How Nuclear Weapons Work
ryanmcbeth.substack.com
How Nuclear Weapons Work
Iran may be close to developing a uranium type bomb, but what does that mean?
With all of the recent talk about Iran being “Weeks away” from developing a nuclear weapon, we would know because they would test it, right?
Not necessarily.
This video was originally published in October of 2022 and contains the basics of nuclear physics, weapons, delivery systems, radiation and EMP.
The slides for this video as a PDF are available below.
The Power Points are available here.
In the early 1980s on a cold night about 2 am I was looking up and saw streaks of light high in the sky. A co-worker and I commented that if it was a MIRV, we would know pretty soon. The wait was pretty anti-climatic. It was the around the time President Reagan and the USSR were not on the best of terms. About 3 hours later it was reported that a USSR Satellite had deorbited after launch. At that time I knew that if a nuclear war ever started our first warning would be a bright flash and not the Emergency Broadcast System.
I was a 2nd grade student in the Plattsburg, NY area during the Cuban Missile crisis. Most of our neighbors were Air Force members stationed at the nearby bomber and missile bases. I can remember both the drills hiding under our desks at school, thinking if the roof fell, we would be crushed and the evening of President Kennedy's national address as Air Force carry alls/ Suburbans drove down our street picking up airmen. That was living under the threat of nuclear war. By the 1980's nobody took the Russians as serious threats. Remember, in the United States we had B-52s accidentally dropping hydrogen bombs all over the place and somewhere in Arkansas a mechanic dropped a wrench in a missile silo that caused an explosion and launched the warhead thru an 80 ton blast door.