorporated a 60 lens implosion ball. Of the 1100 units made from 07/1951 to 04/1955 and all were retired by 1962. These units had an explosive yield of 8 to 160 Kt and were fused for airburst or contact. Due to their weight these weapons were only carried by the Navy AJ-1, Air Force B-29, B-50 and B-36 heavy bombers. 7. The MK-7 bombs were smaller (1,645-1,700 lbs.) and used a 92 lens implosion ball. Since they were lighter many more types of smaller aircraft such as fighter/bombers could carry them mounted on wing pylons. These were the first units to incorporate the PAL (Permissive Action Link) electronic system. This system contained the safeties where in the aircraft personnel had to go through a sequence of switch manipulations before the weapon could be armed. These units had an explosive yield of 8 to 61 Kt and were fused for airburst or contact. The fact that these weapons were deliverable by much more aircraft gave the U. S. military a much expanded threat capability to our enemies. Of the 1800 units built from 07/1952 to 02/1963 many were in service from 1952 until 1967. Due to their lighter weight these weapons could be carried on any aircraft in the U. S. military fitted with advanced electronics for PAL. In the late sixties many were recycled into newer model weapons. 8. The MK-8 bombs were designed as earth penetrating units. They incorporated a hardened bomb casing which increased weight. These units weighed 3,230-3,280 lbs. Since these weapons only had a 12 to 15 kiloton yield the detonation core was an improved gun type and not an implosion model. These units had an explosive yield of 15 to 30 Kt and were fused for pyrotechnic delay. Only 40 units were produced from 11/1951 to 05/1953 and they were retired by 1957. These weapons were carried by all of our bombers fitted with PAL. 9. The MK-9 bombs were produced not as a bomb, but as an ADM (Atomic Demolition Weapon). It was man-portable and the yield was sub Kiloton but effective on fortified positions. It was a gun type nuclear trigger and used HEU. These units were fused for time delay detonation. Only a few were built and stockpiled in 1957. They were retired in 1963. They were of a “backpack” design similar to large satchel charges of TNT. 10. The MK-10 was cancelled in the design stage. 11. The MK-11 bombs replaced the MK-8 units on a one for one basis. They weighed the same as the MK-8 units (3,210 to 3,500 lbs.) and had the same yield. They had improved PAL systems and were later listed in the U. S. nuclear stockpile as MK-91 Penetration Bombs. Only 40 units were produced from 01/1956 to 01/1957 and they were in service until 1960. These units had an explosive yield of 12 to 15 Kt and were fused for pyrotechnic delay detonation. They were capable of being carried by all bombers in the U. S. military equipped with PAL. 12. The MK-12 bombs were designed to be dropped by high speed fighter/bomber aircraft from wing pylons and were very streamlined in shape. They weighed 1,100 to 1,200 lbs. which made them aircraft wing pylon mountable. They could be carried by any U. S. military aircraft with PAL technology. They were nicknamed “BROK”. These weapons were the first to use a Beryllium Tamper. These units had an explosive yield of 12 to 14 Kt and fusing for contact or time delay. They were produced from 12/1954 to 02/1957. The 250 units produced were gradually retired from 07/1958 to 07/1962. They could be carried by any U. S. military aircraft. 13. The MK-13 Bomb was cancelled prior to production in 1954. 14. The TX/MK-14 bombs were the first deployed solid fuel thermonuclear weapons. They weighed 28,954 to 31,000 lbs. their weight relegated them to use by the heaviest bombers in the U. S. military inventory. The yield was huge, (5 to 7 megaton) and these bombs were only carried by the huge B-36 bomber. The B-36 had a payload capacity of 86,000 lbs so it was capable of carrying two. These units were fused for airburst only. Only five were produced between 02/1954-10/1954 and were all recycled into the MK- 17 weapon in 1956. These weapons were dropped from the huge B-36 and were retarded by a parachute for airburst only. 15. The MK-15 bombs were improved mass produced MK-14 types. They had a secondary HEU casing and were deployed via parachute. They were smaller and lighter in weight at 7,600 lbs. They had an explosive yield of 3.8 Megatons and were fused with the new FUFO (Full Fusing Option) which enabled the aircrew to dial in the option of how to detonate the weapon. They were produced in 1954 to 1957 and 1200 units were made. They were capable of being carried by all of the Bombers in the U. S. inventory. 16. The TX-16 bombs were extremely large and heavy rendering them to being carried by the B-36 or the new B-52 bombers only. These units weighed 39,000 to 42,000 lbs. They had a yield of 6 to 8 Mt and were fused for airburst only. These monsters were the firsts of their kinds in several categories. They were the first truly purpose built thermonuclear devices. They were the first and only cryogenic thermonuclear weapons ever deployed. There were on five of them produced in 1954 and they were kept in the stockpile until the mid sixties. They were so heavy that they could only be carried by the B-36 or B-52 heavy bombers. 17. The EC-17 bombs were high yield at 11 Mt and were large at a weight of 39,600 lbs. These units used natural lithium and were free fall bombs. They were fused for airburst only. They were only carried by B-36 or B-52 bombers because of their weight. Only five units were built in 1954 and were kept in the stockpile until the late sixties. They were fused for airburst only. 18. The MK-17 bombs were truly heavy. They weighed 41,400 to 42,000 lbs. They had a yield of 11 to 15 Mt and were fused for airburst or contact. They were the heaviest nuclear weapon ever produced in the U. S. When dropped they were retarded in decent by a parachute. There were 200 units produced from 07/1954 to 11/1955 and they were retired from 11/1956 to 08/1957. These weapons had the second highest yield of any U. S. nuclear bomb. They were only carried by the B-36 or the B-52 bombers. 19. The MK-18 units were the largest pure fission bombs ever deployed. They weighed 8,600 lbs. and produced an explosive yield of 500 Kt. They were classed as SOB (Super Alloy Bombs) with a 92 point implosion ball. They had an HEU core and were produced from 03/1953 to 02/1955. They were fused for airburst or contact. Since they were of a more manageable weight they were carried by all bombers equipped with internal bomb bays. 90 units were produced and all were retired in the first three months of 1956. 20. The MK-20 units were cancelled in the design phase. 21. The MK-21 bombs were cancelled in the planning stage. 22. The MK-22 bombs were cancelled in the planning stage. 23. The EC-24 Bombs were large and weighed 39,600 lbs. They had an explosive yield of 13.5 Mt and were fused for airburst only. Only ten were produced in 1954. They were kept in the stockpile until the mid sixties. The core used enriched Lithium-6 and they were dropped in free fall and fused for airburst only. They were only carried by the B- 36 or B-52 heavy bombers. 24. The MK-24 bombs were very heavy at 42,400 to 42,000 lbs. They had an explosive yield of 10 to 15 Mt and the first models were fused for airburst only. They were dropped via a 64 foot diameter parachute to retard decent. They were similar to the MK-17 but were improved in the electronics and fusing variants. A later variant could be fused for contact. They were produced from 07/1954 to 11/1955 and all 105 units were retired in late 1956. They were only carried by the B-36 and the B-52 heavy bombers. 25. The MK-26 bomb was cancelled in 1956. 26. The MK-27 bombs were made for the Navy. They weighed 3,150 to 3,300 lbs and had an explosive yield of 1 Mt. They were fused for airburst or contact. They were of a UCRL design and were classed as lightweight thermonuclear weapons. 700 units were produced from 11/1958 to 6/1959 and all were retired from 11/1962 to 07/1965. All navy aircraft could carry these weapons. Most were carried by the A-3d Sky Warrior or the A-5 Vigilante Carrier Based Bomber. 27. The MK-28/B-28 bombs were considered multipurpose thermonuclear weapons in that they were developed in several different variants. Depending on the variant they had an explosive yield of 70 Kt to 1.45 Mt. They were FUFO fused and weighed 1,700 to 2,320 lbs. depending on the model selected. This bomb design was the longest running in U. S. military history at 33 years. Versions were in service from 1958 to 1991. There were 4,500 units produced and the last one was retired in 09/1991. They were capable of being delivered by a wide range of military aircraft. 28. The MK-36 bombs were designed as two stage thermonuclear type with two variants. One was “dirty” and the other was “clean”. They weighed in at 17,500 to 17,700 lbs. and were deliverable by medium to heavy bombers only. They were equipped with FUFO and were dropped parachute retarded. The 940 units built were produced from 4/1956 to 6/1958 and were retired from 08/1962 to 01/1962. Carried by B-47, B-52, B-57, B-58 and B-56 bombers. 29. The MK-39 bombs were improved Mk-15 models. They used a gas boosted primary trigger system to reduce overall weight. They had thermal batteries, improved safeties and variable parachute deployment packages. They weighed 6.650 to 6,750 lbs. and were capable of an explosive yield of 3 to 4 Mt. They were capable of low level deployment in the “lay down” configuration. There were 700 units made between 02/1957 and 03/1959 and all were retired in the 1962 to 1966 period. They were capable of being carried by all U. S. medium and heavy bombers. 30. The MK-41 bombs were the highest yield U. S. nuclear weapons ever deployed. They were of an advanced design with a three stage thermonuclear core. They were built in two versions, one was “dirty” and one was “clean”. They weighed 10,500 to 10,670 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 25 Mt. They were FUFO equipped and were dropped with a parachute for retardation or free fall. There were 500 units manufactured from 09/1960 to 06/1962. They were retired from service from 11/1963 to 07/1976 in favor of the MK-53 weapon. They were too heavy for wing pylon mounting so they were only carried by bombers with internal bomb bays. 31. The MK-43 bombs were built for high speed low altitude delivery. They were small enough at 2,060 to 2,125 lbs. and streamlined enough to be pylon mounted on a wide variety of aircraft. They had an explosive yield of 70 Kt to 1 Mt and were FUFO equipped. There were 1000 units built between 04/1961 and 10/1965. They were equipped with the newer PAL B upgrade. They were fission only bombs and were retired during the 12/1972 to 04/1991 period. 32. The MK-46/B46 bombs were cancelled prior to production. 33. The MK-53/B-53 bombs were designed as HEU fission only weapons with no Plutonium. They were and remain our main weapon deliverable by the B-47, B-52, B-58 follow on Bombers such as the B-1B and B-2. They weigh in at 8,850 to 8,900 lbs. and have a 9 Mt explosive yield. They were FUFO equipped and are parachute retarded or free fall. They were manufactured from 08/1962 to 06/1965 and were modified in 7/1967. Of the 350 units produced 300 units were retired in 1997 but 50 units were retained in our in service stockpile. 34. The MK-54 was produced as an ADM (Atomic Demolition Munition). They weigh 150 lbs. and are man portable. They have an explosive yield of 10 Tons to 1 Kt. They were manufactured from 08/1964 to 06/1966 and were retired from service in the period of 1967 o 1989. They were equipped with a mechanical combination lock and PAL and were fused with a time delay. They were “Backpack” type weapons similar to a TNT satchel charge. There were 300 units produced. 35. The MK-57/B-57 bombs were light weight at 490 to 510 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 5 to 20 Kt. They were used as multipurpose tactical weapons and were used in depth charges, torpedoes and tactical strike weapons deliverable by any aircraft. They were equipped with FUFO and PAL B. 3,100 units were produced from 01/1963 to 05/1967. The early models were retired from 06/1975 to 06/1993. They were dropped via a parachute retardation method or free fall. They could be carried by any aircraft. 36. The MK/B-61 bombs were light weight at 695 to 716 lbs. and adaptable to many weapons systems. There were many modifications made and these weapons are the main weapons remaining in our stockpile today. They have a variable yield (depending on the model) from 0.3 Kt to 340 Kt. They are equipped with the latest PAL version and use an IHE in the primary core. They were manufactured from 10/1966 to the early 90’s and many of the older models were retired. Of the 3150 units manufactured 1350 late model units remain in our stockpile. They were the longest production run of any U. S. nuclear bomb. The remaining units are part of our “enduring stockpile”. They can be carried by any aircraft and adapted to many delivery vehicles. 37. The B-77 bombs were cancelled during the design phase in 1977. 38. The B-83 bombs are our current high yield thermonuclear weapon. They weigh 2,400 lbs. and have an explosive yield to 1.2 Mt. They are FUFO equipped with the latest PAL system with a fire resistant explosive pit. They are deliverable by all current aircraft in the U. S. military. They use an IHE primary. They are parachute retarded and are low altitude, high speed deliverable. They were manufactured from 06/1983 to 1991 and there were 650 produced. They are our “Go To” nuclear weapons currently. 39. The B-90 bombs were cancelled in the design stage in 1991. No new bombs have been produced recently but there is a rumor that the U. S. is working on a low yield earth penetration weapon called the “Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator”, specifically to take out underground WMD production plants. Bombs produced up until 1968 were referred to a “MK” (Mark). Bombs produced from 1968 on were designated “B” (Bomb). The “TX” designation stood for “Test Experimental”. Chapter 6:
The Weapon Delivery Systems.
U. S. Army Air Corps and U. S. Air Force Bombers.
1. The B-29 or “Super Fortress” entered service in early 1944 and was the first U. S. “Nuclear Bomber”. Versions were in service well into the sixties in reserve commands. The “Enola Gay” dropped the “Little Boy” HEU bomb on Hiroshima Japan on August 6, 1945 was a B-29. The B-29 “Bock’s Car” dropped the Plutonium bomb “Fat Man” on Nagasaki Japan on August 8, 1945. Shortly thereafter Japan’s Imperial Government sued for peace. These two instances were the first and only known use of nuclear weapons in War. The B-29 was propeller driven and slow by today’s standards. The B-29 “Super Fortress” Specifications are four each Wright Radial 3350, turbocharged 23 cylinder engines. Each rated at 2,200 horsepower. They had a max speed of 357 MPH. They carried a crew of 5 officers and 6 enlisted men. They had a range of 5,600 miles and could carry 20,000 lbs. of bombs in an internal bomb bay. Aircraft maximum takeoff weight was 133,500 lbs. 2. The B-50 or “Super Fortress” entered service in 1945 and was a slightly improved model of the B-29. It was in service well into the sixties in reserve components and National Guard units. It had a crew of 8. The aircraft was propeller drive and still slow by today’s standards at a max speed of 395 MPH. It had Pratt & Whitney Radial 4360 engines. Each rated at 3,500 horsepower. It had a range of 5,000 nautical miles and a bomb load capacity of 20,000 pounds in the bomb bay and 8,000 pounds on external pylons. Aircraft maximum takeoff weight was 173,000 lbs. 3. The B-36 or “Peacemaker” entered service in 1949 and was the first U. S. bomber designed as a strategic bomber with a huge bomb weight capacity. The B-36 established several firsts. It was the first U. S. Air Force Bomber to be equipped with Jet Engines to supplement the Propeller Engines. It had a crew of 9. The B-36 had 6 each Pratt & Whitney Radial 4360 piston engines rated at 3,800 horsepower each. It also had 4 each GE J47 turbojets rated at 5,200 pounds of thrust. Typically after reaching cruising altitude the jet engines were shut off to conserve their limited on board supply of jet fuel. Most of the fuel capacity was taken up with aviation gas for the piston engines. They had a 72,000 lb. internal bomb capacity, a top speed of 420 MPH and a range of 5,905 nautical miles. The maximum takeoff weight was 410,000 lbs. 4. The B-45 or “Tornado” was the first all jet operational bomber for the Air Force. It was built by North American and introduced in 1948 as a medium bomber and 143 units were produced. It had a crew of four. It was powered by four GE J-47 turbojet engines developing a combined thrust of 20,800 pounds. It had a maximum takeoff weight of 110,000 pounds. It had a range of 870 nautical miles and a maximum speed of 570 MPH. It could carry a bomb load of 22,000 pounds and was capable of carrying any nuclear weapon in the USAF inventory at the time. 5. The B-47 or “Stratojet” entered service in 1955/56 and was the first swept wing all jet powered bomber in the Air Force inventory. It took a crew of 5 to operate it and it was powered by six GE J47 turbojet engines developing 7,200 lbs. of thrust each. The early jet engines were not powerful enough to get the plane off the ground in a reasonable length of runway so a JATO (jet assisted take off) rocket system was installed on either side of the fuselage aft near the tail to give the extra thrust to weight ratio to attain takeoff speed quickly. The B-47 was capable of a top speed of 607 MPH. It had a maximum range of 4,037 nautical miles. It could carry a 25,000 lb. bomb load in the internal bomb bay. Its maximum takeoff weight was 230,000 lbs. 6. The B-49 or “Flying Wing” was introduced in 1948 as an experimental bomber. It had control problems from the start and the first prototype crashed on June 5, 1948 killing the five man crew. The pilot of this aircraft was Capt. Glenn W. Edwards USAF. The Air Force named the base in California after him. The B-49 was powered by very weak Allison Jet engines which only produce 3,750 lbs. of thrust each. Even with the eight engines fitted this did not give the B-49 enough power for good control. The concept of the flying wing was ahead of its time and the technology of the day could not overcome the instability of the tailless design. The program was scrapped in late 1949. 7. The B-52 or “Stratofortress” was built from 1956 to 1962. There were 744 built and many of the later H models were upgraded over the years and are still active in the Air Force as strategic bombers. There are approximately 100 B-52H models still in the Air Force inventory. They carry a crew of five and the present B-52 aircraft are at three locations. The 2nd Bomb Wing is at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. The 5th Bomb Wing is at Minot AFB North Dakota, and the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron is at Anderson AFB Guam. The B-52H in service today has eight Pratt & Whitney TF-P- 3/103 Turbofan Jet engines each developing thrust of 17,000 lbs. This power gives the B- 52H a top speed of 560 Knots. It can carry a bomb load 60,000 lbs. mixed between internal bomb bays and wing pylons. It can also launch ALCM cruise missiles. This model has a range of 11,000 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 488,000 lbs. The crews call them “BUFF” (big ugly fat fellows). The B-52H can carry and deploy any nuclear weapon in the U. S. stockpile. 8. The B-57 or “Canberra” is the U. S. model of a British design. The U. S. model was introduced in 1963 and is powered by two Wright J65-W-5 turbojets developing 7,220 lbs. of thrust each. This gives the B-57 a top speed of 598 MPH. It requires a crew of two to operate this aircraft. The Air Force retired all of its B-57 fleet in the early 1970’s and the only ones known still flying belong to NASA. They are used for atmospheric testing and Space Shuttle Launch observation. As bombers the B-57’s were considered light/medium bombers in that their bomb capacity was only 7,300 lbs. of that total 4,500 lbs. could be carried in the internal bomb bay and 2,800 lbs. could be divided between four external wing pylons. The B-57 has a range of 2,720 nautical miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 53,345 lbs. They could carry the smaller nuclear weapons. 9. The B-58 or “Hustler” was introduced to the Air Force in 1960 as the first true high speed and high altitude penetration bomber. The were designed to fly high and fast to penetrate the Soviet Unions air defenses and drop Nuclear weapons before being shot down. They were designed much like the Air Force Delta wing shaped fighter of that time with a severely swept delta wing and four huge GE J79 turbojets slung under the wings each producing 15,600 lbs. of thrust. This power coupled with the shape gave the B-58 a top speed of 1,400 MPH or Mach 2.1. The crew of three was busy keeping this bullet under control as the delta wing shape was a notoriously difficult design to fly. The There were 103 aircraft built and all were retired by 1970. Only 8 aircraft remain on static display at various AFB locations. They were short legged by B-52 standards and the maximum range was only 4,720 miles. They we too small and sleek to have an internal bomb bay so all bombs were contained in a Pod slung under the fuselage. The Pod had the capacity for 4 each B-43 or 4 each B-61 nuclear bombs. The Pod was basically an externally mounted bomb bay that could be operated by the weapons officer like an internal bomb bay. Its maximum bomb load was 19,450 lbs. and it had a maximum takeoff weight of 176,890 lbs. In my opinion the B-58 was the coolest bomber ever built. 10. The B-66 or “Destroyer” was introduced to the Air Force in 1954 as a medium Bomber. The plane was essentially a Navy A-3D “Skywarrior” in Air Force colors. They B-66 was employed by the Air Force as a medium payload and medium range bomber. It was powered by two Allison J71-A-11 or -13 turbojets developing 10,200 pounds of thrust each. The aircraft had a top speed of 631 MPH and a maximum range of 2,470 Miles. It was operated by a crew of 3 and could carry 15,000 lbs. of conventional and nuclear weapons. The B-66 had a maximum takeoff weight of 83,000 lbs. The later versions were converted to electronic warfare platforms and carried a much larger crew. This is the aircraft the Lt. Col. Campbell of “Bat-51” fame ejected from over Viet Nam. 11. The B-70 or “Valkyrie” was the Air Forces’ short lived experiment with Mach 3 bombers from 1964 to 1967. It was a huge aircraft with six GE YJ93 turbojet engines each capable of creating 28,000 lbs. of thrust. This aircraft was capable of reaching 2,000 MPH. It had a crew of 2 and was capable of carrying a massive internal bomb load of conventional and nuclear weapons. It had a maximum takeoff weight of 534,700 lbs. It was cancelled because it was too complex to maintain and consumed too much fuel. Also the newer high altitude SAM missiles rendered it vulnerable. 12. The F/B-111 or “Aardvark” or “Switchblade” as the crews called them was a very fast variable wing geometry light bomber. It had a crew of 2 and was equipped with advanced ECM systems. It was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-100 turbofan engines each putting out 17,900 lbs. of thrust dry or 25,100 lbs. of thrust in afterburner. They were capable of 1,650 MPH top speed and could carry 31,500 lbs. of weapons internally and externally. They were able to carry the B-43, B-57, B-61 or B-83 nuclear weapons. They had a maximum takeoff weight of 98,979 lbs. They were in service from 1967 until 1998 with the Air Force. F-111 aircraft flew from Britain to Libya to bomb Mohmar Kadafi during the Libyan crisis. 13. The B-1B or “Lancer” was introduced in 1985 and is the current long range heavy bomber in the Air Force inventory along with the B-52. There are 67 active aircraft and 25 are in ready reserve status. It is the only “Swing Wing” or variable geometry wing heavy bomber we have. The B-1B is operated by a crew of 4 and is powered by four GE F-101-02 turbofan engines producing 30,000 lbs. of thrust each. This gives the B-1B a top speed in the 1000 MPH range. It has three internal bomb bays and is capable of carrying a massive bomb load of conventional and nuclear weapons. It has Nap of the Earth flying ability by which it can fly lower and faster than any bomber. It has a small radar cross section so it’s harder to spot on radar and it has advanced ECM systems. It has an intercontinental range un-refueled. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 477,000 lbs. 14. The B-2 or “Spirit” (introduced in 1997) is the only “Stealth Bomber” in our inventory. It provides the ability to penetrate defense systems unseen. The B-2 has a crew of 2 pilots. It is powered by four GE-F118 engines providing 17,000 lbs. of thrust each. It has a top speed of just under 700 MPH. (You don’t have to go fast if they can’t see you”!) It can carry a massive 40,000 lb. bomb load. (That’s 16 B-61 or B-83 nuclear bombs) or ALCM’s in the internal bomb bays rotary launchers. There are 21 of these aircraft in our current inventory. They have an intercontinental un-refueled range and a maximum takeoff weight of 336,500 lbs. At night you would never know it was there!
