Nuclear weapons

Dragons in Game of Thrones Are Like Nuclear Weapons in the Real World

Because we all need a good dose of geopolitics in between sword fights, White Walkers, and boobs, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientistshas a thorough analysis of all the ways dragons are just like nuclear weapons. It’s actually a stunningly obvious comparison once you get down to it. Here be spoilers. And dragons. George R. R.…

​​If There’s A Nuclear Arms Race In Asia, Don’t Blame North Korea

In a recent interview, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said, “It would be difficult for us to prevent a nuclear domino from occurring in this area,” were North Korea to conduct another test. But one analyst argues that if a nuclear arms race were to occur, it’s China that should be singled out for blame.…

The Ten Most Bizarre Ideas For Using Nuclear Weapons

When you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And if you have several thousand nuclear warheads just lying around, it seems a shame not to put them to good use. Here are ten of the most bizarre proposals for nuclear bomb use over the decades. 1) “Pillars of Fire in the Valley of…

The Astronomer Who Wanted to Rearrange the Solar System, Using Nukes

CalTech astronomer Fritz Zwicky was the first to conceive of dark matter, supernovas and neutron stars. He also had a theory about colonizing the solar system using nuclear bombs. We could terraform other planets, he argued, by pulverizing them and then moving them closer or further from the sun. If you’ve never heard of Zwicky,…

Obama’s Efforts to Reduce U.S. Nuclear Weapons Are Kind Of Pathetic

The White House has released figures on the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal: Our stockpile consists of 4,804 warheads. The good news, according to the State Department, is that this number “represents an 85% reduction.” The bad news: That’s the total reduction since 1967. The last four years tell a different story. The release…

The Air Force is simplifying how it grades nuclear-missile officers who are authorized to key in launch codes. The service has “made the monthly [certification] test pass-fail,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh announced, though he declined to say what percentage of correct answers would be needed to pass.

Air Force Says Drones Won’t Carry Nukes…For Now

A recently published report outlines the Air Force’s future plans for its fleet of drones, including whether they would ever be used to carry out a nuclear strike. In the coming 25 years, the Air Force hopes to have drones take over or assist with more of the types of missions that are currently being…

We’re Not Doing Enough to Protect the World’s Nuclear Materials

President Obama and leaders from over 50 countries are meeting in the Hague this week to discuss nuclear security. The over-arching theme of the conference, unfortunately, is a troubling one. Put bluntly: We’re not doing enough to protect the world’s most dangerous materials. It’s not necessarily anybody’s fault. In fact, it’s sort of everybody’s fault…

This is how they load nuclear cruise missiles on a B-52 Stratofortress

When I first saw this photo I immediately thought “what the hell is thing?” Then Attila Nagy told me about it: It’s a nuclear armed AGM-86B cruise missile. Three of them, in fact, being loaded on a B-52 Stratofortress. It’s hard to tell because you are looking at the butt of this 1.4-ton nuclear shark,…

What Cold War Nuclear Weapons Can Tell Us About Art Fraud

The identification of fakes and forgeries is a basic issue that has always raised controversy. This is unsurprising, of course–the enormous sums garnered by top paintings would turn to dust as soon as a question as to their authenticity arose. To determine whether a painting is original or not, the expertise of critics and art…

​There were once plans for nuclear-powered planes

Presenting an all-new horror movie: Nuclear Reactors on a Plane! In the 1950s, when nuclear power was still full of promise and wonder, there were plans to make a nuclear-powered aircraft. In the 1950s, the world was still on the fence regarding nuclear technology. On the one hand, nuclear bombs were powerful weapons. On the…

Silent raw footage of the bombing of Nagasaki is absolutely chilling

This 11-minute video takes us from the preparations of the Fat Man nuclear weapon, its loading onto the plane Bockscar, and the explosion of the bomb in Nagasaki. It’s a sobering look at this catastrophically destructive technology and a reminder of the toll it took in human lives. YouTube user RestrictedData uploaded this video and…

Red mercury is the coolest substance that never existed

We know that red mercury makes the manufacturing of nuclear bombs much, much easier. We don’t exactly know how it manages to do this, but that’s only because red mercury, as far as we know, doesn’t exist. In the swinging 1970s, the design for nuclear bombs at the time required two explosions. A primary explosion…

10% of U.S. Electricity Comes From Old Russian Nuclear Warheads

This is basically the least worst thing that can happen with Russian nuclear bombs! For the past twenty years, the Russians have been turning 500 tons of uranium from decommissioned nuclear weapons into nuclear fuel for the United States. It’s called the Megatons to Megawatts program. The last shipment from that 1993 deal arrived at…

Reagan-Era Futurists Thought Iran Would Get Nukes by 2020

Will Iran obtain a nuclear weapon? That’s the hot-button question for the U.S. government as the United Nations General Assembly meets in New York this week. No one knows for sure, (except maybe Space Cat). But if you asked American futurists of the early 1980s, they’d probably tell you that it’s bound to happen by…

India’s New Long-Range Missile Can Reach Beijing, Europe, and Beyond

India and China are the epitome of frenemies. Their relationship isn’t outright antagonistic, as India’s is with neighboring Pakistan, but has remained prickly since an ongoing border dispute over Tibet that began in the 1960s. Which is why it could be a bit disconcerting that India’s newest missile can reach Beijing—not to mention deep into…

Inside the US Nuclear Stockpile’s Top Secret First Home

At first glance, this could be any huge, Cold War-era facility. The gray and green of poured concrete might remind you of a public school or a hospital. But this is no run-of-the-mill building. It’s the original home of the US’s nuclear arsenal, and it’s been top secret for over 60 years. Built during 1948…

New Google Earth Hack Lets You Nuke Any City in Devastating 3D

A perverse fascination with nuclear fallout and blast radii isn’t that weird. Don’t you want to know how hard you and everything you know is going to disappear from the face of the Earth in the unlikely case that some maniac drops twenty kilotons of atomic death on your front door? Now you can see…

There May Be a Brand New, Sprawling Subway System… For Our Giant Nuclear Missiles

In an effort to upgrade its aging nuclear weapons and accompanying silos, the Air Force is exploring the possibility of chauffeuring its missiles around in a massive, underground network of tunnels. Driving Miss Daisy, meet the Apocalypse. Though the idea of nuclear weapons zipping around underfoot may sound mildly horrifying, the mysteriously undefined “trackless” system…

A U.S. Nuclear Lab Removed Chinese Tech Due to a National Security Risk

After recently discovering that its computer systems contained several Chinese-made network switches, a major U.S. nuclear weapons lab has replaced at least two components because of national security concerns. According to a document acquired by Reuters: A letter from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, dated November 5, 2012, states that the research…