In the Shadow of the Dragon

Kanadesaga · 05-25-2008, 06:59 PM

In the Shadow of the Dragon
by Peter G. Cohen | May 25, 2008 - 9:47am

We live in the shadow of the nuclear dragon, the threat of violent obliteration that hangs over the Earth. The dragon's scales are the thousands of weapons and the missiles, planes and submarines that can deliver them to the world's cities. Its servants are the entourage of military companies and their lobbyists, workers and their representatives who depend on nuclear weapons and delivery systems for their living.

The dragon has lairs in nine countries. The huge, black, amorphous form is sleeping now, but, if awakened, the strike of one claw can incinerate and poison millions. Even in sleep its radioactive breath is affecting thousands of our own people and millions around the world with radiation, illness and death.

This monster consumes so much our our nation's purse that it starves programs for child care and education, the protection of labor and the environment, and investment to limit the worst of global warming. Its corrosive breath eats away at our civilian and military ethics, our self-restraint, our concern for the innocent and less fortunate, our dreams of a more decent future.

While the military calls nuclear weapons a deterrent, they are only useful to threaten or to incinerate many thousands of people. The Bush effort to make smaller, 'more useable' weapons could turn conventional conflict into nuclear conflict. Many top leaders from the State Department and our military have agreed that our security and efforts to stop proliferation would be improved by negotiating the elimination of nuclear weapons.

But, the dragon has been so engorged under President Bush and his congressional lemmings that it will be an arduous task for the administrations that follow to shrink it down and drive it down into its cave. To do that will require the support of a popular movement and international pressure to offset the influence and lobbying of this lethal industry. The peace movement must learn to tell the truth about every threatening aspect of the nuclear business to motivate the public with fear of the weapons and a fresh hope for their abolition.

The survival of civilization demands that we change our nuclear policy, shrink the nuclear dragon and invest in the means to control global warming. We must envision a nuke-free world that is no longer supporting the dragon and its entourage, and is thus freed to face the immediate problems of our nation and the world with a more certain and promising future.

In the Shadow of the Dragon | The Smirking Chimp

Jonesy · 05-25-2008, 07:33 PM

YouTube - Castle Bravo Explosion

julia · 05-25-2008, 11:55 PM

Castle Bravo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote:

Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first U.S. test of a so-called dry fuel thermonuclear (fusion- rather than fission-based) device, detonated on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, by the United States, as the first test of Operation Castle (a longer series of tests of various devices). Fallout from the detonation—intended to be a secret test—poisoned the crew of Daigo Fukuryū Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5"), a Japanese fishing boat, and created international concern about atmospheric thermonuclear testing.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Design and detonation
o 1.1 Cause of high yield
o 1.2 Fallout incident
* 2 Later devices
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

The bomb used lithium deuteride fuel for the fusion stage, unlike the cryogenic liquid deuterium used as fuel for the fusion stage of the U.S. first-generation Ivy Mike device, which, being the size of a small office building, was an impracticable weapon for use at war. The bomb tested at Castle Bravo was the first practical deliverable fusion bomb in the U.S. arsenal.

The Soviet Union had previously used lithium deuteride in a nuclear bomb, their Sloika (also known as Alarm Clock) design, but since it relied on using the initial fission explosion to compress, inertially confine, and ignite the fusion fuel, its yield was limited (400 kt) in comparison to the Teller-Ulam-based Ivy Mike (10.4 Mt) and Castle Bravo (~15 Mt). Mike and Bravo both used the Teller-Ulam design, which featured separation of the fusion device from the fission device, and used radiation pressure (or probably radiation-induced ablation of the heavy tamper surrounding the fusion device) to produce staged-radiation implosion and fusion ignition of a much greater magnitude. After a few years, the Soviets, led by Andrei Sakharov, independently developed and tested their first Teller-Ulam device in 1956.

Castle Bravo was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States, with a yield of 15 megatons. That yield, far exceeding the expected yield of 4 to 6 megatons, combined with other factors to produce the worst radiological accident ever caused by the United States.

In terms of TNT tonnage equivalence, Castle Bravo was about 1,000 times more powerful (4-8 times larger, on a logarithmic scale) than the atomic bombs which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The largest nuclear explosion ever produced was a test conducted by the Soviet Union several years later, the ~50 Mt Tsar Bomba.

Castle Bravo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

05-25-2008, 06:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
Kanadesaga Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: NYS - Devil's country Posts: 7,076 My Mood: Blog Entries: 6 Thanks: 232 Thanked 93 Times in 67 Posts	In the Shadow of the Dragon In the Shadow of the Dragon by Peter G. Cohen \| May 25, 2008 - 9:47am We live in the shadow of the nuclear dragon, the threat of violent obliteration that hangs over the Earth. The dragon's scales are the thousands of weapons and the missiles, planes and submarines that can deliver them to the world's cities. Its servants are the entourage of military companies and their lobbyists, workers and their representatives who depend on nuclear weapons and delivery systems for their living. The dragon has lairs in nine countries. The huge, black, amorphous form is sleeping now, but, if awakened, the strike of one claw can incinerate and poison millions. Even in sleep its radioactive breath is affecting thousands of our own people and millions around the world with radiation, illness and death. This monster consumes so much our our nation's purse that it starves programs for child care and education, the protection of labor and the environment, and investment to limit the worst of global warming. Its corrosive breath eats away at our civilian and military ethics, our self-restraint, our concern for the innocent and less fortunate, our dreams of a more decent future. While the military calls nuclear weapons a deterrent, they are only useful to threaten or to incinerate many thousands of people. The Bush effort to make smaller, 'more useable' weapons could turn conventional conflict into nuclear conflict. Many top leaders from the State Department and our military have agreed that our security and efforts to stop proliferation would be improved by negotiating the elimination of nuclear weapons. But, the dragon has been so engorged under President Bush and his congressional lemmings that it will be an arduous task for the administrations that follow to shrink it down and drive it down into its cave. To do that will require the support of a popular movement and international pressure to offset the influence and lobbying of this lethal industry. The peace movement must learn to tell the truth about every threatening aspect of the nuclear business to motivate the public with fear of the weapons and a fresh hope for their abolition. The survival of civilization demands that we change our nuclear policy, shrink the nuclear dragon and invest in the means to control global warming. We must envision a nuke-free world that is no longer supporting the dragon and its entourage, and is thus freed to face the immediate problems of our nation and the world with a more certain and promising future. In the Shadow of the Dragon \| The Smirking Chimp __________________ Bill has the Blues Saturdays 10 pm to Midnight est www.whws.fm Thanksgiving Show 9pm to 1 am
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