Air Force Tactical Fighter Aircraft: 1. The A-1 or “Skyraider” was introduced in 1945 to both the Navy and the Air Force as a highly effective ground attack bomber. Many later models including the A4D, A6D and other variants were nuclear weapon capable. It was built by Douglas Aircraft and there were 3,180 units built. It had a crew of one but later modified units could carry up to three crewmembers. The aircraft was powered by one Wright 3350 radial engine capable of developing 2,700 HP. The aircraft had a maximum takeoff weight of 25,000 pounds. It had a maximum speed of 320 MPH. It could carry a massive 8,000 pounds of external weapons including nuclear gravity bombs. 2. F-84 or “Thunderjet” was the first fighter/bomber capable of carrying a nuclear gravity bomb. It was built by Republic Aviation Corporation. This model was introduced in 1947 and continued in production for 7,524 units. It had a crew of one pilot. It was powered by one Allison J-35 turbojet that developed 5,560 lb. ft. of thrust. It had a maximum takeoff weight of 23,340 pounds. It had a payload capacity of 4,450 pounds. It was capable of carrying one MK-7 nuclear bomb. It had a maximum speed of 622 MPH. 3. F-86 or “Saberjet” was introduced in 1949 as a fighter/interceptor. It was developed by North American Aviation Corporation. It was the first swept wing fighter design in the Air Force and 9,860 units were built. The aircraft had a crew of one pilot. It was powered by one General Electric J-47 Turbojet engine. It had a max takeoff weight of 18, 152 pounds. It had a maximum speed of 687 MPH. It could carry 2,400 pounds of external weapons and was capable of carrying one nuclear gravity bomb. 4. The F-89 or “Scorpion” was the First Nuclear armed fighter aircraft in Air Force History. They were in service from 1950 to 1969. They carried a crew of two and were powered by two Allison J35-A-35A each turbojets producing 5,600 lbs. of thrust dry and 7,400 lbs. of thrust in afterburner which gave them a top speed of 636 MPH. They had a range of 1,376 miles. They were equipped with the wing mounts for the Aim-2 “Genie” nuclear tipped air-to-air missile and assorted other conventional ordinance. They had a maximum takeoff weight of 46,800 lbs. 5. The F-100 or “Super Sabre” was an advanced design based on the North American F-86 “Sabre” in service from 1954 to 1970. It was primarily a fighter aircraft but was fitted with wing pylons for external weapons. It had a crew of one pilot. It was powered by one P & W J57-P-21 turbojet producing 10,200 lbs. of thrust dry and 16,000 lbs. of thrust in afterburner giving it a top speed of 750 knots. It had a combat range of 1,733 miles and could carry 7,040 lbs. of bombs. It was configured to carry one each MK-7, MK-28, MK-43, MK-57 or MK-61 nuclear bombs. It had a maximum takeoff weight of 34,832 lbs. 6. The F-101 or “Voodoo” was designed as a fighter/interceptor and was in service from 1957 to 1966. It had a crew of two. It was powered by two P & W J57-P-55 turbojets producing 11,990 lbs. of thrust dry or 16,900 lbs. of thrust in afterburner which gave it a top speed of 1,134 MPH. It had a combat range of 1,520 miles. It was equipped to carry two nuclear tipped “Genie” Air-2 air-to-air missiles which were used to shoot down whole flights of enemy bombers. The F-101 had a maximum takeoff weight of 52,400 lbs. 5. The F-102 or “Delta Dagger” was in service from 1956 to 1976 and was primarily an interceptor. It had a crew of one and was powered by one P & W J57-P-25 turbojet engine producing 11,700 lbs. of thrust dry and 17,200 lbs. of thrust in afterburner giving it a top speed of 825 MPH. It was capable of carrying an assortment of air-to-air missiles including the Aim-2 “Genie” nuclear tipped missile and the newer Aim-26A “Falcon” nuclear tipped missile. The aircraft had a range of 1,350 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 31,500 lbs. 6. The F-104 or “Starfighter” was the first 1000 MPH plus fighter/interceptor for the Air Force. It was in service from 1958 to 1967. The F-104 had very sharp stubby wings to cut down on drag at high speed. It was operated by one pilot and was equipped with one GE J79-11A turbojet capable of producing 10,000 lbs. of thrust dry and 15,600 lbs. of thrust in afterburner giving it a top speed of 1,328 MPH. The F-104 had seven hard points for external weapons mounts and could carry any air-to-air missile in the Air Force inventory including the nuclear tipped ones. It had a range of 1,630 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 29,027 lbs. 7. The F-105 or “Thunderchief” was the Air Force work horse tactical fighter/bomber for 25 years, from 1958 to 1984. It had a crew of one and was powered by one P & W J75-P-19W turbojet producing 26,500 lbs. of thrust in afterburner and with water injection. It had a top speed of 1,372 MPH. It had an internal bomb bay as well as external hard points giving it a combat weapons load of 14,000 lbs. It was capable of carrying any nuclear weapons in the Air Force arsenal. It had a range of 2,210 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 52,546 lbs. 8. The F-106 or “Delta Dart” was a very fast fighter/interceptor in service for 29 years from 1959 to 1988. It had a crew of one and was powered by one P & W J75-17 turbojet which produced 24,500 lbs. of thrust in afterburner giving it a top speed of 1,525 MPH. It could carry two of any missiles in the Air Force inventory including the nuclear tipped Air-2 “Genie” and later model nuclear interceptor missiles. It had a range of 1,800 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 34,510 lbs. 9. The F-4 or “Phantom” and all of its variants was introduced in 1960 and has been in service of varying roles until 1995. It was used by the Air Force, Navy and Marines. It had a crew of two and was powered by two GE J79-17A turbojets producing 17,845 lbs. of thrust each for a top speed of 1,472 MPH. The F-4 could carry up to 18,650 lbs. of bombs and other munitions on wing and fuselage mounted hard points. It was capable of carrying any nuclear bomb or missile in the Air Force or Navy inventory during its career. The Phantom had a range of 1,403 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 61,795 lbs. 10. The F-15 or “Eagle” and its follow on variants were introduced to the Air Force in 1976 and remains in service today. They are being gradually replaced by the F-22 “Raptor”. The F-15 has a crew of one and is powered by two P & W F100-100-220 0r -229 turbofan engines producing 29,000 lbs. of thrust in afterburner giving them a top speed of 1,875 MPH at high altitude. The F-15 as an external weapons load capacity of 16,000 lbs. It is capable of carrying any nuclear bomb or missiles that are wing mountable in our current inventory. The aircraft has a range of 3,000 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 68,000 lbs. 11. The A-10 or “Thunderbolt II” or “Warthog” as the crews call them are the current Air Force, AF Reserve and AF National Guard premier ground attack aircraft. They were introduced in 1977 and there are 128 aircraft on active duty with 51 in reserve squadrons and 102 in National Guard squadrons. The A-10 is piloted by a crew of one and is powered by two GE TF34-100A turbofan engines producing 9,065 lbs. of thrust each for a top speed of 517 MPH. The A-10 is strictly for ground attack but it can defend itself from enemy fighters by means of two air-to-air missiles. This aircraft is heavily armored and has a tremendous amount of firepower in the 30 MM rotary cannon in the nose. The cannon fires depleted uranium rounds that destroy armored vehicles. The main drawback for the A-10 is its relatively short range of 252 miles. It carries 9,000 lbs. of bombs on hard points but its main armament is the cannon. It has modern avionics and weapons systems so it can carry tactical nuclear weapons in a pinch. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 50,000 lbs. 12. The F-16 or “Fighting Falcon” was introduced in 1978 and is the most produced modern jet fighter in history with more than 4,200 being built and currently the U. S. Air Force has 724 units in active service 69 in reserve squadrons and 522 in National Guard squadrons. The F-16 is operated by a crew of 1 and is powered by one P & W F100-PW-220 turbofan engine with 23,770 lbs. of thrust in afterburner giving it a top speed of 1,500 MPH at high altitude. The F-16 can carry an impressive assortment of missiles and bombs on hard points. It can carry all models of air-to-air missiles including nuclear tipped ones and can carry the B-61 nuclear bomb and later variants. It has a maximum range of 3,200 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 42,300 lbs. 13. The F-117 or “Nighthawk” is a stealth fighter that was introduced in 1982. Of the 69 aircraft built most are in the process of being replaced by the F-22 Raptor. The F- 117 has a crew of 1 and is powered by two GE F404-F1D2 turbofan engines each rated at 10,600 lbs. of thrust giving it a top speed of 617 MPH. (You don’t have to go fast if they can’t see you)! The aircraft carries all weapons internally and is usually operated at night. It has the capacity for two bombs totaling 5,000 lbs. It has no self defense capability other than stealth. It can carry two tactical nuclear bombs. It has a short range of 930 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 52,500 lbs. 14. The F-22 or “Raptor” is the latest version of the stealth fighter introduced in 2006. It is replacing our front line fighters as more are built. The F-22 has a crew of one and is powered by two P & W F119-PW-100 Pitch Vectoring Turbofans each producing 35,000 lbs. of thrust for a top speed of 1,325 MPH. The Raptor can carry any current air-to-air missile and has the capacity for 2000 lbs. of bombs or missiles internally and has hard points for another 20,000 lbs. of ordinance externally. It is fully capable of carrying any nuclear weapon currently in our inventory. The F-22 has a range of 2,000 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 80,000 lbs. 15. The F-35 or “Lightening II” first production models have rolled of the assembly line in December of 2006. This aircraft will be built in three variants for the U. S. Services. The F-35A will be conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) for the Air Force. This aircraft is a smaller and more maneuverable model of the F-22 “Raptor” and will incorporate stealth technology in its many attributes. The F-35A is comparable to the F-16 in maneuverability but surpasses the F-16 in stealth, payload, range, avionics, sensors and supportability. The F-35 will have a crew of 1 and will be powered by a P & W F135 turbofan engine producing 40,000 lbs. of thrust in afterburner. It will have a weapons payload of 2,000 lbs. internally and it will have four under wing and two wingtip hard points for missiles and bombs for a total of 10,000 lbs. The F-35 will have a range of 1,200 miles on internal fuel and a maximum conventional takeoff weight of 60,000 lbs. U. S. Navy Nuclear Weapon Delivery Capable Aircraft.
1. The AJ-1 or “Savage” was built as a triple engine (one jet and two radial piston engines) carrier based medium bomber. It went into service in 1949. It had a crew of three and was powered by one Allison J33-A-1 turbojet in the tail developing 4,600 lbs. of thrust and two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-44W engines rated at 2,400 HP each. It had a top speed of 471 MPH and a range of 600 miles. It was capable of carrying 12,000 lbs. of bombs in an internal bomb bay and was fitted to carry one MK-6 Nuclear Bomb. It had a maximum takeoff weight of 50,954 lbs. 2. The P2V-1 or “Neptune” was built as a twin radial engine land based medium bomber for the Navy. The first ones went into service in 1946. In the mid sixties the aircraft were retro-fitted with two J34-WE-34 jet engines with one under each wing outboard of the radial engines. The addition of the jet engines gave the P2V increased maximum takeoff weight. The main radial engines were two Wright R-3350-32W turbo boosted compound Cyclone engines rated at 4,000 HP. The P2V had a large bomb bay and could carry up to 8,000 lbs of bombs, depth charges or aerial torpedoes. They were operated by a crew of 7 and were used for long range maritime patrol. They were capable of carrying any nuclear weapon in the Navy arsenal. They had a top speed of 300 MPH with a range of 4,130 miles and had a maximum takeoff weight of 80,000 lbs. The last ones were retired in the mid 1970’s. 3. The F2H-2B or “Banshee” was introduced to the Navy in 1948 as a carrier based fighter. 845 units were built by McDonnell Aircraft. They had a crew of one pilot. They were powered by two Westinghouse J-34 turbojet engines with a combined thrust of up to 6,500 pounds. They had a maximum takeoff weight of 28,500 pounds and a maximum speed of 527 MPH. They could carry 3,000 pounds of external weapons including one nuclear gravity bomb or nuclear tipped missiles. 4. The F9F or “Cougar” was a carrier based fighter bomber designed and built by Grumman Aircraft Co. and was introduced to the Navy in 1952. The total number built was 1,792 aircraft of all variants. They had a crew of one pilot. The aircraft were fitted with one P & W J-48P turbojet engine equipped with water injection which developed 8,500 pounds of thrust. The Cougar had a maximum takeoff weight of 24,763 pounds and a maximum speed of 647 MPH. The Cougar could carry up to 2,000 pounds of weapons externally including one nuclear gravity bomb or nuclear tipped missile. 5. The F3H or “Demon” was introduced to the Navy by McDonnell Aircraft in 1956 as a carrier based fighter bomber. They made 519 units in the 3 year production run. The Demon carried a crew of one Pilot. It had one J-40 Westinghouse Turbojet engine producing 14,400 pounds of thrust. It had a maximum takeoff weight of 39,000 pounds. It had a maximum speed of 716 MPH and could carry 6,000 pounds of weapons externally including nuclear gravity bombs and nuclear tipped missiles. 6. The FJ-4 or “Fury” was introduced to the Navy in 1951 as a carrier based fighter/bomber for the Navy and Marines by North American Aviation. The design was an improved F-86 Saber platform and 1,115 units were built during the production run. It had a crew of one pilot and was powered by one Wright J-65 turbojet engine developing 7,700 pounds of thrust. The aircraft had a maximum takeoff weight of 23,700 pounds. It had a maximum speed of 680 MPH. It could carry up to 3,000 pounds of external weapons including one nuclear gravity bomb or nuclear tipped missiles. 7. The A3D or “Skywarrior” was introduced to the Navy in 1956. (The Air Force B-66 is identical) It was the first carrier based jet powered strategic nuclear bomber in Navy history. It was operated by a crew of three and was powered by two J57-P-10 turbojet engines rated at 10,000 lbs. of thrust each giving it a top speed of 610 MPH. It could carry one MK-15 free fall Nuclear Weapon and subsequent N weapons of the same dimensions. It had a range of 1,325 miles. The aircraft was boosted on takeoff by the addition of 12 JATO rockets on each side forward of the tail. The A3D had a maximum takeoff weight of 70,000 lbs. All aircraft were stricken from the Navy inventory by 1991. 8. The A-4 or “Skyhawk” was introduced to the Navy in 1956 as a Carrier Based Attack Aircraft. It was operated by a crew of one and was powered by one J52-P8A turbojet (Non-Afterburner) engine producing 9,300 lbs. of thrust giving it a top speed of 673 MPH. It could carry 9,900 lbs. of bombs or rockets on 5 hard points under the wings. It was capable of carrying any externally mounted nuclear weapon in the Navy arsenal. The A-4 had a range of 1,700 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 24,500 lbs. All Navy A-4 aircraft were stricken from the Navy inventory by 1991. This aircraft was what Senator John McCain was flying when he was shot down and captured during the Vietnam War. 9. The P-3 or “Orion” was introduced to the Navy in 1962 as a land based maritime patrol bomber to replace the P2V “Neptune”. It was operated by a crew of 11 and was powered by four Allison T56-A-14 turboprop engines developing 4,600 HP each and giving it a top speed of 370 MPH. It can carry 20,000 lbs. of conventional and nuclear weapons including AGM-84 “Harpoon”, AGM-84E SLAM, AGM-65 “Maverick” missiles and MK-46 and MK-50 torpedoes, mines and depth charges. The P-3 has a range of 5,600 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 142,000 lbs. 650 aircraft were built and many are still in service with the U. S. Navy and other countries around the world. 10. The A-5 or “Vigilante” was introduced to the Navy in 1964 as a carrier based strategic nuclear bomber. It had a crew of two and was powered by two GE J79-GE-8 afterburning turbojet engines. Each with 17,000 lbs. of thrust giving it a top speed of 1,320 MPH. It could carry up to three nuclear weapons, (9,000 lbs.) one in the internal bomb bay (which dropped the bombs out of the tail through a tube between the engines exhausts) and two on wing hard points. The A-5 had a range of 1,290 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 62,950 lbs. All A-5 aircraft were stricken from the Navy inventory by 1979. 11. The A-6 or “Intruder” was introduced to the Navy in 1963 as a carrier based heavy tactical/strategic bomber. It had a crew of 2 and was powered by two J52-P8-B (Non-Afterburner) turbojets each producing 9,300 lbs. of thrust for a top speed of 648 MPH. The A-6 could carry an impressive load of under wing mounted ordinance (18,000 lbs.) including the B-61 nuclear bomb. The A-6 had a range of 2,819 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 60,626 lbs. All aircraft were stricken from the Navy inventory by 1997. They were replaced by the F/A-18 “Hornet”. 12. The A-7 or “Corsair II” was introduced to the Navy as a carrier based light attack aircraft in 1967. It was also used by the Air Force. It had a crew of one and was powered by one Allison TF41-A-1 turbofan (non afterburner) engine producing 14,500 lbs. of thrust. The A-7 had a top speed of 698 MPH. The A-7 could carry 15,000 lbs. of weapons on wing and fuselage hard points. This ordinance included the MK- 28, B-57 or B-61 nuclear bomb. The A-7 had a range of 2,485 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 42,000 lbs. All aircraft were retired in 1991 but some were retained in the Air Force National Guard units until 2000. 13. The F-14 or “Tomcat” was introduced to the Navy in 1974 as a maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical strike aircraft. It had a crew of 2 and was powered by two F110-GE-400 afterburner turbofan engines producing 27.800 lbs. of thrust each. The F-14 had a top speed of 1,544 MPH. It could carry 13,000 pounds of ordinance externally and was capable of carrying any nuclear weapon in the Navy arsenal. The F-14 had a range of 1,600 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 74,350 lbs. The last F-14 was retired from the Navy in 2006. They were replaced by the F/A 18E or F “Super Hornet”. 14. The F/A-18 or “Hornet” was introduced to the Navy in 1983 as the replacement for the A-6, A-7 and F-14 as a carrier based strike fighter. It has a crew of one and is powered by two F404-GE-402 turbofan afterburner engines each producing 17,750 lbs. of thrust. The F/A-18 has a top speed of 1,127 MPH. It can carry 13,700 lbs. of assorted ordinance on under wing hard points including any nuclear weapon in the Navy arsenal. The F/A-18 has a maximum range of 2,070 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 51,550 lbs. There were over 1,400 aircraft built for several nations. All are still in service. 15. The AV-8B or “Harrier” was introduced to the Navy (Marine Corps) as a STOL/VTOL attack aircraft in 1985. The Harrier has a crew of one and is powered by one Rolls Royce Pegasus vectored thrust turbofan engine providing 21,750 lbs. of thrust. The Harrier has a top speed of 675 MPH. The Harrier can takeoff loaded from a short runway of jump ramp. It can takeoff and land vertically (like a helicopter) when empty. It can carry 13,200 lbs. of mixed ordinance on external hard points. It can carry any externally mounted nuclear weapon in the Navy/Marine Corps arsenal. It has a range of 1,200 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 31,000 lbs. in STOL mode. They are currently in service. 16. The F/A-18E/F or “Super Hornet” was introduced to the Navy in 1999 as an enhanced capability carrier based fighter/attack aircraft. It has a crew of 2 and is powered by two F414-GE-400 turbofan afterburner engines that produce 22,000 lbs. of thrust each. The aircraft has a top speed of 1,400 MPH. It has an external weapons capacity of 17,750 lbs. & can carry any nuclear weapon in the Navy arsenal. It has a range of 1,800 miles and a maximum takeoff weight of 66,000 lbs. 300 aircraft have been built and are currently in service. 17. The F-35B/C or “Lightening II” will become operational in the Navy/Marine Corps as a stealth strike fighter to replace current older aircraft. The aircraft is called the Joint Strike Fighter and in its three variants will be capable of handling any nuclear weapons in the U. S. arsenal. At the time of this writing none of the F-35 variants are in operational squadrons. Chapter 7:
Our Nuclear Warheads.
