The Race for Nuclear Superiority

The Power Behind the Cold War

The Manhattan Project:• 1941 Enrico Fermi proposes idea of

using an atomic bomb as a catalyst for thermonuclear explosion

• 1943 General Leslie Groves and Robert Oppenheimer begin top secret Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico

• April 1945 –

Truman briefed about Project just two days in to his presidency

• May 1945-

Germany surrenders to Allied troops

• July 1945 –

Trinity test completed at secret site 210 miles south of Los Alamos, NM

• This first bomb equaled 18 tons of TNT

August 6, 1945

“Little Boy” explodes 1900 feet above Hiroshima. Equals 12,500 tons of TNT. Approximately 100,000 people were immediately killed. By the end of 1945, Japan has 140,000 bomb-related deaths.

Enola GayB-29 bomber piloted by U.S. Army Air Force

Col. Paul W. Tibbets. Tibbets had named the plane Enola Gay after his mother the night before the atomic attack.

August 9, 1945

“Fat Man” explodes 1650 feet above Nagasaki. Equals 20,000 tons of TNT. Approximately 45,000 people were immediately killed and two square miles of city were destroyed. By the end of 1945, Nagasaki has 70,000 bomb-related deaths.

B-29 #77, Bockscar

• Major Charles W. Sweeney piloted the B-29, #77 that dropped Fat Man. After the nuclear mission, #77 was christened Bockscar after its regular Command Pilot, Fred Bock.

October, 1945

Head of the Soviet Secret police, in charge of Nuclear Program is provided top-secret details on U.S. plutonium bomb by a spy working inside Los Alamos

November, 1945

USSR concludes secret agreement with Czechoslovakia. USSR gets exclusive mining rights to all uranium mined in Czechoslovakia.

February, 1946

Columbia University Faculty urges Truman to stop production of atomic bombs

July, 1946

U.S. conducts atomic test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific

Bikini Atoll Explosion - Pacific

After the fact at Bikini Atoll

One of many U.S. military men afflicted with overexposure to radiation because of the involvement in or around the Bikini Atoll

Soviet scientists achieve nuclear chain reaction, first step in building the bomb

Their first bomb, Joe-1, was detonated August 29, 1949.

December,1946

1949 heats up U.S. and Soviet Relations

• Andrei Sakharov moved to USSR secret weapons lab

• U.S. General Curtis LeMay introduces war plan for SAC-70 Soviet cities attacked by 133 bombs

• First Soviet atomic bomb tests explodes in Kazakhstan

• One month later, U.S. weather plane picks up evidence of radioactivity

• One month after test, President Truman informs public of Soviet Bomb Test

1950s Hysteria Mounts• British Physicists Klaus Fuchs, from Manhattan Project,

confesses to being Soviet Spy

• Truman announces decision to develop hydrogen bomb despite protests by U.S.’s leading physicists

• Joint Intelligence Committee predicts build up of Soviet atomic arsenal and probable attack against U.S.

• Joint Chiefs call for all-out effort build H-Bomb

• NSC warns of Soviet attack once it has sufficient atomic capability

• North Korea invades South Korea

April 5, 1951—Joint Chiefs order atomic retaliation against air bases in case of “major attack” against UN forces in Korea

May 9, 1951—US’s George test in Pacific triggers first thermonuclear reaction

Victims of the times:

• Nikita Khrushchev, authorizes arrest and execution of former head of Soviet secret police and Soviet bomb project – Lavrentii Beria

• Robert Oppenheimer, father of the Manhattan Project, is charged with security risk violations and removed from all bomb projects and documents

POWER

What do you do when you own the most powerful weapon of mass

destruction ever created?

The US tested an underwater device

And an above ground device in the Bikini Atoll islands named Castle Bravo. The nuclear test was the largest nuclear detonation carried out by the United States, with a yield of 15 megatons - about a thousand times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It formed a fireball three miles wide in one second, and the mushroom cloud reached an altitude of sixty miles within ten minutes:

OCTOBER 30, 1961

Tsar is detonated by the USSR

The threat posed such a serious problem, the government produced the duck and cover video which were played frequently in schools.

Blast Zones

20 megaton

Airburst – 17,500 feet

Points of Reference:

Average hurricane winds = 120 mph

Katrina’s winds reach 140 mph

One psi blast wave is equivalent to hitting a 30” x 64” kitchen window with 1,920 pounds of force with all doors and windows closed. The average boxer’s punch is 84 pounds

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 20 kilotons.

The one dropped on Nagasaki was less than 10 kilotons.