Used as Missile, Artillery Projectile, Depth Charge or Torpedo Warheads.
1. The W-4 Warhead was the first nuclear warhead planned to fit a missile but was cancelled. It was planned for the “Snark” SSM and was cancelled in 1951. 2. The W-5 Warhead was produced from 04/1954 to 07/1954 from recycled MK-5 Bombs. It weighed 2,405 to 2,600 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 6 to 120 Kt and was fused for airburst or contact. 35 units were produced for the “Regulus-1” SSM- N-8 missile program and 65 units were produced for the “Matador” MGM-1 missile program. They were fused for airburst or contact. All units were retired from 07/1961 to 01/1963. 3. The W-7 Warhead was produced from 12/1953 to 06/1955. There were 225 units built for the “Boar” air-to-surface missile, 300 units built for the “Corporal” M-2 missile, 300 units built for the “Honest John” M-3 missile and 300 units built for the “Betty” MK-90 ASW Depth Bomb. All units were stockpiled between 1956 and 1963. They weighed 900 to 1,100 lbs. and had an explosive yield of between 90 T and 40 Kt with fusing for airburst, contact or hydrostatic. An additional 300 were planned for the “Nike Hercules” SAM but they were cancelled in 1956. 4. The W-8 Warhead was scheduled for the “Regulus-1” missile but was cancelled in 1955. 5. The W-9 Warhead was produced from 04/1952 to 11/1953. 80 units were produced for the T-124 artillery shell which was the first nuclear artillery round. It was fired from a stationary 280 MM cannon. It weighed 803 to 850 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 15 Kt. They were fused for mechanical time delay or airburst. It was a gun type HEU weapon modified from the recycled previous bombs. All units were retired in 05/1957. 6. The W-12 Warhead was scheduled to be produced for the Navy “Talos” missile but was cancelled in 1955. 7. The W-13 Warhead was scheduled for the “Snark” cruise missile and the “Redstone” ICBM but was cancelled in 1954. 8. The W-15 Warhead was supposed to be a TN unit but was cancelled in 1957. 9. The W-19 Warhead was an artillery shell. 80 units were produced in 07/1955. They weighed 600 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 15 to 20 Kt. They were used in the T-315 projectile. They had an HEU gun assembly and were fused for mechanical time delay or airburst. All units were retired in 1963. 10. The W-21 Warhead was scheduled for the “Navaho” SM-64A missile but was cancelled in 1954. 11. The W-23 Warhead was built as a 16 inch Navy “Katie” artillery round. There were 50 units produced in 1956. They weighed 1,500 to 1,900 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 15-20 Kt. They were fused for mechanical time delay or airburst. All were retired in 10/1962. 12. W-25 Warhead was built for AIR-2 “Genie” missile from 1957 to 1965. 3150 units were produced. They weighed 218 to 221 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 1.7 Kt and were fused for time delay. All units were retired by 1984. 13. The W-27 Warhead was built for the ‘Regulus 1” SSM-N-8 missile. 700 units were built between 09/1958 and 06/1959. They weighed 2,800 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 70 Kt to 1.45 Mt. They were fused for airburst of contact. All units were retired from 1962 to 1965. 14. The W-28 Warhead was built for the ‘Hound Dog” AGM-28 missile and the “Mace” MGM-13 cruise missile. There were 1000 units built between 1959 and 1960 that weighed 1,500 to 1,725 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 70 Kt to 1.45 Mt. The units were fused for airburst or contact. All were retired by 1970. 15. The W-30 Warhead was built for the Navy “Talos” SAM/SSM, XW-30 missile in three models totaling 600 units were produced from 1959 to 1965. The warhead weighed from 438 to 450 lbs. It had an explosive yield of between 300 T and 19 Kt. They were fused for airburst, contact or time delay. All were retired from 1962 to 1979. 16. The W-31 Warhead was built for the “Honest John” SSM, the “Nike Hercules” SAM from 1959 to 1961. A total of 4,500 units were built. They weighed between 900 and 945 lbs. with an explosive yield of 1 to 40 Kt. They were fused for airburst, time delay or contact. All were retired to the stockpile from 1960 to 1987. 17. The W-32 Warhead was designed as a 240 MM artillery shell but was cancelled in 1955. 18. The W-33 Warhead was built as a 203 MM artillery shell. 2000 units were produced from 1957 to 1965. They weighed 240 to 243 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 5 to 40 Kt. They were fused for mechanical time delay or airburst. All units were retired to the stockpile by 1992. 19. The W-34 Warhead was built for the Navy as an ASW (antisubmarine warfare) weapon and for tactical use. It was for the MK-34 “LULU” depth charge and the MK-44 “Astor” torpedo. It could also be used as a MK-5 “Hotpoint” lay down parachute bomb. It had a boosted fission implosion device similar to the MK-28 primary. A total of 3200 units were built between 1958 and 1962. There were 2000 “LULU”, 600 “Astor” and 600 “Hotpoint” units built. They were fused for hydrostatic, lay down or impact. They had an explosive yield of 11 Kt. All were retired by 1976. 20. The W-35 Warhead was designed for ICBM use but was cancelled in 1958. 21. The W-37 Warhead was designed for IRBM use but was cancelled in 1956. 22. The W-38 Warhead was built for the “Atlas” and “Titan I” ICBM from 1961 to 1963. There were 180 units built. They each weighed 3,080 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 3.75 Mt. They were fused for airburst or contact. All units were retired to the stockpile in 1965. 23. The W-39 Warhead was built for the “Snark” cruise missile and the “Redstone” MRBM from 1958 to 1963. A total of 90 units were produced (60 for the “Redstone” and 30 for the “Snark”). Each unit weighed 6,230 to 6,400 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 3.8 Mt. They were fused for airburst, contact or parachute lay down. All were retired to the stockpile by 1965. 24. The W-40 Warhead was built for the “Bomarc” SAM and the “Lacrosse” SSM from 1959 to 1962. A total of 750 units were produced, (350 for the “Bomarc” and 400 for the “Lacrosse”). They each weighed 350 to 385 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 10 Kt. They were fused for airburst or contact. All units were retired to the stockpile by 1964. 25. The W-41 Warhead was designed for ICBM use but was cancelled in 1957. 26. The W-42 Warhead was designed for air-to-air missiles but was cancelled in 1961. 27. The W-44 Warhead was built for the Navy as an ASW (Antisubmarine warfare) ASROC (Antisubmarine Rocket) from 1961 to 1968. There were 575 units produced. Each weighed 170 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 10 Kt. They were fused for hydrostatic. All units were retired by 1989. 28. The W-45 Warhead was built for the “Little John” SSM, The “Terrier” SAM , The MADM (Medium Range Air Defense Missile) and the “Bullpup” ASM. A total of 1700 units were produced from 1962 to 1966, (750 “Terrier”, 350 MADM, 100 “Bullpup” and 500 “Little John”). They each weighed 150 to 350 lbs. with an explosive yield of 500 T to 15 Kt. They were fused for airburst, contact, time delay or command. All were retired to the stockpile by 1988. 29. The W-46 Warhead was designed for the “Redstone” MRBM but was cancelled in 1958 and replaced by the W-53 for the “Titan II”. 30. The W-47 Warhead was built for the “Polaris” SLBM (Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile) from 1960 to 1964. A total of 1,660 units were produced. Each had an explosive yield of 600 Kt to 1.2 Mt and fused for airburst or contact. All were retired to the stockpile by 1974. 31. The W-48 Warhead was built as an artillery shell for the 155 MM field artillery weapon. 1,985 units were produced from 1963 to 1969. Each one weighed 118 to 128 lbs. They had an explosive yield of 72 T and were fused for mechanical time delay, proximity, airburst or contact. All were retired by 1974. 32. The W-49 Warhead was built as an ICBM/IRBM warhead for use on the “Thor”, “Atlas”, “Titan”, “Jupiter” missiles from 1958 to 1964. 80 units were produced. Each weighed 1,640 to 1,680 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 1.44 Mt. They were equipped with the PAL A trigger. All were retired to the stockpile by 1975. 33. The W-50 Warhead was built for the “Pershing” SSM and the “Nike Zeus” SAM from 1963 to 1965. 280 units were produced. Each weighed 409 to 410 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 60 to 400 Kt. They were fused for airburst or contact. All were retired to the stockpile by 1991. 34. The W-51 Warhead was built as a very small spherical implosion warhead. It was converted to the W-54 warhead in 1959. 35. The W-52 Warhead was built for the “Sergeant” SSM and had the PAL-A trigger system. 300 units were produced from 1962 to 1966. They weighed 950 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 200 Kt. They were fused for airburst or contact. All were retired by 1978. 36. The W-53 Warhead was built for the “Titan II” ICBM missile. 60 units were produced from 1962 to 1963. Each weighed 6,200 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 9 Mt. They were fused for airburst or contact. All were retired by 1987. 37. The W-54 Warhead was built for the AIM-26A “Falcon” AAM. 2,000 units were produced from 1961 to 1975. Each weighed 50 to 51 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 250 T. They were fused for contact or proximity. All were retired by 1972. 38. The MK-54 Warhead is the same as the W-54 and was built for the “Davy Crockett” M-388 recoilless rifle projectile. There were 400 units made from the W-51 Warhead from 1961 to 1965. They weighed 50-55 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 10 to 20 T. All were retired by 1971. 39. The W-55 Warhead was built for the Navy “SUBROC” (Submarine Launched Rocket), UUM-44A ASW weapon from 1963 to 1974. They each weighed 470 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 202 Kt. There were 285 units produced. They were fused for hydrostatic. All were retired by 1990. 40. The W-56 Warhead was built for the “Minuteman I and II” ICBM from 1963 to 1966. There were 1,455 units produced. Based on the W-47 design they weighed 600 to 680 lbs. with an explosive yield of 1.2 Mt. They were fused for airburst or surface contact. All were retired to the stockpile by 1993. 41. The W-58 Warhead was built for the “Polaris” A-3 SLBM from 1964 to 1967. 1,400 units were produced. They were the first MRV (Multiple Re-Entry Vehicle) warheads in service. Each “Polaris” A-3 missile had three warheads. They were fused for airburst or contact. They weighed 257 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 200 Kt. All were retired to the stockpile by 1982. 42. The W-59 Warhead was built for the “Minuteman I” ICBM and the cancelled “Skybolt” missile. 150 units were produced from 1962 to 1963. They weighed 550 to 553 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 1 Mt. They were fused for airburst or contact. All were retired by 1969. 43. The W-60 Warhead was designed for the “Typhoon” SAM and they were cancelled in 1963. 44. The W-62 Warhead was built for the “Minuteman III” MK-12-RV ICBM. There were 1,725 units built from 1970 to 1976. The Re-Entry Vehicle weighs 700 to 800 lbs. and each individual warhead weighs 253 lbs. They have an explosive yield of 170 Kt. They are fused for airburst or contact. 1,115 units were retired by 1980 and there are 610 units in service today. 45. The W-63 Warhead was designed as a “Neutron Bomb” for the “Lance” SRBM and was cancelled in 1966. 46. The W-64 Warhead was designed as a “Neutron Bomb” for the “Lance” SRBM and was cancelled in 1964. 47. The W-65 Warhead was designed for the “Sprint” ABM but was cancelled in 1968. 48. The W-66 Warhead was built for the “Sprint” ABM and is a ‘Neutron Bomb” design. 70 units were produced from 1974 to 1975. They weighed 150 lbs. and had an explosive yield of 1 Kt. They were fused for proximity. All were retired by 1985. 49. The W-67 Warhead was designed for the “Poseidon” SLBM and “Minuteman III” ICBM. They were cancelled in 1967.
50. The W-68 Warhead was built for the “Poseidon III” SLBM. Each missile carried 10 Re-Entry Vehicles. 5,250 units were produced from 1970 to 1975. Each warhead weighs 367 lbs. and has and explosive yield of 40-50 Kt. 3200 were refurbished from 1978 to 1983 and the other 2,050 were retired to the stockpile. They are fused for airburst or contact. 51. The W-69 Warhead was built for the AGM-69A SRAM (Short Range Attack Missile). They were built from the retired MK-61 units. 1500 units were produced from 1971 to 1976. Each unit weighs 275 lbs. and has an explosive yield of 170 to 200 Kt. They are fused for airburst or contact. All were retired to the stockpile by 1991. 52. The W-70 Warhead was built for the “Lance” SSM and has a PAL D trigger system. 1,280 units were produced from 1973 to 1983. They were built in several versions and some models were “Neutron Bomb” types. They weigh 270 lbs. and have an explosive yield of 1 to 100 Kt. They have airburst or contact fusing. 900 early models were retired in 1992 and there are 380 model 3’s still in service. 53. The W-71 Warhead was built for the “Spartan” ABM missile and was designed to use thermal x-rays for killing enemy re-entry vehicles. 30 units were produced from 1974 to 1975. The units weighed 2,850 lbs. and have an explosive yield of 600 T. They were fused for airburst, contact or delay timer. All were retired by 1992. 54. The W-72 Warhead was built from the modified W-54 Warhead for the “Walleye” AGM-62 Glide Weapon. 300 units were produced from 1970 to 1972. Each unit weighed 825 lbs. and has an explosive yield of 600 T. The units were fused for contact only. All were retired in 1979. 55. The W-73 Warhead was designed for the “Condor” ASM and was derived from the MK-61. It was cancelled in 1970. 56. The W-74 Warhead was designed as a 155 MM artillery shell with a linear implosion pure fusion core intended to replace the W-48. It was cancelled in 1973. 57. The W-75 Warhead was designed as a 203 MM artillery shell. It was cancelled in 1973.
58. The W-76 Warhead was built for the “Trident I” and “Trident II” MK-4 Re- Entry Vehicle. Trident warheads carry 8 to 14 Re-Entry Vehicles. They were produced from 1978 to 1987. 3,000 units were made. Each warhead weighs 363 lbs. and has an explosive yield of 100 Kt. They are fused for airburst or contact. All of them are still in service. 59. The W-78 Warhead was built for the “Minuteman III” MK-12A Re-Entry Vehicle. 1,083 units were produced from 1979 to 1982. They weigh 400 to 600 lbs. and have an explosive yield of 335 to 350 Kt. They are fused for airburst or contact. 163 units were retired and 920 are still active as part of our “Enduring Stockpile”. 60. The W-79 Warhead was built as an 8 inch artillery shell. It has a linear plutonium implosion core and is capable of “Neutron Bomb” enhanced radiation effect. 550 units were produced from 1981 to 1986 of that number 325 were enhanced radiation type. Each unit weighs 200 lbs. and has an explosive yield of 100 T to 1.1 Kt. They are proximity, airburst or contact fused. All were retired in 1992. 61. The W-80-0 Warhead was built for the Navy SLCM program. 367 units were produced from 1983 to 1990. They are equipped with the PAL-D trigger and were derived from the B-61. They weigh 290 lbs. each and have an explosive yield of 5 to 500 Kt. They are fused for airburst or contact. All are in active service today. 62. The W-80-1 Warhead was built for the ALCM and ACM programs and all are equipped with the PAL-D triggers. They were derived from the B-61. 1,750 units were produced from 1981 to 1990. They each weigh 290 lbs. and have an explosive yield of 5 to 170 Kt. They are fused for airburst or contact. 350 units have been retired and 1,400 units remain in service. 63. The W-81 Warhead was designed for the Navy as the SM-SAM warhead. They were cancelled in 1986. 64. The W-82 Warhead was designed as a 155 MM artillery shell. They were cancelled in 1990. 65. The W-83 Warhead was designed for the GLCM program but was cancelled in 1988 because of the INF treaty.
66. The W-84 Warhead was built for the BGM-109G “Gryphon” GLCM program. They are equipped with PAL-F triggers. 350 units were produced from 1983 to 1984. Each unit weighs 388 lbs. and has an explosive yield of 0.2 to 150 Kt. They are fused for airburst or contact. They are currently in our “Inactive Stockpile”. 67. The W-85 Warhead “Alternate Image” was built for the “Pershing II” SSM. They were equipped with PAL-F triggers. 120 units were produced from 1983 to 1986. They weigh 880 lbs. and have an explosive yield of 5 to 80 Kt. They had fusing for airburst or contact. All of them were retired by 1991 and were recycled into the B-61 Model 10 Bombs. 68. The W-86 Warhead was designed as an “Earth Penetrating Warhead” for the “Pershing II” SSM. The program was cancelled in 1980. 69. The W-87 Warhead was built for the “Peacekeeper” (MX) ICBM/MK-21 Re- Entry Vehicle. It is a thermonuclear weapon and the missile carries 10 RV’s in the nose. 525 were produced from 1986 to 1989. Each weighs 500 to 600 lbs. and has an explosive yield of 300 to 475 Kt. They are fused for timer, proximity, airburst or contact. When the MX missile program was shut down these warheads were placed on “Minuteman III” ICBM’s. They remain in active service at this writing. 70. The W-88 Warhead was built for the “Trident II” MK-5 Re-entry Vehicle. 400 units were produced from 1988 to 1989. Each unit weighs 800 lbs. and has an explosive yield of 475 Kt. They are fused for timer, proximity, airburst or contact. All 400 units are in active service at this writing. 71. The W-89 Warhead was designed for the SRAM II (Short Range Attack Missile) program. They were cancelled in 1991. 72. The W-91 Warhead was designed for the Tactical version of the SRAM but they were cancelled in 1991.
Chapter 8: Our Missiles.
ICBM’S (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)
Current U. S. ICBM inventory missiles are equipped with (MIRV) multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles which separate from the nose cone in flight and scatter to impact on individual targets. This class of missile is large, has several rocket stages and can carry a large warhead. Due to their large size all are land based and have range greater than 3,500 miles. (The MIRV warheads are in the process of being phased out in compliance with the SALT and START variant treaty requirements)! The exception is the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) carried by our Submarines which have great range similar to ICBM’s but are fired from at sea locations. Ballistic means; The missile flies upward at an angle in a parabolic arc and is boosted to the top of the arc by several stages of rockets and its momentum causes it to tip over and descend after it reaches apogee (top of the arc) above the upper atmosphere at the edge of space where they start their descent into re-entry phase (re-enter the atmosphere) and reach terminal velocity on their downward track. During the downward track is when the MIRV technology takes over on modern missiles and the nosecone splits open and up to 12 separate warheads in their own re-entry vehicles steer to their targets guided by inertial guidance systems. Hence, the greater the range of the missile then the higher the top of the arc is in space.
1. “Atlas-D”, 32 units in service from 1959 to 1964, one W-38 Warhead, 10,360 mile range. 2. “Atlas-E”, 33 units in service from 1961 to 1964, one W-38 Warhead, 10,360 mile range. 3. “Atlas-F”, 80 units in service from 1961 to 1964, one W-38 Warhead, 10,360 mile range. 4. “Titan-I”, 63 units in service from 1961 to 1964, one W-38 Warhead, 5,500 mile range. 5. “Titan-II”, 63, units in service from 1963 to 1987, one W-53 Warhead, 9,325 mile range. 6. “Minuteman I”, 800 units in service from 1962 to 1966, one W-56 Warhead, 6,000 mile range. They were replaced by Minuteman II in 1966. 7. “Minuteman II”, 800 units in service from 1965 to 1968, one W-62 Warhead, 8,000 mile range. They were replaced by Minuteman III in 1968. 8. “Minuteman III”, 500 units in service from 1970 to 2007, three W-78 or W-87 Warheads in MIRV nosecone re-entry vehicle, 8,000 mile range. 500 missiles are currently in silos and on alert in western U. S. These missiles have been altered or downloaded from multiple warheads to a single warhead each to meet the requirements of the Salt-II Treaty. 9. “Peacekeeper”, 50 units in service from, 1986 to 2005, twelve W-87 MIRV Warheads in the nosecone re-entry vehicle, 9,500 mile range. All 50 missiles were decommissioned in 2005 in compliance with the Start-II Treaty. Leaving the 500 Minuteman III missiles in hardened silos our only land based silo launched ICBM’s.
IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) class of missile includes SLBM (Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles) they are usually of a single or two staged solid fueled and were limited in size and warhead explosive yield.
1. “Pershing I”, (Army) had 377 units in service on mobile launchers from 1962 to 1964. Each missile carried one W-50 Warhead. They were solid fueled and they had a range of 460 miles. They were replaced by the Pershing 1A. All batteries of Pershing models were stationed in West Germany and South Korea. 2. “Pershing 1A”, (Army) had 377 units in service on mobile launchers from 1969 to 1975. Each missile carried one W-50 Warhead, They were solid fueled and had a range of 500 miles. They were replaced by the Pershing II. 3. “Pershing II”, (Army) had 380 units in service on mobile launchers from 1984 to 1988. Each missile carried one W-85 Warhead. They were solid fueled and had a range of 900 miles. They were all outlawed by the Salt II treaty and destroyed in 1991. 4. PGM-17 or “Thor” IRBM, were deployed in the UK by the United States from 1959 to 1963. They had a 1,750 mile range and carried a MK-2 and later with the W-46 Warhead and fueled by Liquid Oxygen and Kerosene. 224 units were produced and 145 were used as satellite launch vehicles. 5. PGM-19 or “Jupiter” IRBM, 45 units were deployed in Italy and Turkey from 1961 to 1963. They had a 1,500 mile range and carried the W-49 warhead. They were fueled with liquid oxygen. The placement of Jupiter missiles in Turkey was one of the sparks of the Cuban missile crisis from the Soviet point of view.
SUBMARINE LAUNCHED BALLISTIC MISSILES (SLBM)
1. “Polaris A1”, (Navy) had 80 units deployed on the 5 George Washington Class SSBN (16 missile tubes) Submarines from 1959 to 1972. Each missile had one W-47 Warhead, and a 1000 mile range. The boats were retrofitted with Polaris A3 missiles from 1966 to 1982. 2. “Polaris A2”, (Navy) had 208 units were deployed on the 5 Ethan Allen Class SSBN (16 missile tubes) Submarines from 1961 to 1986 and on 8 of the 9 Lafayette Class boats from 1964 to 1972. Each missile had one W-47 Warhead, and a 1,500 mile range. The boats were retrofitted with the Polaris A-3 missiles from 1970 to 1981. 3. “Polaris A3”, (Navy) had 336 units were deployed on the 9 Lafayette class SSBN (16 missile tubes) Submarines from 1963 to 1990, on the 10 James Madison Class boats from 1964 t0 1970 and on the 12 Benjamin Franklin Class boats from 1966 to 1972. Each missile had 3 MIRV W-58 warheads, and a 2,500 mile range. The boats were retrofitted with Poseidon C3 missiles from 1975 to 1990. LATE MODEL SLBM’s
4. “Poseidon C3”, (Navy) had 480 units were deployed on the 10 James Madison Class (16 missile tubes) Submarines from 1970 to 1992, the 9 Lafayette Class boats from 1976 to 1992 and the 12 Benjamin Franklin Class from 1974to 1991. The C3 had a hardened re-entry vehicle with 3 MIRV W-58 warheads and a 2,700 mile range. 11. “Trident 1-C4”, (Navy) had 96 units were deployed on 6 of the Benjamin Franklin Class (16 missile tubes) boats from 1979 to 1990 when the Benjamin Franklin boats were decommissioned. There are currently 192 units deployed on 8 of the Ohio SSBN Class (24 missile tubes) from 1979 to present. Each Trident 1 C4 missile has two solid fuel stages and has eight independently targetable reentry vehicles which are W-76 Warheads. The missile has a range of 4,600 miles. 12. “Trident II-D5”, (Navy) has 336 units are deployed on 14 of the new Ohio Class SSBN (24 missile tubes) submarines from 1990 to present. Each Trident II D5 missile is has two solid fuel stages and has eight independently targetable reentry vehicles which are W-88 Warheads. The missile has a range of 7,000 miles.
Nuclear Capable Cruise Missiles 1. MGM-1 or “Matador” (Air Force) had 1200 produced from 1951 to 1962. They were primitive by modern standards. They could carry one W-5 Warhead for a distance of 620 miles at a speed of 650 MPH. 2. “Regulus I”, (Navy) had 10 units were deployed on five submarines from 1953 to 1964. The submarines were the U. S. S. Tunny, Barbero, Grayback, Growler and Halibut. The missiles were housed in on deck watertight hangers aft of the sail and were launched via JATO bottles for takeoff from a ramp facing the stern. Each Regulus 1 could carry one W-5 Warhead and had a range of 500 miles. 3. “Regulus II”, (Navy) had 4 units were deployed on two submarines from 1960 to 1964. The submarines were the U. S. S. Grayback and the Halibut. The Regulus II used the same launch system as the Regulus I and was capable of carrying one W-27 Warhead and had a range of 550 miles. 4. BGM-109 or “Tomahawk” (Navy) has an undisclosed number of these submarine launched cruise missiles deployed on 31 Los Angeles Class (SSN) and follow on classes of 23 Attack Submarines. Each Submarine has 12 Tomahawks in a Vertical Launch Tube System built into the hull or they can be fired from torpedo tubes. They carry one W-80 (Variable Yield) Warhead and are highly accurate to a range of 2,000 miles. 5. AGM-129 or (Advanced Cruise Missile), (Air Force) 550 units deployed. A single B-52H can carry 6 of these on wing pylons as well as nuclear weapons in its internal bomb bay. These cruise missiles have a low radar signature due to stealth technology. They are highly accurate. They carry one W-80 (Variable Yield) Warhead and have a range of 2,000 miles.
SRBM, (Short Range Ballistic Missile).
1. MGM-5 or “Corporal” (Army), 1100 built from 1952-63. They were liquid fueled and had a range of 130 miles at 2,200 MPH. They could carry one W-7 Warhead. They were phased out in favor of the MGM-29 “Sargeant”. 2. MGM-29 or “Sargeant.” (Army) had 500 units produced from 1963 to 1975. They were solid fueled and could deliver a W-52 Warhead 140 miles at a speed of 2,000 MPH. 3. MGM-18 or “Lacrosse”, (Army) had over 100 missiles in eight battalions of batteries from 1956 to 1964 deployed in Europe and South Korea. The missile carried one W-40 Warhead and had a range of 10 miles. They were phased out due to technical difficulties. 4. MGM-52 or “Lance” (Army) had 2,100 produced from 1965 to 1978. They could carry a W-70 Warhead over a distance of 75 miles at a speed of 2,000 MPH. Nuclear Warhead Capable SAM (Surface to Air Missiles).
1. MIM-14 “Nike Hercules”, (Army) had 134 batteries of four missiles each with a spare guarding 30 U. S. cities from 1958 to 1974. (I saw the battery on an island in Boston harbor near Quincy Mass. in 1972) They were capable of intercepting incoming ballistic missiles 20 miles above the earth and for a range of 100 miles. They reached a top speed of 3,000 MPH very quickly. (To intercept incoming ICBM traveling at 8,000 MPH) They carried one W-31 Warhead and later a W-71 Warhead. 2. SAM-N-6 or “Talos”, (Navy) had an unpublished number in service from 1959 to 1963. They were solid fueled and could carry a W-30 Warhead for a distance of 100 miles at a speed of 1,600 MPH. They were re-designated as RIM-8 Talos in 1963 and served until 1979 as a ship borne SAM. 3. IM-99A or “Bomarc” (USAF), 700 built from 1960 to 1965. The Bomarc was the only interceptor missile operated by the Air Force. It was solid fueled and had a range of 440 miles at a speed of 1,800 MPH. It carried one W-40 Warhead.
Nuclear Capable AGM (Air to Ground) Missiles.
1. AGM-12 or “Bullpup” (Navy and Air Force), had a large supply of these solid fueled weapons capable of carrying one W-45 Warhead for a distance of 10 miles at a speed of 1,000 MPH. 2. The AGM-48 or “Skybolt” (Air Force) built 100 units from 1959 to 1963. They were solid fueled and meant to be deployed on the B-52 bomber. They carried one W-59 Warhead for a distance of 300 miles at a speed of 9,500 MPH. AIR LAUNCHED NUCLEAR CAPABLE CRUISE MISSILES or ALCM.
1. AGM-86A/86B OR “ALCM” is the current stand off nuclear cruise missile which is delivered to its’ launch point via one of our B-52 Air Force bombers. If you ever wondered why B-52’s are still in operation these missiles are the reason. These missiles are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead 1,500 miles and putting it on target with a high degree of accuracy. Further development of Air to Ground Missiles continues at a rapid pace. Many new systems require the ability to precisely strike a target with a penetrating type weapon in the case of hardened structures. Newer missiles are faster and more accurate do to the refinement of guidance systems and the updating of computer components allowing the missile guidance system to hold and process more target information and to make course corrections in nanoseconds. During the Cold War we out spent the Soviets and in the end spent them into the ground. The arms race bankrupted the Soviet economy in the late eighties because we outspent them at a rate of two to one with a much higher reliability factor! Do you actually believe we needed over twenty thousand gravity type nuclear weapons to defeat the soviet bloc? I don’t think so. Remember what Eisenhower said near the end of his term as President. “Beware of the military industrial complex”. He knew that once the military and the defense industry became joined at the hip we would be off on a juggernaut of new and improved weapons systems every time a marketing scheme was developed in a sales strategy meeting. I do know that many of these later developed bombs were the recycled components of older weapons with new and improved electronics and trigger mechanisms. So in reality many of the older weapons components were stockpiled and then declared obsolete and re installed in newer weapons. The stockpiling of nuclear weapons was a cornerstone of the philosophy of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). The only thing that escaped logic was that the stockpiling accounted for close to 10,000 weapons at any given time in history but there were only enough aircraft in the U. S. Military inventory to deliver 200 to 300 weapons at any given time. How would the massive amount of stockpiled weapons get delivered? Many of the first strike aircraft in the air or on the ground would have been shot down by anti aircraft missiles, some would run out of fuel, many bases in the U. S. would have been destroyed by retaliation and many aircraft would get lost and go down in unfriendly territory due to the effects of EMP (electromagnetic pulse). The stockpiling of that many weapons just defies logic. Chapter 9:
Our Nuclear Powered Navy
Naval Nuclear Engineering Nuclear marine propulsion is achieved via a naval reactor. Naval reactors are pressurized water reactors. They utilize pressurized water in a liquid-metal cooling system. They differ from land based nuclear power reactors in significant ways:
1. Naval reactors have high power output (megawatts) in a small volume. 2. Some can run on low-enriched uranium or highly enriched uranium. 3. Uranium Oxide fuel is not used. 4. A Uranium based zirconium-metal alloy with a small amount of Uranium used and enriched to 96%. 5. This design enables a compact pressure vessel design for enhanced safety.
Highly enriched fuel rod bundles have a long useful life enabling ships to go un-refueled for long periods of time. Some Naval Reactors range in size up to 550 Megawatts on our larger submarines. The first nuclear powered naval vessel in the world was the U. S. Submarine Nautilus (SSN-571) which got underway on nuclear power in 1955 opening the way for large numbers of naval ships to follow.
NAVAL REACTORS Naval Reactors come in many shapes and power capacities (megawatts). At the outset of the nuclear propulsion program in the 1950’s it was apparent that naval reactors had to be small, powerful and safe to operate. The reactors that were developed were designated by a three character alpha numeric code. Submarine Reactor Models: Ship Type Generation Manufacturer S1C Reactor, or S=Submarine, 1=First Generation, C=Combustion Engineering Corp. Prototype reactor used as test bed. S1G Reactor, or S=Submarine, 1=First Generation, G=Genera Electric Corp. Not installed in a submarine but shelved due to hazards of liquid sodium coolant system. S1W Reactor, or S=Submarine, 1=First Generation, W=Westinghouse Corp. Prototype not installed. The National Nuclear Test Station in Arco Idaho built it. S2C Reactor, one was installed in “Tullibee” (SSN-597) as part of a very quiet turboelectric power plant. S2G Reactor, one was installed in the “Seawolf” (SSN-575) and was a liquid-sodium cooled reactor. S2W Reactor, one was installed in the “Nautilus” (SSN-571) and was a pressurized water cooled reactor. S2Wa Reactor, or S=Submarine, 2=Second Generation, W=Westinghouse Corp. a=modified. It replaced the S2G in the “Seawolf” (SSN-575) a unique boat. S3G Reactor, two were installed in the “Triton” (SSN-586) which as a large radar picket Submarine. S3W Reactor, three were installed as a vertical “U” tube steam plant designs in the “Halibut” (SSN-587), “Skate” (SSN-578) and the “Sargo” (SSN 583) boats. S4G Reactor, one replaced the S3G on the “Triton” (SSN-586) a unique boat. S4W Reactor, two were installed in the “Swordfish” (SSN-579) and “Seadragon” (SSN- 584) boats. S5G Reactor, one was installed in the “Narwhal” (SSN-671) a unique boat. It was a large reactor that developed 90 megawatts. S5W Reactor, were installed in many submarines: 6 for the “Skipjack” (SSN-585) Class boats. 5 for the “George Washington” (SSBN-598) Class boats. 14 for the “Thresher” “Permit” (SSN-593/594) Class boats. 5 for the “Ethan Allen” (SSBN-608) Class boats. 9 for the “Lafayette” (SSBN-616), Class boats. 8 for the “James Madison” (SSBN-627), Class boats. 12 for the “Benjamin Franklin” (SSBN-640), Class boats. 37 for the “Sturgeon” (SSN-637), Class boats. 1 for the “Parche” (SSN-683), a unique boat. 1 for the “Glenard P. Lipscomb” (SSN-685), a unique boat. S6G Reactor, 62 were installed in the “Los Angeles” (SSN-688), Class boats. S6W Reactor, 3 were installed in the “Seawolf” (SSN-21), Class boats. S7G Reactor, was a land based prototype not installed in boats. S8G Reactor, 18 were installed in the “Ohio” (SSBN-726), Class boats. S9G Reactor, 9 have been installed in the “Virginia” (SSN-744), Class boats now building with a total of 17 planned.
Cruiser Reactor Models C1W Reactor, 9 were installed in the “Long Beach” (CGN-9) Class ships.
Aircraft Carrier Reactor Models A1B Reactor, slated to be installed in the “Gerald R. Ford” (CVN-78) class. A1W Reactor, was the land based prototype for the “Enterprise” (CVN-65) Class ship. A2W Reactor, 1 was installed in the “Enterprise” (CVN-65) Class ship. A4W Reactor, 20 installed in the ten “Nimitz” (CVN-68) Class ships at 2 per ship.
Destroyer Reactor Models D1G Reactor, was a land based prototype for testing. D2G Reactor, 2 were installed in the “Bainbridge” (DLGN/CGN-25), a single ship Class. 2 were installed in the “Truxton” (CGN-35), a single ship Class. 4 were installed in the “California” (CGN-36) and “South Carolina” (CGN-37) Class ships. 8 were installed in the “Virginia” (CGN-38) Class ships “Texas” (CGN- 39), “Mississippi” (CGN-40) and “Arkansas” (CGN-41). In the fifty years of naval nuclear propulsion there has never been an accident where the environment or the crew of one of our over two hundred U. S. Navy nuclear powered ships were harmed from radiation or radiated material release. The U. S. Navy is very proud of their nuclear safety record.
U. S. Civilian Nuclear Powered Ships Only one prototype vessel was built in 1959 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp. It was called the U. S. Nuclear Ship Savannah. It was equipped with one 78 Megawatt Babcock and Wilcox Pressurized Water Reactor. The ship cost $46, 900, 000 to build which was subsidized by the government. The ship never made money because it was to costly to operate and could not carry enough passengers or cargo to pay for itself. It was taken out of service in 1972 and placed in the reserve fleet. In 1981 the ship was obtained by the Patriots Point Association and is moored near Charleston South Carolina as a museum ship. The Russians have several nuclear powered ice Breakers that spend a great deal of time each year along the Arctic Sea in Northern Russia keeping the shipping lanes and harbors open. The Russian Navy has many nuclear powered ships but mostly their nuclear navy consists of submarines which are notoriously ill fated and accident prone. West Germany experimented with a nuclear powered ship but gave up. Also Japan had one nuclear powered ship and they too let it go. Basically nuclear powered merchant ships are just not cost effective. CHAPTER 10:
The Anatomy of a Nuclear Explosion.