Zone One - Vaporization

• 98% fatalities

• Everything vaporized by blast

• Wind velocity is 320 mph

• Psi is 25

Zone one – 8.75 miles/20 megatons

Vaporization Point - Nagasaki

Zone Two – Total Destruction

• 90% fatalities

• All above-ground structures destroyed

• Wind is 290 mph

• Psi is 17

Zone Two – 14 miles/20 megatons

Zone Two – House in Hiroshima

Zone Three – Severe Blast Damage• 65% fatalities, 30% injured

• Factories, large scale buildings collapse, severe damage to highway bridges. Some rivers flow countercurrent

• Wind is 260 mph

• Psi is 9Zone Three – 27 miles/20 megaton

Zone Three - Nagasaki

Zone Four – Heat Damage• 50% fatalities, 45% injured

• Everything flammable burns, deaths due mostly to suffocation from lack of oxygen from mass fires

• Wind is 140 mph

• Psi 6

Zone Four – 31 miles/20 megatons

Zone 4 - Hiroshima

Zone Five – Severe Fire and Wind Damage

• 15% dead, 50% injured

• Residency structures severely damaged, people suffer 2nd and 3rd degree burns

• Winds of 98 mph

• Psi is 3

Zone Five – 35 miles/20 megaton

Zone Five - Victims

Last thing to consider: FALLOUT

ASSUMPTIONS:

• Wind speed (after fact) 15 mph

• Wind direction – due east

• Time Frame – 7 days

• 1 megaton surface blast

REM:

Roentgen equivalent in man

Measurement used to quantify amount of radiation that will produce certain biological effects

3000 REM• 30 miles

• Much more than lethal does of radiation. Death can occur within hours of exposure

• Takes about 10 years for levels to drop low enough to be considered safe

900 REM

• 90 miles

• Lethal does of radiation

• Death occurs from two to fourteen days

300 REM

• 160 miles

• Causes extensive internal damage, include harm to nerve cells, cells lining digestive tract resulting in loss of white blood cells and temporary hair loss

90 rem

• 250 miles

• Temporary decrease in white blood cells w/no immediate harmful effects

• 2-3 years needed to reduce levels to safe levels

Fallout of more than one, above ground nuclear device:

Just for reference, since your country will be in possession of one 20 megaton device, the destruction zones of a 58 megaton device (the TSAR) would be:Zone 1 – 18.1 mileZone 2 – 29 milesZone 3 – 59.5 milesZone 4 – 67 milesZone 5 – 72.5 miles

SAC (Strategic Air Command) Estimates for U.S. Targets by USSR Missiles

Consider what I may have you do with this information. You will need to form groups of four, select a Leader, a Secretary of Defense, a Secretary of the Interior, and an Ambassador. You will be asked to provide this information on the Vocabulary Test tomorrow!!!!

Click Me!!!

References:

http://www.pbs.org/wgph/amex/bombs

http://www.nukefix.org

http://home.clara.net/nybbles/oldestuff/vik/nuke

October 30, 1961

• The U.S. detonates a 58 megaton nuclear device.

• The largest nuclear warhead to date is:

61 tons

Blast Zones

58 megaton

Airburst –

27,000 feet

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 20 kilotons.

The one dropped on Nagasaki was less than 10 kilotons.

Points of Reference:

Average hurricane winds = 120 mph. Katrina’s landfall wind speech reach 140 miles per hour.

One psi blast wave is equivalent to hitting a 30” x 64” kitchen window with 1,920 pounds or 872 kg. of force with all doors and windows closed. The average force behind a boxer’s punch is 38 kg.

Zone One - Vaporization

• 98% fatalities

• Everything vaporized by blast

• Wind velocity is 320 mph

• Psi is 25Zone one –

18 miles from drop point

Zone Two –

Total Destruction

•90% fatalities

•All above-ground structures destroyed

•Wind is 290 mph

•Psi is 17

Zone Two – 29 miles from edge of vaporization zone

Zone Three –

Severe Blast Damage

• 65% fatalities, 30% injured

• Factories, large scale buildings collapse, severe damage to highway bridges. Some rivers flow countercurrent

• Wind is 260 mph

• Psi is 9

Zone Three –

59 miles from edge of Total Destruction

Zone Four –

Heat Damage

• 50% fatalities, 45% injured

• Everything flammable burns, deaths due mostly to suffocation from lack of oxygen from mass fires

• Wind is 140 mph

• Psi 6

Zone Four – 67 miles from edge of Severe Damage Zone

Zone Five – Severe Fire and Wind Damage

• 15% dead, 50% injured

• Residency structures severely damaged, people suffer 2nd and 3rd degree burns

• Winds of 98 mph

• Psi is 3Zone Five –

73 miles from the edge of the Heat Damage Zone

Zone Five - Victims

Last thing to consider: FALLOUT

REM Roentgen equivalent man-

a measurement unit of the energy absorbed in tissue when exposed to radiation. When converted to RADs, the number is used to quantify amount of radiation that will produce certain damaging biological effects

3000 REM•30 miles

•Much more than lethal does of radiation. Death can occur within hours of exposure

•Takes about 10 years for levels to drop low enough to be considered safe

900 REM

•90 miles

•Lethal does of radiation

•Death occurs from two to fourteen days

300 rem

•160 miles

•Causes extensive internal damage, include harm to nerve cells, cells lining digestive tract resulting in loss of white blood cells

•Temporary hair loss

90 rem

•250 miles

•Temporary decrease in white blood cells w/no immediate harmful effects

•2-3 years needed to reduce levels to safe levels

SAC Estimates for U.S. Targets by USSR Missiles

• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2339489032270523130&total=31&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=9

• http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=4149535

• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9203481394803197859

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/sfeature/cloud.html

• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9203481394803197859

Links to Explosions

References:http://www.atomicarchive.com/

http://www.atomicmuseum.com/Tour/dd2.cfm

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/uom-ept062207.php

http://www.nuclearfiles.org

http://www.nukefix.org

http://www.pbs.org/wgph/amex/bombs

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/displayimage.php?pointer=2087