Blast Effect The blast of a thermonuclear device is broken down into several percentages of energy released: 40-50% of total energy is spent in the blast. 30-50% is thermal radiation (radiated heat). 5% is ionizing radiation (Alpha, Beta, Gamma and X-rays are lethal to all living tissue). 5-10% is residual radiation (dust and debris scattered upward and ionized then absorbed by matter). A factor of a nuclear detonation is the location in which it explodes. Underwater detonations are less harmful to the atmosphere than an above ground or a contact explosion. Nuclear weapons are effective in three ways; Blast Effect=destroys structures and equipment. Thermal Radiation=even water heated to the temperature of the Sun will burn.
Ionizing Radiation=Lethal to all cellular life. Even life hundreds or thousands of miles downwind will suffer radiation poisoning from radiation bearing fallout particles coming into contact with living tissue. It is called ionizing radiation because it disturbs and charges particles in matter. There are four types of Ionizing Radiation and all are lethal in high concentrations. Lead or other non-porous material shielding helps but the proximity to the nuclear blast source usually determines level of exposure and relative lethality: 1. Gamma Rays Gamma Rays are the shortest wavelength of any ionizing radiation emitted from a nuclear reaction. They will pass through almost anything and due to their short wavelength do great damage to living cellular organisms. The absorption of Gamma rays into the human body causes cellular breakdown, DNA alteration, immuno-suppression and dense tissue thermal damage. Low dose exposure to Gamma Rays causes many forms of Cancer. Gamma Rays emitted from a Nuclear explosion is accompanied by X- rays, Beta and Alpha radiation. Gamma rays are the most powerful nuclear force in the universe. Gamma rays of sufficient power could destroy all life on any planet. Black holes are thought to emit Gamma rays of sufficient force to destroy worlds.
X-Rays X-Rays are similar in character to Gamma Rays as they are both deep penetrating and harmful to all living tissue. High doses of X-rays are just as harmful as Gamma Ray exposure. The common type of X-rays used to peer into our bodies by the medical establishment is a very miniscule amount and the shutter is opened only for a microsecond to allow the rays to pass through your body or teeth. X-Rays emitted from nuclear explosions are accompanied by Beta, Gamma, and Alpha Radiation and the duration of exposure is much more long lived so the damage is more pronounced.
Beta Rays Beta radiation is most commonly found in fallout particles. It is moderately penetrating and if all exposed skin and clothing is laundered it will remove 95% of Beta radiation thus reducing lethality. If exposure is lengthy and sufficient it will result in radiations sickness. Beta Radiation is produced along with Gamma, Alpha and X-ray radiation in a nuclear explosion. Alpha Radiation Alpha Radiation is not absorbed through the skin. It is only harmful is swallowed, breathed in or comes in contact with an open wound. It is the least lethal of all radiation as it cannot penetrate most common materials. If you are contacted by fallout particles a simple shower will remove 95% of all Alpha radiation. It is produced along with Beta, Gamma and X-rays in a nuclear explosion.
Residual Radiation=Remember in science class when you induced magnetism into a piece of ferrous metal with an electrical current? Something similar occurs in a nuclear blast as ionizing radiation particles penetrate inanimate objects such as steel, concrete, rocks, soil, water, etc. and makes them too HOT in radiation terms to come near for long time periods. An example of residual radiation is the dead zone around Chernobyl Russia where to the untrained eye all looks normal with the exception that there are no people or animals for hundreds of miles due to radiation spewed from the reactor dome when it ruptured. (The Russians did not build a containment building of very thick blast proof steel reinforced concrete over the reactor such as is required in the U. S.) Vegetation is stunted and sparse. The closer you get to ground zero at Chernobyl the worse it looks. Keep in mind that Chernobyl was an accident that only involved a steam explosion and not from a thermonuclear blast. A deliberate nuclear detonation would do far more widespread damage and would have a much wider area of residual radiation. Nine out of ten living things that die in a nuclear blast do not die from the blast. Most living things within a six mile radius area (for a 1 Megaton Blast) will be close enough to ground zero to die of the intense Gamma Ray Radiation emanating from the blast itself. This manifests itself by instant vaporization to severe burns to lingering slow death from softened internal tissue. If you remember the photos taken in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the blasts, it was easy to tell that the people were vaporized by the intense Radiation as this Gamma ray effect left light gray permanent shadows on the walls and pavement. These victims will be the lucky ones in that they will be dead before they feel anything. Outside of the six mile radius area out to 20 miles the flash will instantly blind everything with eyes. (Eyelids opened or closed will make no difference)! Anything with eyes out to 50 miles from the blast if looking in the direction of the flash will suffer the same fate. Being underground in the dark is the best protection. Of the living things out to 70 miles from the blast of a 1 megaton weapon the overpressure or shockwave will pick up normally stationary objects (parts of buildings, roof tiles, downspouts, vehicles, boats, lawn furniture, utility poles, mail boxes and living things) and hurl them away from the blast at close to supersonic speeds shredding anything in their path. The overpressure will cause bleeding from every bodily orifice and lungs will fill up with blood from ruptured vessels. Those living things that somehow survive the blast will begin to suffer the classic symptoms of radiation sickness which are vomiting, skin rashes, intense thirst, hair loss, peeling skin and softening of muscle tissue. It will become difficult to breathe and move. If you are only mildly burned by the heat and radiation from the blast your skin will tighten up and your lungs will labor for breath as the superheated air destroys tender lung tissue and burns your airways. Then there will be the firestorm driven back toward the blast from the overpressure and shockwave recoil as it feeds inward toward the rapidly rising column of superheated air and debris (the mushroom cloud) as it rises to a height of ten miles. In about one hour the cloud will dissipate and the fallout radiation it drops as it travels downwind will be invisible to all but the few with detection instruments. Commonly, survivors described fallout as gray dust like particles falling from the sky. All surfaces including lakes, municipal water supplies, rivers, fields, houses and living things will get a fine coating dropped on them. The fallout zone will encompass nearly 400 square miles downwind and will spread with the movement of living creatures and moving water and wind. Many exposed to the fallout will die slowly and painfully from the lingering effects of radiation poisoning. As in Chernobyl some deaths will be thousands of miles away in pockets of radiation caused by the variability of air current and cloud movement. The health effects are well noted here and are chilling enough but there is also an effect less well known. That effect is EMP or Electro Magnetic Pulse which is the disruption of the earth’s electromagnetic field long enough to fry every electrical circuit and electronic device within hundreds of miles of Ground Zero. Nothing that runs on electricity will work. No cars, trucks, radios, television, lights, elevators, boats, airplanes or trains will work. They will simply cease to function and crash to the ground or grind to a halt. Chapter 11:
U. S. Military Nuclear Safety Record!
According U. S. Air Force and Navy press releases, we have a few “Incidents” or “Broken Arrows” in our past. According to the U. S. Department of Defense Directive number 5230.16 certified current in 2003 and the U. S. Air Force Operation Reporting System policy 10-206 the following terminology will be used in promulgating public information releases to the media.
Official U. S. Government Terminology
“Pinnacle” An incident that denotes interest to the National Command Authority, and Department of Defense in that it; • Generates a higher level of military action. • Causes a national reaction. • Affects international relationships. • Causes immediate widespread coverage in the news media. • Is clearly against the national interest. • Affects current national policy.
All of the following official U. S. Government Public Information reporting terms are classified as “Pinnacle” with the exception of “Bent Spear”, “Faded Giant” and “Dull Sword”. “Bent Spear” Refers to nuclear weapons incidents that are of significant interest but are not recognized as “Pinnacle-Nucflash” or “pinnacle-Broken Arrow”.
“PINNACLE-Broken Arrow” An accidental event that involves nuclear weapons or nuclear weapon components which does not create the risk of nuclear war in that it; • Involves a nuclear detonation. • Involves a Non-Nuclear detonation or burning of nuclear weapon material. • Radioactive contamination. • Jettisoning of a nuclear weapon or nuclear weapon component. • A public hazard either actual or implied.
“Pinnacle-Nucflash” This refers to detonation or possible detonation of a nuclear weapon which creates a risk of an outbreak of nuclear war. Events which may be classified Nucflash may include: • Accidental, unauthorized, or unexplained nuclear detonation or possible detonation. • Accidental or unauthorized launch of a nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable missile in the direction or, or having the capability to reach another nuclear-capable country. • Unauthorized flight of, or deviation from, an approved flight plan by a nuclear armed or nuclear-capable aircraft with the capability to penetrate the airspace of another nuclear-capable country. • Detection of unidentified objects by a missile warning system or interference (experienced by such a system or related communications) that appears threatening and could create risk of nuclear war. “Pinnacle-Emergency Disablement” • Refers to operations involving the emergency destruction of nuclear weapons. “Pinnacle-Emergency Evacuation” • Refers to operations involving the emergency evacuation of nuclear weapons. “Pinnacle-Empty Quiver” • Refers to the seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon or nuclear component. “Faded Giant” • Refers to an event involving a nuclear reactor or other radiological accident, which does not involve nuclear weapons. “Dull Sword” • Is an Air Force reporting term that marks reports of minor incident involving nuclear weapons, components or systems, or which could impair their deployment. This could include actions involving vehicles capable of carrying nuclear weapons but with no nuclear weapons on board at the time of the accident.
In retrospect there have been reported nuclear weapons accidents in our nuclear history involving mechanical malfunctions, aircraft crashes and missiles gone awry. We all know that technology has it’s weak points as the following random thoughts postulate. As with any complex mechanism there are malfunctions, errors, glitches and failures. If you own a computer, a car, an air conditioner or any other such device then you understand that things happen. Example; The SS titanic was touted as unsinkable. The Hubble telescope was touted as a perfect device for viewing the universe. So you see my point here. If anything can go wrong it will at the worst possible moment. I would characterize carrying nuclear weapons in aircraft as an accident waiting to happen. The military code name for a lost nuclear weapon is “Broken Arrow”! The world has had its share of them. Here is the Published list:
1. On February 13, 1950 a U. S Air Force B-36 Bomber enroute from Eielson AFB near Fairbanks Alaska to Carswell AFB near Fort Worth Texas while on a simulated combat mission over the Pacific west of British Columbia Canada developed a catastrophic mechanical problem eventually causing the aircraft to crash. Prior to crashing on Vancouver Island the nuclear weapon the Bomber was carrying was jettisoned (dropped) over the Pacific Ocean from a height of 8,000 feet. The high explosive implosion trigger charge was seen to detonate on contact with the water but since the weapon was not armed with a nuclear capsule there was no nuclear detonation. This was the first “Dirty Bomb”. The bomb nor any parts were never recovered. 2. On April 11, 1950 at 9:38 PM a B-29 Bomber carrying a nuke crashed into a mountain near Manzano New Mexico after takeoff from Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. The bomb was destroyed in the crash but did not detonate because the detonator was not installed. Whew! 3. On July 13, 1950 a B-50 Bomber from Biggs AFB near El Paso Texas on a flight to Ohio flew into the ground at Lebanon Ohio destroying the nuclear weapon on board but it did not have a nuclear detonator installed. 4. On August 4, 1950 at what is now Travis AFB an Air Force B-29 crashed with an unarmed nuclear weapon aboard. The resulting detonation of the conventional explosive killed nineteen and injured over 60 people in a trailer park nearby as well as destroying the trailer park. This was the second “Dirty Bomb”. 5. On November 10, 1950 a B-50 flying over the Pacific jettisoned a nuclear weapon which was destroyed by the conventional explosive but no nuclear detonator was installed. This was the third “Dirty Bomb”. 6. On March 10, 1956 over the Mediterranean Sea, a flight of four B-47’s from McDill AFB in Florida on simulated combat mission lost one aircraft in cloud cover with no trace of the two nuclear trigger capsules on board ever being found. No bombs were on the aircraft. 7. On July 27, 1956 a U. S. Air Force Bomber crashed into a storage bunker containing 3 each Mark 6 Nuclear Weapons at Lakenheath RAF base in the United Kingdom. The fire damaged the bombs but they did not detonate. The nuclear explosion would have rendered most of the British Isles uninhabitable had all three weapons detonated! 8. On March 10, 1957 an Air Force B-47 in route to Europe with two nuclear weapon trigger capsules aboard vanishes over the Atlantic Ocean. No traces were ever found. 9. On May 22, 1957 a B-36 ferrying a nuclear weapon from Biggs AFB Texas to Kirtland AFB in New Mexico mistakenly dropped the bomb over the desert in New Mexico. The high explosive trigger charge detonated and completely destroyed the bomb casing making a crater 25 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep. The radiation was measured as significant inside the crater but negligible outside the crater. The nuclear trigger capsules had not been inserted so there was no nuclear detonation. This was the fourth “Dirty Bomb”! 10. On July 26, 1957 an Air Force C-124 transport looses power in two of its four engines and jettisons two nuclear weapons in an undisclosed area of the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast of the United States. They have never been found! 11. On January 31, 1958 A B-47 with one nuclear weapon on board crashed on a runway at an Air Force Base in Europe burning for seven hours and contamination was minimal. No explosion occurred. 12. “The Tybee Bomb” On February 5, 1958 an Air Force F-86 fighter collides with an Air Force B-47 strategic bomber at 3:38 AM over the Atlantic Ocean near Savannah Georgia. The F-86 crashes in the ocean after the pilot ejects safely. The B-47 is damaged and attempts to land at Hunter Air Force Base in Georgia but the crew is fearful of a crash that may set off the MK 15, 1 megaton bomb contained in the bomb bay. A decision is made to jettison the device. The bomb is dropped into the area of Tybee Island Georgia near Savannah. (See the Prologue of this book) The official report on the crash issued b the Air Force could not determine if the weapon had the trigger mechanism installed or not. It has never been found! 13. On March 11, 1958, A B-47 accidentally dropped a nuclear weapon over Mars Bluff South Carolina The conventional high explosive trigger detonated and left a crater 75 feet wide and 35 feet deep. Nuclear material was scattered over a wide area. The Fifth “Dirty Bomb”! 14. On November 4, 1958, A B-47 catches fire on take off and crashes. One crewmember is killed and the high explosive trigger device explodes in the fire scattering nuclear material and causing a crater 35 feet in diameter. The Sixth “Dirty Bomb”! 15. On November 4, 1958, at Dyess AFB in Abilene Texas a B-47 catches fire on takeoff, the crew ejects but one is killed. The aircraft crashes with one nuclear weapon aboard and the conventional explosive detonates leaving a crater and contamination over a large area. The Seventh “Dirty Bomb”. 16. On November 26, 1958 at Chenault AFB Louisiana a B-47 catches fire on the ground destroying the nuclear weapon aboard but does not detonate the conventional explosive. Contamination was minimal. 17. On January 24, 1961 a B-52 carrying two each 24 megaton weapons crashes near Goldsboro North Carolina. After the ensuing fire is extinguished it is discovered that on one bomb five of the six fail safe switches had failed leaving only one to prevent nuclear detonation. If it had detonated the explosion would have been 1,800 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Of course, the Air Force claims there were no nuclear detonators aboard either bomb. But in the aftermath of this incident all new safety protocols were implemented along with a redesigned fail safe switch system for all U. S. nuclear weapons. 18. On March 14, 1961 a B-52 from Mather AFB near Sacramento California experienced a rapid depressurization of the crew cabin and started a rapid descent over Yuba City California. During the maneuvering excess fuel was expended and a tanker was called for but did not arrive in time and the all the crew except Bomber was abandoned at 10,000 feet by the pilot who rode it down to 4,000 feet steering it away from population centers. The aircraft crashed in a remote area. Both weapons on board were damaged but the new safety devices prevented any explosion. 19. On June 4, 1962, a Thor ICBM on a test flight over the Pacific range is detonated due to a malfunction and a nuclear warhead falls into the Pacific. 20. On June 20, 1962, another Thor ICBM malfunctions and blows up dropping the nuclear warhead into the Pacific. 21. On April 10, 1965 a nuclear weapon armed Navy A-4 Bomber rolls off the U. S. Aircraft Carrier Ticonderoga and sinks in 16,000 feet of water near Japan. 22. On January 17, 1966, a B-52 Bomber is involved in a midair collision over Palomares Spain and drops four nuclear weapons. The conventional explosive triggers detonate on two of the devices and scatters radioactive material over a wide area. The Eighth and Ninth “Dirty Bombs”! 23. On January 21, 1968, a B-52 from Plattsburg AFB New York crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Thule Air Force Base, Greenland. The conventional explosive charges in the four nuclear weapons aboard detonate spreading radiation over a 36 square mile area. The Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth “Dirty Bombs”! 24. On September 20, 1980 an Air Force Missile Technician drops a wrench which damaged a fuel line on a Titan-II ICBM in its silo. The resulting fire and explosion throws off the 740 ton blast door on top of the silo and propels the 9 megaton warhead 600 feet into the air killing one and injuring 21. 25. August 2006, The U. S. Air Force shipped Minuteman III nuclear warhead triggers to Taiwan instead of helicopter parts. 26. August 2007, The U. S. Air Force lost track of 6 nuclear cruise missile warheads for 36 hours. They were found on a B-52 parked in a regular security area of an Air Force Base in Louisiana. The above list is only the United States nuclear accidents that were, made public. And, as you can see, we got better at nuclear weapon safety with experience. 1958 was a bad year for so called accidents. I did not mention the numerous nuclear accidents the Russians have had over the years because the information on them is sparse and I want to be as factual as possible. There were many disasters at sea involving nuclear powered submarines with heavy loss of life. The only silver lining in that cloud is that the reactors and possible nuclear tipped missiles and torpedoes are buried under miles of sea water and out of reach of most salvage attempts. Hopefully the reactors were “Scrammed” (shut down). The Russians have had some spectacular submarine disasters and of course they neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons on their subs. There have been numerous unreported accidents involving dropped nuclear weapons or missiles misfiring on Navy ships. I have only reported what can be confirmed through news sources and official press releases. Chapter 12:
The Cuban Missile Crisis!
In the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual, personnel in service in the Cuban Quarantine Operation between January 3rd, 1961 and October 23rd, 1962 were awarded the “Navy Expeditionary Medal” and the “Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal” was authorized for all branches serving in the Cuban Quarantine from October 24th, 1962 through December 31st, 1962. The area of these operations was described as the area between 12 degrees North Latitude to 28 degrees North Latitude and from 66 degrees to 84 degrees West Longitude or Cuban Littoral Waters. People risked their lives during this time and the United States risked its’ very existence. I grew up in Mayport Florida which is just outside the fence of Naval Station Mayport. My Father was a Supervisor in the DOD Security Department there. I remember as a boy watching military cargo aircraft unloading mysterious containers at the farthest end of the main runway out of sight of prying eyes. I saw numerous combat armed Marines surrounding the area as well as DOD security personnel and when the containers were loaded onto trucks the entire convoy moved slowly with a heavily armed escort to the piers to load the containers onto Navy ships. This scene was played out every time a fleet or aircraft carrier group was about to sail and it did not take a genius to figure out that they were loading. This was commonplace in the sixties at the height of the cold war. The Soviet leadership under Premier Kruschiev was belligerent and provoked us at every turn so it would have been foolish for our government to put its military assets in harm’s way without significant nuclear strike capability. After all, we knew the soviets were trying to establish a base in the Western Hemisphere (historically Cuba was first and then Granada and now Venezuela) from where to threaten us just as we were threatening them from Europe (Turkey, Italy and the Med) with out tactical and intermediate range missiles. A sobering thought was postulated in the 1980’s before the Soviet Union broke up by writer Oskar Morgenstern in his book, “The Question of National Defense”. “Some day there will be an accidental explosion of a nuclear weapon, a pure accident, which has nothing whatsoever to do with military or political plans, intentions, or operations. The human mind cannot construct something that is infallible. Accordingly, the laws of probability virtually guarantee such an accident—not because the Soviet Union is relaxing any of the conscientious precautions designed to prevent one, or because the Soviet Union is necessarily getting more careless with warheads, but simply because sheer numbers of weapons are increasing….Nuclear weapons will surely spread throughout the world. They may become available in international trade; even that is not to be excluded. With thousands of nuclear weapons in existence, the danger of a nuclear accident in the world is unquestionably increasing”. Morgenstern’s scenario is sobering enough, but the present global political climate is so unstable I don’t sleep as well as I used to knowing Pakistan and India are nuclear armed and that there are nukes on the black market for sale and Iran would do anything to be able to obliterate Israel. I worry that some terrorist group will get their hands on one or more and use them against us. Some enterprising group could just find the nuclear weapons we have lost and use them against us. I know our own government can’t find them but a well funded effort with the right equipment could and have a very potent weapon to use against us if they were successful. We can build a space station and send robots to Mars but we can’t find a few lousy nuclear weapons we lost! Go figure. Now that the whole world knows about our lost nukes thanks to satellite TV, I am as frightened now as I was back in the military when I was briefed on how we came so very close to nuclear war in 1962. I did not appreciate the seriousness of the Cuban Missile Crisis then, but I do now! In the fall of 1962 I was attending sophomore classes at Duncan U. Fletcher High School in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. At the age of fifteen I was into football, girls and all things military. The nation was in a dither that fall because of the buildup of naval forces for the proposed invasion of Cuba. My mother was the Postmaster for the local Mayport post office which handled all of the Navy mail. As I grew up near Mayport Naval Station I was enthralled by its’ many fascinating aspects. Having been raised in the area I saw the naval base grow and in 1962 it was a very busy place on normal days. When the Cuban Missile crisis heated up to a boil it was pure organized chaos. Being 15 and big for my age I was allowed to roam in many areas where normal civilians couldn’t go due to my familiarity with everyone in DOD Security. The building pressure of the Blockade and Missile crisis had been the topic of conversation all over the neighborhood and the Nation. In Tom Hightower’s Barber Shop between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue North on 1st Street in Jacksonville Beach the men were all speaking in reverent tones of our military might which was evident on the ocean nearby. I counted so many military vehicles on the roads I lost count and became disinterested. While doing my research for this book I found Department of Defense documents which listed 232 U. S. Navy ships that took an active part in the build up to and the actual blockade of the Island Nation of Cuba. The Navy was the principle player in our military efforts due to Cuba being surrounded by water. The seriousness of the situation can be seen in the following list of vessels assigned to the crisis by the Department of Defense. Aircraft Carriers: 11 Crusiers: 12 Destroyers: 87 Destroyer Escorts: 18 Amphibious Landing Ships: 28 Tankers: 11 Ammunition Ships: 7 Troop Transports: 12 Supply Ships: 15 Command & Control Ships: 4 Mine Sweepers: 7 Submarines: 20 There were 8,000 U. S. Marines on those ships ready to land in Cuba. There were 12,000 Army Airborne troops ready to parachute into Cuba and three divisions (18,000 troops) of reserve troops from various infantry and armor brigades standing by at various nearby locations. The Florida Keys were packed with military hardware and troops ready for a full scale invasion. My Aunt lived in Marathon in the Keys and had a “Hawk” anti aircraft missile battery placed in her business parking lot. I remember waking up one morning in November to find tanks and military trucks parked up and down Palmer Street in front of my house. In the vacant lot next door were rows of tents with troops milling about eating from C-ration cans. I went to Atlantic Beach with my Mom to run errands and remember seeing Navy ships anchored offshore in the Atlantic as far as I could see. I counted many aircraft carriers among all the anchored ships plus the four that were moored to Mayport Naval Station piers. The air was filled with helicopters and fixed wing aircraft of all shapes and sizes. The civilian airports were packed as well having been commandeered for military aircraft parking areas. There were military convoys on all the main roads heading in different directions. I remember climbing the sand hill next to the old Mayport Lighthouse and it looked like there were dozens of cruisers and destroyers plus assorted auxiliary ships docked in the base along with the aircraft carriers. At 15 I didn’t understand the implications of all that military power. I thought it was very cool but did not understand at the time that we were one mistake away from nuclear annihilation! In hindsight I did think we were going to war but at that age I just couldn’t grasp the implications. As I write this now I have the luxury of the accumulated knowledge that I have gleaned from various sources. All of which indicate that I should have been terrified. Our government had been making moves against the Castro regime and against the Soviet Union that were truly provocative in anyone’s view. The Cuban Missile crisis was the culmination of the moves and countermoves executed by the Soviet government and our government. It all started when Castro overthrew Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. Batista gave up the reins of power in Cuba on January 1st, 1959 by ceremonially turning over the government of Cuba to the Council of Ministers. Shortly thereafter Batista and his family boarded a plane to the Dominican Republic and safety. At that moment Fidel Castro was the leader of the Cuban people. Castro had been fighting the U. S. backed and Mafia financed government of Batista for many years. In 1953 Castro and his merry band of revolutionaries were captured and put in prison for their part in a raid on a Cuban Army barracks. Castro grew popular in prison and when he got out he was heralded as the savior of the Cuban people. The popularity of Castro grew so much there were many people in the U. S. who thought he was the answer to the corruption in the Batista government. There are still many misguided folks in America who think he is a godsend and not the butcher he really is. The adage of “One mans’ terrorist is another mans’ patriot” comes to mind. Once Castro took over he started to turn against American interests in Cuba. He publicly aligned his government with the Soviet Union. The American populace became concerned about a communist regime so close to our shores and making itself a thorn in our side. President Eisenhower quietly set in motion a CIA operation to train and equip the Cuban refugees who came to America to escape Castro’s regime as guerrilla fighters charged with overthrowing him and his government. This group was known as “Alpha 66”. When President Kennedy was elected in November of 1960 the Bay of Pigs invasion was already well along in the planning stages at Foggy Bottom (CIA HQ in Langley VA). Kennedy inherited it from the Eisenhower administration and the CIA. Eisenhower saw to it that Kennedy was briefed on the “Black Op” that would later be called the “Bay of Pigs”! There had been no love lost between the Kennedy campaign and the Eisenhower administration during the 1959 presidential campaign. One of Kennedy’s campaign platforms was a widely touted “Missile Gap” as he called it between the U. S. and the Soviet Union. President Eisenhower knew there was no such thing as a “Missile Gap” but because of national security concerns he couldn’t make the number of nuclear arms possessed by each country a matter of public knowledge. Eisenhower stewed over the “young whippersnapper” as he referred to JFK in private. As he was getting ready to leave office Ike said sarcastically, “We have a new genius in our midst, who is incapable of making any mistakes and therefore deserving of no criticism whatsoever”! Ike once described the loss of that election as his own greatest defeat. In retrospect I think the incoming Kennedy administration was inexperienced and ill equipped to handle such a time bomb as was the global political scene at the time. Soviet Premier Kruschiev knew this and was intent to challenge the neophyte Kennedy in the game of global domination. The presence of Soviet Missiles in Cuba had the potential to be the trigger that would cause a nuclear war that would end life as we knew it and the handling of such a delicate situation should not be left in the lap of an administration still wet behind the ears. Many foreign policy blunders were made and weakness on our part was perceived by the Soviet leadership. In my opinion, we are all lucky we survived! International mischief was afoot from March of 1960 on as the CIA planned operations against Cuba. The seed had been sown for a series of events which when seen in hind sight were guaranteed to provoke a response of deadly seriousness from the soviets. Move and counter move were enacted across Europe, Africa and South America as we and the Soviets sparred. All it would have taken would have been a mistake made on either side that would have been seen as a first strike by the other side! I don’t think the average American could ever grasp how close we came in that time frame to all out nuclear war with an adversary almost as powerful as we were. It would have meant the end of all planetary life as we knew it. Thank God someone blinked! Chapter 13:
Our Testing.
At the outset of the nuclear arms race from 1945 to 1949 the United States tested 6 nuclear weapons and we used two on the Japanese. The Soviets during this time frame tested only one. By the 1960 to 1969 time frame we were testing 42.8 nuclear weapons per year for a total of 428 in that decade. They were conducted mostly in Nevada, New Mexico, the South Pacific and underground. There are three distinct types of nuclear weapons tests: Atmospheric, where the weapon detonates above ground. Underground, where the weapon detonates under ground. Underwater, where the weapon detonates under water. The Soviets tested 232, the UK tested 5, France tested 31 and China tested 10. The decade of 1960 to 1969 was the most prolific testing period in history. Some tests were performed off of South Africa but the number and yield cannot be confirmed. We did our last testing in the 1990 to 1999 period and haven’t tested any since. The Russians tested one in the 90’s. The new kids on the block India and Pakistan each tested 6 weapons in the 90’s.
The total for all testing since we entered the nuclear age in 1945 is as follows: United States………..1,030 nuclear tests of which 815 were underground. Russia/USSR………….715 ………………………496…………………… UK……………………...45 ………………………..24…………………… France…………………210 ………………………160 …………………... China……………………43 ……………………….22 …………………... India…………………….. 7 …………………………6 ………………….. Pakistan…………………..6 ……………………….. 6 ………………….. Total Worldwide…… 2,056 ……………………… 714 …………………. I realize the testing of nuclear weapons is necessary to prove the science but with 1,342 above ground tests didn’t we put a lot of radioactive material into the atmosphere? The underground tests turn vast underground sites into molten glass and solid blocks of radioactive debris that will remain hot for 300 years or more. I think the reason we stopped testing was a consensus that the weapons work and the race was over in respect to the major nuclear powers. The stoppage of testing also coincides with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc nations. Although the USSR only had warheads in territories it could trust such as the Ukraine it ran into trouble with the retrieval of the weapons when independent minded leaders in these territories wanted to become instant atomic powers. No one can guarantee that all of the soviet nuclear weapons have been accounted for! We just have no way of knowing who has them and how amny are missing! The first U. S. Nuclear Weapon test was conducted in New Mexico on July 16, 1945 and was code named “Trinity”. Many tests followed in the New Mexico and Nevada deserts where there exist vast areas of land that will be uninhabitable for centuries due to nuclear residual radiation. The last test was conducted underground in Nevada on September 22, 1992 and was code named “Divider”. In the time span from 1945 to 1992 the total of nuclear weapon tests inside and outside the U. S. continental borders stands at 1,030 of that number the great majority of tests were CONUS or inside the Continental United States. Most tests were conducted at White Sands New Mexico or the Nevada Test Site both above and below ground. Some other tests were conducted in the Pacific Ocean on atolls owned by the U. S. after WWII. The true thermonuclear weapons era got off to a rousing start in America with the inception of the test series known as “Operation Castle” which was conducted in what has been called the Pacific Proving Ground. These tests were high yield weapon design tests used to perfect the optimum yield and blast effect. Lithium enriched with LI-6 was an important factor in these high yield tests. Lithium enriched in Li-6 was discovered by the physicists Ulam and Teller in 1951. It is used in fusion weapons to increase yield. Many tests were experiments with cryogenic nuclear fuels like lithium deuteride proved to be far more of an explosive yield than anticipated. The use of “dry” non-cryogenic lithium deuteride caused a spectacular and disastrous blast that was kept secret for many years. The time line of some of the U. S. tests is listed here in chronological order, (these are not all the tests). Atmospheric Nuclear Test Code Name Trinity, was the first nuclear explosion (1 shot) on earth on16 July 1945 at Alamogordo NM. Crossroads, was the first underwater nuclear detonations (2 shots) in 1946 at the Pacific Proving Ground. Sandstone, was the first test to use levitated cores ( 3 shots) in 1948 at the Pacific Proving Ground. Ranger, was the first test (5 shots) at the Nevada Test Site in 1951. Greenhouse, was the first test using a boosted fission weapons (4 shots) at the Pacific Proving Ground in 1951. Buster-Jangle, was the first test with troops on the ground nearby (7 shots) at the Nevada Test Site in 1951. Tumbler-Snapper, was a test of new designs ( 7 shots) at the Nevada Test Site in 1952. Ivy, was a test of the first hydrogen bomb (Mike) ( 2 shots) in November 1952 at the Pacific Proving Ground. Upshot-Knothole, was the first test of a nuclear cannon projectile (11 shots) in 1952 at the Nevada Test Site. Castle, (Bravo) was the largest yield nuclear detonation ever at that time of (6 shots) in March 1954 at the Pacific Proving Ground. Teapot, was the first tests of Lawrence Livermore designed devices, (14 shots) were made at the Nevada Test Site in 1955. Wigwam, was the first deep underwater nuclear test for submarine vulnerability in 2,000 feet of water with one shot in 1955 in the Pacific Ocean. Project 56, was a safety test of combat designed equipment (4 shots) in 1955 at the Nevada Test Site. Redwing, was a test of three stage designed thermonuclear weapons (17 shots) in 1956 at the Pacific Proving Ground. Plumbbob, was a series of controversial tests exposing troops to radiation (29 shots) in 1957 at the Nevada Test Site. Project 57, 58 and 58A, were a series of tests (5 shots) to test safety of designed equipment in 1957-58. Hardtack I, was a series of tests (35 shots) in the Pacific Proving Ground in 1958. Argus, was a secret series of (3 shots) at high altitude over the South Atlantic Ocean in 1958. Hardtack II, was a series of tests (37 shots) at the Nevada Test Site in 1958. Dominic, was a series of tests of missile warhead tests (36 shots) at Johnston Island, Christmas Island and over the South Pacific in 1962-63. Storax, was a series (48 shots) of crater making experiments at the Nevada Test Site in 1962-63. Sunbeam, was a series (4 shots) of tests of small tactical warheads at the Nevada Test Site in 1962. Many underground tests followed in Nevada and New Mexico.
These are typical test timelines for Operation Tumbler 1952 Nevada Proving Grounds Atmospheric Tests Test Able 793 airdrop from B-50 Device detonated at 17:00 GMT on 1 April 1952. Yield was 40 Kt. Test Baker 1109 foot airdrop from B-50 Device detonated at 17:30 GMT on 15 April 1952 Yield was 1 Kt. Test Charlie 3347 foot airdrop from B-50 Device detonated at 17:30 GMT on 22 April 1952 Yield was 31 Kt. Operation Snapper Test Dog 1040 foot airdrop from B-45 Device detonated at 16:30 GMT on 1 May 1952 Yield was 19Kt. Test Easy 300 foot tower Device detonated at 15:15 GMT on 7 May 1952 Yield was 12 Kt. Test Fox 300 foot tower Device detonated at 12:00 GMT on 25 May 1952 Yield was 11 Kt. Test George 300 foot tower Device detonated at 11:55 GMT on 1 June 1952 Yield was 15 Kt. Test How 300 foot tower Device detonated at 11:55 GMT on 5 June 1952 Yield was 14 Kt. The “Castle” Series of Tests listed here are an example of what went on. 1954 February 28th-March 1st “Castle Bravo” The location was an artificial island dredged up from the bottom sands around Bikini Atoll off Nam Island. It was a surface burst with a planned yield of 4 to 8 Megatons. This device was the first fueled with dry or solid lithium deuteride in the Ulam-Teller design which was developed by the Los Alamos team. As the largest bomb ever tested it was expected to be big but far exceeded the planned size. The test instruments recorded data that the yield was 15 Megatons. The weapon detonated was designated as “Shrimp”. It used partially enriched lithium as fuel. Shrimp weighed 23,500 pounds and was 189.5 inches long and 54 inches in diameter. The fuel consisted of 37-40 percent enriched lithium-6 deuteride encased in the natural uranium tamper. Approximately 10 megatons of yield was from the fast fission of the tamper. The reason for such a high yield was from the inclusion of the lithium-7 isotope made up of mostly lithium and the tritium based boosted primary. The tritium-deuterium fusion caused a collision of the neutrons with the lithium-7 atoms which greatly increased yield. The resulting ground burst crater was 6510 feet in diameter and 250 feet deep. The mushroom cloud reached a height of 130,000 feet in altitude. This blast created the worlds worst radiological disaster. The failure of the meteorological forecasters to predict the drift path of the huge cloud of debris meant that the radiation levels in the central Marshall Islands rose rapidly as fallout blanketed population centers and military bases. Huge numbers of native islanders and military personnel had to be evacuated. A Japanese fishing vessel downwind was covered in fallout and all 23 crewmen became ill with radiation sickness and one died. All further tests we conducted in a much larger test range exclusion zone of 850 miles in diameter with Bikini Atoll at its’ center. March 26th, 1954 “Castle Romeo” Just like “Bravo” the explosive yield of “Romeo” far exceeded the engineer’s projections. The original yield estimate was 4 Megatons but actually yielded 11 Megatons due to the use of enriched natural lithium Li-6 in a 7.5% ratio to the other fusion material present. Li-6 was relatively cheap to produce and was only needed in small quantities to enhance the explosive yield of the bomb design then in use. In this case 7 Megatons of yield were provided by the fast fusion of the natural uranium tamper. This device was another reliable Los Alamos team design. Romeo was mounted on a floating barge instead of on land as in “Bravo”. The reason a barge was chosen was that the previous explosions had vaporized too much sand and left huge craters not to mention the fallout fiasco. The “Runt-1” test bomb used in “Romeo” was later to become the MK-17 nuclear weapon in our arsenal. Runt-1 was 224.9 inches long by 61.4 inches in diameter and weighed 39,600 lbs. April 6th-7th, “Castle Koon” Koon was the first weapon designed by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and was the last weapon that was personally worked on by Edward Teller. It turned out to be a fizzle. “Koon” was designed to have a yield of 1 Megaton but only managed to yield 110 Kilotons. The fusion components only contributed 10 KT to the yield while the primary supplied a fission yield of 100 Kt. The bomb itself was named “Morgenstern” (Morningstar) and the design was much more complex than the tried and true Los Alamos design. The poor design by the Lawrence Livermore team had caused a flaw in the time delay between the primary firing and the secondary ignition. This delay caused the neuron flux from the primary to pre-heat the secondary leading to poor compression of the molecules and a poor fusion reaction. A sister design to this weapon was immediately cancelled. April 25th and 26th “Castle Union” This was a “dry fueled” thermonuclear weapon design employing what was referred to as a “Sloika/Alarm clock weapon design”. It was a prototype of the weapon known as the EC-14. This weapon design used a 95% enriched LI-6 deuteride fuel which was expensive and rare. The “Alarm Clock” weapon was 151 inches long by 61.4 inches in diameter and weighed 27,700 lbs. It was designed to yield 5 Megatons and in fact yielded 6.9 Megatons. Of that yield 72.5% was from fission of the Los Alamos designed “Racer IV” primary trigger. This weapon was also fired from a barge.
May 4th and 5th “Castle Yankee” This weapon was an improved “Runt II” design with a change in the thermonuclear fuel content. The original “Runt” used natural LI-6 at 7.5% of total fuel. The “Runt-II” design utilized enriched L6 at 37 to 40% of the fuel. “Runt II” was identical in appearance to “Runt I” with same dimensions and weight. The predicted yield of this device was 9.5 Megatons and in fact yielded 13.5 Megatons due to the enriched LI-6 being used. Almost half of the yield of this weapon was from fusion in the secondary. This weapon was also fired from a barge which was vaporized.
May 13th and 14th “Castle Nectar” This device was known as “Zombie” and was the prototype for the TX-15 light weight weapon. This design by Stanislaw Ulam was a radiation imploded fusion boosted fission bomb. The outer case of the secondary fuel was made of enriched uranium thus causing a much higher yield. This design called for the addition of LI-6 and tritium to boost the yield. The “Zombie” device was small in comparison to the previous designs in that it was only 110 inches long by 34.5 inches in diameter and only weighed 6,520 lbs. It had a design yield of 1.35 Megatons and was within 6% of that in actual yield. This weapon design went on to become the MK-15. Chapter 14:
Our Atomic Power Generation versus the World.
On December 20th 1951 the experimental reactor at Arco Idaho came on line and produced the first usable electricity generated via a nuclear fission reactor. It is now a national historic site. It is called the EBR-1 site and is open for tours. It was used to light the streets in Arco as a side benefit of being an experimental reactor test site for nuclear propulsion of aircraft. During the early life of nuclear reactors the United States Government experimented with reactors to determine if electricity could be generated efficiently. In the 1950’s this idea came to fruition in the town of Arco Idaho. In 1955 a reactor dubbed the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 or X-39 was run on a ground test stand (it was meant to be the power plant for an atomic aircraft) in an experiment called the Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment Number 1, (HTRE-1). Because of the immense weight of these reactors due to the shielding required for crew safety they were only tried in actual aircraft on a limited basis. The nationally registered historic site in Arco Idaho consists of the aircraft power plant, comprised of one reactor, a radiation shield, two X-39 engines, ducting, controls and instrumentation. This entire apparatus is called the core test facility because it was designed to accept different types of reactor cores as they were designed and perfected. In 1956 the engines were operated successfully but required so much shielding as to make them un-flyable due to weight. In 1957 with successive core designs HTRE-2 and HTRE-3 assembled and fired up with less shielding the design produced enough thrust to theoretically sustain flight at 460 miles per hour for 30,000 miles. Radiation levels were unacceptable and caused contamination over a 1,500 acre area. The engineers finally realized that aircraft power via nuclear reactors was not feasible in the current form. From the early days of nuclear generating and propulsion experiments we now employ 104 separate operating nuclear power plants in the United States. These plants are usually owned and operated by Utility Companies which also own coal, gas or oil fired electric generating plants. There are a few companies that are sole owners of nuclear plants only such as Entergy of Jackson Mississippi and Exelon of Chicago which are both small utilities. In the U. S. we have many reactors but they are old and not as efficient as new designs. Compared to the rest of the world there currently exists little nuclear infrastructure in the United States for the generation of electricity. At this writing there is only one steel company in the world that has the capacity and expertise to cast the 42-foot, egg shaped reactor vessels used to house the core of the reactor. That company is Japan Steel Works. They currently have a four year backlog of orders for reactor core vessels. There is little hope for a new steel casting company to arise and take some of the load off the Japanese. It is ironic that the United States pioneered the use of nuclear energy in reactor design and operation and weapons, two of which were used in anger on the only country on earth with a company capable of casting nuclear reactor core vessels. There is a clamoring among the countries of the world to build and operate nuclear power plants to alleviate the tremendous dependency we all have on oil and to remediate the damage done to the environment by the burning of oil for power. Although human kind has used the available natural materials at hand for warmth, light and cooking since primitive man discovered fire. There has always been a tradeoff or cost. Depletion on the forests for firewood, pollution and out of control fires resulted from primitive campfires. When coal was discovered as a fuel and was readily available in certain regions it replaced much of the wood fired sources of energy. All energy stored in material is derived from the Sun. The Sun causes trees to grow. The Sun baked our planet in its early formation into a ball of energy trapped in the terrestrial layers. Only 700 years ago the world was lit and heated by wood fires on every continent. Mankind then progressed to coal (our most abundant and most polluting fuel) and we still use coal in many electrical power plants. It’s cheap and it’s everywhere but it is the single most damaging energy source on the planet. Smoke from coal fired industry is estimated by the EPA to hasten the deaths of 30,000 Americans each year. There is a very long word in the medical dictionary which is “Pneumonoultramicroscopicsuperscilioconeosis” which is the clinical name for “Black Lung” disease brought on by exposure to coal dust, coal smoke, and particulate fallout of microscopic coal byproduct particles from the air. In China the death toll from unregulated industrial coal fired plants is a well guarded state secret. But what do the Chinese care about a few hundred thousand deaths in a nation whose population is nearing two billion! In the heavily industrialized parts of China the snow is brown (much like Pittsburg Pennsylvania back in the 1940’s) before our EPA air quality regulations took hold. I have seen the pictures of Pittsburg back then in the winter of 1940 with the snow colored brown after it fell through the clouds of pollution from the coal fired industrial steel plants. I’m sure the seed that Einstein planted (E=MC2) was never envisioned to cause such lasting fear and dread among scientists and concerned citizens. Nuclear energy in any form is dangerous if not handled correctly. The same can be said of fire derived from the rapid oxidation of any fossil fuel, solar energy, hydroelectric, wind, etc. Once any fuel (heat source) is transformed into an energy form it becomes dangerous. Many believe that nuclear energy is to be feared because of its ability to cause mass destruction. This is a valid concern in the field of nuclear weapons but not in the field of nuclear reactors. When Einstein postulated his theory, the sheer simplicity grabbed physicists all over the world and shook them to the core. For the first time mankind would be able to convert latent energy in small amounts of fissionable material into vast amounts of energy through a chemical reaction which caused heat. U-235 and U-238 are constantly breaking down on an atomic level into smaller particles which in a controlled environment causes heat. This is the process that causes radioactivity.
Since U-235 has almost all broken down, by now it only comprises one seventh of one percent of all of the known natural uranium in the world. The fears and dreads of the masses are unfounded and not based on scientific facts.
The following are common misconceptions about nuclear reactors: Reactors will explode! This is a myth brought on by unscientific anti nuke hysteria promulgated by the great mass of uninformed people who do not understand chemistry or physics and get caught up in the irrational fears of this crowd. In fact uranium in an un-enriched (Reactor grade) state can not explode like a bomb. To reach critical mass for a nuclear explosion uranium has to be enriched to at least 70 to 90 percent. Reactor grade (non-enriched) uranium only creates heat sufficient to boil water into steam, not explode. There is no crashing of atoms into each other in a reactor nor is there a concentrated implosion needed to create critical mass in a uranium core sufficient to cause an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. A tamper of sufficient mass would be needed to initiate a rapid uncontrolled reaction which does not exist in a reactor.
What about Chernobyl and Three Mile Island?
When you remove all of the unscientific hype the Chernobyl disaster was caused by a very poorly designed reactor with carbon moderators which absorb the emissions from the reacting pile of rods. In this particular case Russian technicians in the control room got into a physical altercation over the use of the reactor and fought over switches and levers they were controlling. The direct cause was improper psychological screening of reactor personnel) This one act caused series of blunders that lead to the overheating of the core which set fire to the carbon moderators causing a four day fire that melted most of the piping and systems in the building which partially melted the reactor vessel that in turn split open exposing the core to water and debris. The smoke carried the radioactive particles up and over vast regions of Europe downwind. Because the Chernobyl facility was not built to western standards of safety there were no firefighting systems in place for such an event. Plus there was no containment building built over the reactor building as are required here in the U. S. and other western nations. If there had been a containment building over the Chernobyl Reactor there would not have been a disaster. The firefighters and technicians would have still died but the world outside would not have been harmed or notified. Keep in mind that there is no OSHA in Russia! Carbon modified reactors are inherently dangerous. Most of the people that died at Chernobyl were fire fighters and technicians who were not equipped to fight a fire in such a hazardous ionizing radiation charged environment.
Three Mile Island Was a minor incident hyped up by the press into a dangerous nuclear accident when it released no more radiation than a common chest X-ray to most civilians exposed to the escaping steam. In fact more fallout fell on Harrisburg PA (where Three Mile Island is) from Chernobyl than from the much publicized partial meltdown at Three Mile Island made famous in the anti nuke propaganda film “The China Syndrome”. The fact that here was a containment building over the reactor incident at TMI limited outside exposure to a minimum. The cause at Three Mile Island was a stuck valve and indicator which led to a series of mistakes by the operators in that they thought the reactor vessel had too much cooling water in it when in actuality it had too little. The core was uncovered by the falling water level and partially melted down to one third its normal size. This melt down did not result in a catastrophe as the media would want you to believe. Because so much conflicting information was passed to the public there was panic. Critics of Nuclear Energy had played up the “China Syndrome” scenario where a core melts out through the bottom of the steel reactor vessel and melts into the groundwater causing a steam explosion on its’ way to China. This scenario is simply hype. Reactor vessels are extremely well built and can withstand very high temperatures. After this incident cooling system redundancy was retrofitted into all nuclear generating plants and there is simply no way a meltdown can occur with the modern “fail safe” systems mandated by the DOE and the AEC.
Radioactive waste is deadly! Yet another misconception brought on by science fiction and not fact. Spent reactor fuel rods from reactors are 95% U-238 and this is the same material found in common dirt. Background radiation in all parts of the earth is caused by U-238 and it’s commonality to all soils and rocks. This stuff is warm radioactively speaking but it takes a vast quantity to make a concentrated radioactive signature.
The Facts: Fact 1. The “Castle Bravo” hydrogen bomb test on February 28th 1954 in the South Pacific Ocean spewed more radioactive material into Earth’s atmosphere than all other nuclear detonations and accidents in world history have. That one test gone awry caused the contamination of one percent of the Earth’s surface. Since the surface area of the Earth is 197,000,000 square miles the contamination spread over 1,970,000 square miles as it drifted around the Earth. Fact 2. In 2007 the total output from all 104 U. S. operating nuclear generating plants was 806,486,978 million watts. Yet the U. S. lags behind many European Nations in nuclear generation per capita. 31 U. S. states have nuclear generating plants. They are constantly on line unless they are shut down for mandatory safety inspections or for other regulated inspection or maintenance periods. No pollution from these plants ever reaches the environment because there is no pollution output from the nuclear generation of electricity. Only waste steam and hot water are emitted.
The anti-nuke crowd will cry and wring their hands at the thought of all of those spent fuel rods collecting in storage water pools at the plants waiting for transport to Yucca Mountain Nevada. If the anti-nuke crowd ever stops the current legal action designed to keep us from safely transporting the spent fuel rods and other low level contaminated materials to Yucca Mountain this problem be solved. Yucca Mountain Nevada has been chosen as the underground repository for the safe storage of radioactive materials by the Department of Energy. Currently at the operating nuclear generating plants the spent fuel rods are kept in metal drums under a layer of 3 feet of water in pools of water at the plants. (3 feet of water prevents the escape of any ionizing radiation from low grade spent fuel rods). The 31 states that have nuclear generating plants are as follows: 1. Alabama has five (5) plants. They are named Brown’s Ferry 1, 2, & 3 plus Joseph M. Farley 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 34,325,127 Megawatts. 2. Arizona has three (3) plants. They are named Palo Verde 1, 2, & 3. Total 2007 output was 26,782,391 Megawatts. 3. Arkansas has two (2) plants. They are Arkansas Nuclear 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 15,486,102 Megawatts. 4. California has four (4) plants. They are named San Onofre 2 & 3, Diablo Canyon 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 35,792,490 Megawatts. 5. Connecticut has two (2) plants. They are named Millstone 2 & 3. Total 2007 output was 16,386,142 Megawatts. 6. Florida has five (5) plants. They are named Turkey Point 3 & 4, Crystal River 3 and St. Lucie 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 29,289,289 Megawatts. 7. Georgia has four (4) plants. They are named Vogtle 1 & 2, Edwin I. Hatch 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 32,544,998 Megawatts. 8. Illinois has eleven (11) plants. They are named Clinton, Dresden 2 & 3, Quad Cities 1 & 2, Braidwood 1 & 2, Byron 1 & 2, Bryon 1 & 2 and LaSalle County 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 95,728,845 Megawatts. 9. Iowa has one (1) plant. It is named Duane Arnold. Total 2007 output was 4,518,875 Megawatts. 10. Kansas has one (1) plant. It is named Wolf Creek 1. Total 2007 output was 10,369,136 Megawatts. 11. Louisiana has two (2) plants. They are named Waterford 1 and River Bend 1. Total 2007 output was 17,077,572 Megawatts. 12. Maryland has two (2) plants. They are named Calvert Cliffs 1 and 2. Total 2007 output was 14,353,192 Megawatts. 13. Massachusetts has one (1) plant. It is named Pilgrim 1. Total 2007 output was 5,119,789 Megawatts. 14. Michigan has four (4) plants. They are named Palisades, Fermi 2, D. C. Cook 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 31,516,953 Megawatts. 15. Minnesota has three (3) plants. They are named Monticello, Prairie Island 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 13,106,000 Megawatts. 16. Mississippi has one (1) plant. It is named Grand Gulf 1. Total 2007 output was 9,358,784 Megawatts. 17. Missouri has one (1) plant. It is named Callaway. Total 2007 output was 9,371,955 Megawatts. 18. Nebraska has two (2) plants. They are named Fort Calhoun and Cooper. Total 2007 output was 11,041,532 Megawatts. 19. New Hampshire has one (1) plant. It is named Seabrook 1. Total 2007 output was 10,763,884 Megawatts. 20. New Jersey has four (4) plants. They are named Oyster Creek 1, Salem 1 & 2 and Hope Creek 1. Total 2007 output was 32,010,376 Megawatts. 21. New York has six (6) plants. They are named Indian Point 2, Nine Mile Point 1 & 2, James Fitzpatrick, Ginna and Indian Point 3. Total 2007 output was 42,452,854 Megawatts. 22. North Carolina has five (5) plants. They are named Brunswick 1 & 2, Shearon Harris 1, and McGuire 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 40,044,705 Megawatts. 23. Ohio has two (2) plants. They are named Perry 1 and Davis-Besse. Total 2007 output was 15,764,049 Megawatts. 24. Pennsylvania has nine (9) plants. They are named Peach Bottom 2 & 3, Beaver Valley 1 & 2, Susquehanna 1 & 2, Limerick 1 & 2 and Three Mile Island 1. Total 2007 output was 77,366,316 Megawatts. 25. South Carolina has seven (7) plants. They are named H. B. Robinson 2, Oconee 1, 2, & 3, Catawba 1 & 2 and Summer. Total 2007 output was 53,199,914 Megawatts. 26. Tennessee has three (3) plants. They are named Sequoyah 1 & 2 and Watts Bar 1. Total 2007 output was 28,700,371 Megawatts. 27. Texas has four (4) plants. They are named Comanche Peak 1 & 2 and South Texas Project 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 41,024,255 Megawatts. 28. Vermont has one (1) plant. It is named Vermont Yankee 1. Total 2007 output was 4,703,728 Megawatts. 29. Virginia has four (4) plants. They are named Surry 1 & 2 and North Anna 1 & 2. Total 2007 output was 27,268,475 Megawatts. 30. Washington has one (1) plant. It is named Columbia Generating Station. Total 2007 output was 8,108,560 Megawatts. 31. Wisconsin has three (3) plants. They are named Point Beach 1 & 2 and Kewaunee. Total 2007 output was 12,910,319 Megawatts.
World Wide Electricity Production by Nuclear Reactors
This international list grows every year and with China reaching out for all the energy it can get it is the fastest growing market for nuclear reactor provided electricity. The latest statistics I could find are from 2004 and indicate there were 435 reactors operating worldwide that year of which we own 23.9% or 104 reactors. We are loosing ground as the rest of the world reduces their dependency on fossil fuels by going nuclear. The worldwide per capita production of electricity ranks as follows. As of 2004 the list ia as follows. 1. France generates 78.1% or 62,466 MW from 57 nuclear plants. 2. Lithuania 72.1% or 3,000 MW from 2 plants. 3. Slovakia 55.2% or 2,580 MW from 6 plants. 4. Belgium 55.1% or 5,824 MW from 7 plants. 5. Sweden 51.8% or 9,819 MW from 11 plants. 6. Ukraine 51.1% or 11,880 MW from 13 plants. 7. Bulgaria 41.6% or 3,760 MW from 6 plants. 8. Switzerland 40% or 3,200 MW from 5 plants. 9. Armenia 38.8% or 408 MW from 1 plant. 10. Slovenia 38.8% or 664 MW from 1 plant. 11. South Korea 37.9% or 13,716 MW from 16 plants. 12. Hungary 33.8% or 1,840 MW from 4 plants. 13. Germany 32.1% or 21,931 MW from 19 plants. 14. Czech Republic 31.2% or 1,760 MW from 4 plants. 15. Japan 29.3% or 45,907 MW from 53 plants. 16. Finland 26.6% or 2,400 MW from 4 plants. 17. Spain 22.9% or 7,400 MW from 9 plants. 18. USA 19.9% or 102,162 MW from 104 plants. 19. UK 19.4% or 14,620 MW from 33 plants. 20. Russia 15.6% or 22,316 MW from 30 plants. 21. Canada 15% or 15,795 MW from 21 plants. 22. Romania 10.1% or 708 MW from 1 plant. 23. Argentina 8.2% or 1,005 MW from 2 plants. 24. South Africa 6.6% or 1,930 MW from 2 plants. 25. Mexico 5.2% or 1,350 MW from 2 plants. 26. Netherlands 3.8% or 481 MW from 1 plant. 27. Brazil 3% or 1,966 MW from 2 plants. 28. India 2.8% or 3,180 MW from 14 plants. 29. Pakistan 2.4% or 462 MW from 2 plants. 30. China 2.2% or 2,268 MW from 3 plants.
We, here in the U. S. are the descendants of the scientists who invented nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons and we rank 19th in the world. Why? I believe our government has bent to the political pressure of the anti nuke faction fueled by a sensation oriented media profit oriented global oil suppliers and environmental groups. This disinformation is crippling our progress. We should be number one on the list and we should lead the world in nuclear reactor design and construction. But, alas we are 19th. China is starting out in the cellar and climbing fast with the help of the Canadians, Russians and Japanese and will surpass all nations in twenty years. China is building nuclear powered generating plants at the rate of one completed every 20 months! I repeat my earlier mantra. There is no OSHA in China or Russia to stifle growth in nuclear energy production. Yes, there is danger in nuclear energy production but there are far more oil refinery fires and coal mine disasters per year than there are nuclear accidents! The simple fact is more people die in Sushi Bar Fugu poisoning incidents than do in Nuclear Accidents per year. No matter how you slice this loaf of bread it is readily apparent to any logical person that we are running out of fossil fuels at an alarming rate. We do have vast amounts of coal but the technology and equipment needed to scrub coal fired power plant emissions clean of pollutant gasses and solids is prohibitively expensive and requires intensive maintenance and up grades. The Engineering Sciences Department at Western Kentucky University is conducting scale model experiments in cutting edge emissions scrubber technology for coal fired plants with long term goals of developing less costly and more efficient coal fired emissions control systems for the future so we can utilize our vast coal reserves. Chapter 15:
Our Planned Nuclear Waste Repository.
Yucca Mountain, Nevada
A. Weapons Grade Nuclear Material perpetual storage. During the infancy of our nuclear life in 1945 the custody of nuclear weapons fell to the AEC or Atomic Energy Commission. At what was called National Storage Sites or NSS and Operational Storage Sites or OSS. The cold war mission of these sites was to maintain the capability of launching a sustained attack in a nuclear environment. The Air Force Strategic Air Command or SAC needed a ready stockpile of protected special weapons with secure storage and assembly areas hardened against attack. SAC maintained 20 such sites worldwide by the close of the 1950’s. The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project or AFSWP, (a civilian agency) oversaw these facilities commonly referred to as “Q” areas. A secret security clearance credential with “Q” designation was required for all personnel who entered these areas. (“Q” clearance meant a background check back to your first grade classmates and teachers). The assembly, test and storage sites were strictly controlled and all personnel were subjected to rigorous background checks. All of these facilities were adjacent to or encompassed by standing military bases which afforded added protection. The AFSWP was superceded by the Defense Atomic Support Agency or DASA which in turn was superceded by the Defense Nuclear Agency or DNA who controlled these Air Force, Army and Navy nuclear facilities during the first years of the cold war. These agencies paralleled the Atomic Energy Commission or AEC in jurisdiction over nuclear weapons. The stockpiling, testing and assembly of these special weapons in this early era required the storage and testing of detonators or Pits which was highly dangerous and subjected the personnel to high risks. All of these facilities were heavily guarded and distinct from their surrounding military facilities in that the signage on the fences authorized deadly force without warning. The Sandia Site at the Sandia Corporation in Albuquerque NM was the first operational national laboratory where weapons were stockpiled and assembled just as the Los Alamos site was used during WWII. Sandia developed into the Sandia Base operated in close step with Kirtland AFB which was a ready state SAC bomber facility where war footing preparedness was expected daily. As of 1999, there were known to be 12,067 disassembled “Pits”, (Primary Nuclear Devices), in storage at the Plantex Plant in Amarillo Texas. The stockpiling of nuclear weapons in the United States started in 1947. There were only 13 weapons in our arsenal at that time. The pace quickened to 56 weapons in 1948 and by mid 1950 there were 298 weapons in the inventory. The great leap into the thousands of nuclear weapons came during the Korean War when at the close of 1952 we had 832 weapons in the inventory and by 1955 an inventory of 2,280 weapons of varying design and atomic yield. The first four storage sites were chosen to be the main stockpile sites and were all completed prior to 1950. All sites were Alpha-Coded (alpha-numeric code sequencing) with a break in the alpha sequencing for overseas locations. In the 1950’s more sites were added to the original four. These sites included the following list: Site A, is the Manzano Base, adjacent to Kirtland AFB and the Sandia Facility in New Mexico. Site B, is the Clarksville Base, adjacent to Campbell AFB and Fort Campbell which straddles the Kentucky/Tennessee border. Site C, is the Medina Base, adjacent to Kelly and Lackland AFB Texas. Site D, is the Killeen Base, adjacent to Gray AFB and Fort Hood Texas. Site E, is the Caribou AFS at Loring AFB in Maine. Site F, is the Rushmore AFS at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota. Site G, is the Deep Creek AFS at Fairchild AFB in Washington. Site H, is the Fairfield AFS at Travis AFB in California. Site I, is the Stonybrook SFS at Westover AFB in Massachusetts.
The five alert sites (Site E through I) were transferred to the U. S. Air Force Air Materiel Command in the late 50’s by Sandia Labs and were taken over by five Air Force Squadrons numbered 3080th through the 3084th Aviation Depot Wing ADW. The HQ of this command was located at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio. At the time of this writing an extensive reorganization of the U. S. Military storage practices and locations is underway at the direction of the National Command Authority (Read Secretary of Defense by direction of the President).
B. Low Grade Nuclear waste and contaminated material perpetual storage. The Yucca Mountain Repository now under construction will be the largest underground storage site in the world strictly designed to hold all levels nuclear contaminated material for the foreseeable future. The Department of Energy began a study of Yucca Mountain Nevada in 1978 while looking for a long term storage site for nuclear material. It will safely house high grade (weapons grade) nuclear material as well as low grade nuclear waste such as spent reactor fuel rods. Obsolete and discarded nuclear materials now reside at 120 separate sites in 39 states in the continental U. S. and it’s possessions. On July 23, 2003 President Bush signed House Joint Resolution 87 which allows the DOE to take appropriate steps to establish the federal owned land of Yucca Mountain Nevada as our nation’s primary nuclear waste repository. This site is on federal land one hundred miles Northwest of Las Vegas in the Amargosa Valley in Nye County on land adjacent to Nellis Air Force Base. Fifty Eight Billion U. S. Dollars have been earmarked from DOE funds for the Yucca Mountain Project. Almost Nine Billion Dollars has been spent so far on design studies, environmental impact, engineering/geologic testing and site preparation. This facility is scheduled to go online and start receiving nuclear material by June 30th 2008 if not prevented by anti nuke environmental lawsuits brought in federal courts. For every year this facility is not in operation it costs the taxpayers seven billion in lost payments into the nuclear waste management fund by the nuclear power companies scheduled to use it. Most shipments will be by rail with some low level less hazardous materials arriving at the site via truck. The DOE is planning on building a railroad directly to the site which is another environmental nightmare in itself to get through all the environmental regulations and lawsuits. The waste material will be transported into the tunnels under the dense rock mountain by robotic machinery and placed in sealed sections far underground to prevent the escape of any radiation. Some materials will be buried further underground for security reasons and encased in thick concrete and steel coffins. Security will be very tight and no flora of fauna will move in the vicinity without being picked up by sensors located everywhere. Shoot first (deadly force authorized) warning signs will be plentiful. A side note on nuclear security. There have been many unfortunate incidents of late where anti nuke protesters have lain down on the tracks in front of trains carrying nuclear weapons or Nuclear Waste. Some protesters are so passionate they think the train would stop before it ran over them. They are mistaken. What they don’t know is that the security protocol for trains carrying nuclear materials or weapons components calls for an armed agent to accompany the operator at all times and with an order to shoot the operator if any attempt is made to stop the train until it arrives at it’s assigned and approved destination! Also, a train engineer friend of mine said it is very difficult to stop a 1000 ton train even if it is going 20 miles per hour due to the mass and inertia of that amount of weight.
Chapter 16:
Our Cost so far.
As mandated by the Start II Treaty the U. S. will have no more than 5000 total nuclear warheads and bombs in the strategic stockpile. The remainder, some 7,500 individual warheads and bombs will be dismantled and buried underground. The Brookings Institution study tallied up the cost of the U. S. Nuclear Arms Program from 1940 to 1996 and collected data from all sources inside and outside the U. S. Government. The conclusion was that in those 56 years the U. S. Taxpayer footed the bill for $5,800,000,000.00, (Five point Eight Trillion USD), which averages out to $1,035,714,285.71, (One point Zero Three Five Billion USD), each year and $2,837,573.39, (Two point Eight Three Seven Million USD) per day! The Manhattan Project alone cost $20 Billion in WWII Dollars. The total number of U. S. Nuclear weapons produced from 1945 to 1990 is 70,000 each of all types. As of 1997 12,500 Nukes remained in our stockpile and of that number 8,750 were deployable, 2,500 were in ready reserve and 1,250 were awaiting disassembly and deactivation (burial). From 1956 to 1957 (At the height of the Cold War) the U. S. Army requested 151,000 warheads from DOD procurement. As of this writing there is approximately 43 metric tons of Plutonium remaining in U. S. weapons archive, inactive or disassembled & buried.
As of 1997 the states with the most nuclear weapons contained within their borders are; New Mexico……………………………………………………………….2,450 weapons. Georgia…………………………………………………………………….2,000 weapons. Washington State…………………………………………………………. 1,650 weapons. Nevada…………………...……………………………………………….. 1,350 weapons. North Dakota…………….…………………………………………………1,140 weapons. Total…………………..…………………………………………………8,590 weapons. Many of the Navy’s nuclear weapons are at sea on ships and submarines. This is one reason the Navy will not confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons on its’ ships if asked by the media. No one in the Federal government can tell us what the final cost of the Yucca Mountain Repository will be as cost adjustments continue as we I write. As an engineer I can tell you it will be a staggering final cost due to inflation in materials and fuel costs. The DOE has proposals on the table to spend 4.5 billion dollars per year on stewardship of nuclear weapons in the U. S. stockpile. We are currently spending 35 billion per year in research and development, maintenance, cleanup and storage costs for our nuclear defense arsenal. A study done in 1964 stated that 400 megatons of nuclear weapons would be enough to deter any attacker by the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction. At that time the U. S. possessed 17,000 megatons in the arsenal. In today’s global political climate we must maintain our defense system at peak readiness. However I believe a comprehensive study must be conducted to ascertain all the possible scenarios that may face our nation in the future and plan our nuclear force capability around those results. If we only needed 400 megatons of weapons in 1964 to deter our enemies then that amount adjusted to present day likely scenarios with a 25% reserve should be maintained. We must not over develop our nuclear capability because we are rapidly approaching a annual federal budget tipping point between national defense priorities and social entitlement spending. We can not afford all things for all purposes in this nation and expect our society to last. We will exhaust our funds quickly if we try to fund all projects without a balance. I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes if I get a reasonable return on my investment. If I am reasonably sure this nation can defend itself against all enemies and that the citizens will be provided for then I think we have reached an understanding. A happy medium must be found and maintained.
Chapter 17:
How to prepare for the future.
In any WMD the design of and intended use of the weapon is for maximum destruction of infrastructure and maximum casualties. There are three main types of WMD weapons.
1. Nuclear Weapons, A. Military nuclear warheads and bombs which explode due to a nuclear chemical reaction. B. Dirty bombs composed of nuclear material exploded and scattered by a conventional explosive such as TNT, Amonium Nitrate, or a chemical explosive. C. The deliberate breeching of a nuclear facility or power plant via the use of conventional explosives or a projectile such as an aircraft. D. The deliberate distribution of nuclear material or waste of sufficient yield to cause physical harm or infrastructure access denial.
2. Biological Weapons, A. Any biologically harmful element composed of microorganisms capable of causing harm to humans or animals or the food supply chain. These biological weapons can be distributed via air, water, consumables, direct contact or mail.
3. Chemical Weapons, A. A chemical element such as a gas, vapor, powder, or liquid which when disbursed causes harm to humans, animals or food supply. The gas used in World War I was Chlorine. It caused severe burning of the mucus membranes and causes bleeding into the lungs. On contact with skin it causes burns. The only way to protect yourself and your loved ones from these weapons is to plan ahead. If you have the capability to install a shelter on your property it must be: 1. Underground to protect from blast effect. 2. It must be windowless to protect from the light pulse from a nuclear detonation. 3. It must be of a material that will block radiation from penetration into the area where people will be. 4. It must have a heavy door on the one access point that is secured from the inside. 5. It must have a two week supply of non-perishable food and water for each person. 6. To protect from biological and chemical weapons it must have a self contained air supply uncontaminated by outside air. 7. First aid supplies and medications including prescriptions. 8. Human waste disposal capability, containers and cleaning supplies. 9. Sleeping accommodations. 10. Portable battery operated or crank operated lights, LED lights last longer and use less battery power) and radios. 11. Tools for making repairs to essential equipment. 12. A written plan and instructions (internet sources) on dealing with WMD effects. 13. Small arms and ammunition for protection from looters or other threats. 14. Radiation detection equipment. 15. Breathing masks and hooded plastic rain suits and rubber gloves for venturing outside. 16. Reading material and a log book or journal with pens and pencils.
Survival is simple with a little engineering, planning and expense. What is your life and the lives of your loved ones worth? When I built my home in Kentucky eleven years ago I designed into the plans a 10 foot by 10 foot concrete bunker. I located it in the most underground corner of my all poured and steel reinforced concrete basement and installed a three inch thick insulated steel plated door. I placed a 100 pound cylinder of compressed air into the bunker for pressurization in case of biological or chemical attack. I can seal the inner seam of the door with duct tape and put an overpressure inside the room to keep contaminants from entering. The room contains drinking water, first aid supplies, fire extinguisher, chemical toilet, canned food, candles, flashlights, radiation detection equipment and a double bunk bed. It will keep me and my wife alive for at least two weeks no mater what form of WMD attack or accident occurs. The walls and ceiling are 8” thick poured concrete with many steel reinforcing bars as well as the 12” thick floor. When I located the building site of the home I notched out the side of a rock and clay hill with a bulldozer and placed the basement completely underground on three sides. This affords the basement area with great blast protection as the walkout wall of the basement faces southeast. If you go to http://members.aol.com/rafleet/hazmaps.htm you will find FEMA generated hazardous condition maps for earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes and nuclear blast and fallout predictions. This will help in determining where you want to build your house. It is also essential that you determine at what compass bearing and distance the nearest military bases and population centers are located in relation to your home location. Remember, you don’t have to be deep underground unless you are near a prospective target ground zero in an attack. Just being mostly underground in a strong structure made from a steel shell or steel reinforced concrete will provide adequate protection in nuclear war. My friend in Purvis Mississippi recently installed a steel ball type shelter in his yard for less than $8,000. He is very happy with it. Air supply must also be considered as the outside air will become contaminated with radiation carrying particulates in a nuclear scenario or chemical/biological agents which are lethal if inhaled. Dust from a nuclear explosion will be the main ingredient in fallout. Breathing in contaminated particles is a death sentence. It is essential that some sort of breathing protection be provided. The minimum should be an ANSI 95 rated particulate mask whenever you are exposed to outside air in a nuclear scenario. If you go to the website www.safetycentral.com you will find a variety of masks used for biological, chemical and nuclear protection. A wet hankie will not do in these situations. My home is equidistant from the U. S. Army Base at Fort Knox Kentucky and the Blue Grass Army Depot (Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Weapons Storage) facility. My home is 56 miles from each target area. These bases will certainly be targets of our enemies. If you live in an area with a water table (ground water) near the surface you can build a mounded shelter in your back yard from readily available prefabricated shelter dealers. There are basic things you can do to be prepared. These are located at the web site www.ki4u.com/survive/index.htm which explains everything you need to know on how to survive a nuclear attack. Another excellent web site is www.alpinesurvival.com where you will find all your WMD survival supplies including shelter designs and plans. There are many companies in existence that will help you build what you need or you can consult with an engineer with military construction experience who can help you. Secrecy is essential in building your shelter. Don’t let the general public or your neighborhood know what you are building. If you have to get county or city government approval then ask them to keep the plans quiet. The less people who know you have a bomb shelter the better. If nuclear war breaks out you don’t want them all showing up at your shelter entrance begging for you to let them in. This is one of the many reasons you need to have adequate small arms to protect yourself, your family and your means of survival. You have to adopt a “survive at any cost” philosophy or you will perish along with the rest of humanity. The possibility of a WMD attack gets more and more likely as we move forward in time. There are no actions being taken by any government in the world to stop rogue nations from getting nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, other than talk or diplomacy. The United Nations is inept and lead by fools who want to make nice with everyone or control all of our carbon footprints. Our government here in the United States is incompetent to the nth degree due to its’ sheer size and complexity. We are basically on our own and if we want to survive we must take a leadership role in our own individual and family survival. Shortages of food, fuel and water are happening now so the future doesn’t look good. The best case scenario is that when the war for survival starts either by some rogue nation using a crude WMD or some nation coveting another’s resources. At least we in the know will be prepared and self reliant enough to survive. Peace! GLOSSARY:
Military and Nuclear Industry terminology.
AAM, Air-to-Air Missile. ABM, Anti-Ballistic Missile. ACM, Advanced Cruise Missile. ADM, Atomic Demolition Munition. ADW, Aviation Depot Wing. AEC, Atomic Energy Commission. AFAP, Artillery Fired Atomic Munition. AFB, Air Force Base. AFNG, Air Force National Guard. AFS, Air force Station. AFSWP, Armed Forced Special Weapons Project. AGM, Air to Ground Missile. AIM, Air intercept Missile usually launched from an aircraft. ALCM, Air Launched Cruise Missile. ANG, Army National Guard. ANSI, American National Safety Institute. ASM, Air-Surface Missile. ASROC, Anti-submarine Rocket. ASW, Anti-Submarine Warfare. CAPT. Military Officers Rank. CIA, Central Intelligence Agency. CGN, Nuclear Powered Cruiser/Destroyer. CinC, Commander in Chief. CID, Criminal Investigations Division, (U. S. Army Investigatory Agency). CJCS, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, (The senior commanding officer of each service makes up this board). Clean, A nuclear weapon with an explosive yield that emits normal radiation particles. CSA, Chief of Staff of the Army. CSAF, Chief of Staff of the Air Force. CONUS, Continental United States. CVN, Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier. DASA, Defense Atomic Support Agency. Dirty, a nuclear weapon that spews out ionizing radiation particles by design or by accident in higher concentrations than normal/ DNA, Defense Nuclear Agency. DOD, Department of Defense. DOE, Department of Energy. ER, Enhanced Radiation (“Neutron Bomb”). EC, Emergency Capability. ECM, Electronic Counter-Measures. EMP, Electromagnetic Pulse. (Nuclear explosion created dead zone for electronics) EPA, Environmental Protection Agency. F/F, Freefall. FRP, Fire Resistant Pit. FUFO, Full-Fuzing Options nuclear trigger control. HEU, Highly Enriched Uranium. HP, Horse Power. HTRE, Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment. HQ, Headquarters. HWR, Heavy Water Reactor. ICBM, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. IFI, In-Flight-Insertion. IHE, Insensitive High Explosive. IRBM, Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile, (Usually under 1500 miles). JATO, Jet Assisted Take Off, Steel bottle shaped rockets filled with chemical solid rocket fuel that produced high thrust output for 10 to 15 seconds. Kt, Kilotons. KNOT, One nautical mile per hour or 6,000 feet. 780 feet longer than a statute mile. LANL, Los Alamos National Laboratory. LASL, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. LED, Light Emitting Diode. LLNL, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. LRL, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. LT, Military Officer Rank of Lieutenant. LWR, Light Water Reactor. MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. MAJOR, Field Grade Officer Rank in Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. MAUD, The secret British Committee developing nuclear weapons in 1941. MGM, Military designator for missile types. MK, Mark. MIRV, Multiply Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicle. MPH, Miles Per Hour. MRBM, Medium-Range Ballistic Missile. Mt. Megatons. MW, Megawatts. NAS, Naval Air Station. NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NBC, Nuclear, Biological or Chemical weapons refer to WMD. NS, Nuclear Ship, (Civilian Nuclear Powered Ship), or Naval Station. NSA, National Security Agency. NSC, National Security Council. NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NRO, National Reconnaissance Office. NSS, National Storage Site. OCONUS, Outside Continental United States. OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSS, Operational Storage Site or Office of Strategic Services. OSRD, Office of Scientific Research & Development. PAL, Permissive Action Link. PHWR, Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor. PLWR, Pressurized Light Water Reactor. PU, Plutonium. Q, Highest level of Nuclear Weapons Security Clearance. RAM, Rolling Airframe Missile or Random Access Memory. REM, “Roentgen Equivalent Man” a measurement of exposure to ionizing radiation. RTD, Parachute Retarded. RV, Re-entry Vehicle. SAC, Strategic Air Command. SALT, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. SAM, Surface to Air Missile. SLBM, Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile. SLCM, Sea Launched Cruise Missile. SNL, Sandia National Laboratory. SRAM, Standard Rolling Airframe Missile. SRBM, Short Range Ballistic Missile. SSM, Surface to Surface Missile. SSBN, Ballistic Missile Submarine. SSN, Nuclear Submarine. START I, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. START II, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. (Limits U. S. Operational Nuclear Weapons to 5,000 bombs and warheads after a certain date). STOL, Short Takeoff or Landing. SUBROC, Submarine Rocket. T, Tons. TN, Ton. UCRL, University of California Radiation Laboratory. USAR, United States Army Reserve. USACE, United States Army Corps of Engineers. USAF, United States Air Force. USAFR, United States Air Force Reserve. USCG, United States Coast Guard. USMMA, United States Merchant Marine Academy. USMC, United States Marine Corps USMCR, United States Marine Corps Reserve. USNA, United States Naval Academy. USN, United States Navy. USNR, United States Navy Reserve. WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction.
References and Sources
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“Global Submarine Proliferation: Emerging Trends and Problems” by J. K. Moltz.
“The illustrated directory of Submarines of the world” by David Miller.
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