DailyDirt: It's 11:57pm... Do You Know Where Your Nuclear Bombs Are?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Jul 16th 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The Doomsday Clock says it's 3 minutes to midnight -- the same time it was in 1949. Sure, plenty of people are saying we're not building new nuclear bombs, and we have some pieces of paper that say some countries (ahem, Iran) aren't going to build new nukes. But... tick tock. Are we really any safer from nuclear self-annihilation?

The US Air Force is developing an upgrade to the B61 thermonuclear bomb called the B61-12. This new version has improved targeting capabilities due to a tail kit assembly that has GPS functionality, and some anti-nuke folks argue that the B61-12 is more than just an upgrade. [url]
In 1957, we were still testing nuclear weapons above ground -- with human guinea pigs (not all volunteers) at ground zero to document the effects. It's pretty amazing how little we knew about radiation and yet still pressed on with crazy dangerous experiments. [url]
Nine nuclear powers -- the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea -- control about 16,000 nuclear weapons, down from over 60,000 during the Cold War. That's still a lot to keep track of.. not to mention the ones we've simply lost over the years. What are a measly few nuclear bombs between friends, right? [url]

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Filed Under: b61, b61-12, bombs, doomsday clock, nuclear bombs, nuclear powers, nuclear testing, weapons

10 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2015 @ 5:18pm

with politicians for sale to the highest bidder does anyone really think we are safe entrusting them with the keys to destroying the world
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he is just a poor boy!!!, 16 Jul 2015 @ 6:22pm

Let me goooo!
I have the fire department and the building inspectors right hear, of course I have bars on all my windows so.. :(
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2015 @ 6:37pm

Obligatory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxE0t-y5G8c
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 16 Jul 2015 @ 7:33pm

Guess What The ...
... Minuteman nuclear missile launch code was ...
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- JoeCool (profile), 17 Jul 2015 @ 10:23am
  
  Re: Guess What The ...
  It's no longer '00000000'? Well then, it's almost certainly '12345678' now.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2015 @ 12:53am

Im truly disappointed you didn't actually post this at 11:57 pm ...
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2015 @ 1:29am

http://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Illusion/dp/0143125788/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&am p;qid=1437121650&sr=8-1&keywords=command+and+control
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2015 @ 6:38am

Yep, weird how close people will push us to oblivion because are bored at work.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2015 @ 9:10am

The number of "weapons"...
Are we talking about the actual warhead or just the launcher?

A lot of folks don't realize that the SALT/START treaties of the 70's & 80's only reduced the number of launchers, not the warheads. So the US and (the then) USSR destroyed a number of rockets, bombers, and submarines. While that's OK, the warheads that were deployed on said rockets, bombers, and submarines still existed and were placed in bunkers and munitions depots in various places. Hopefully like regular munitions the triggering devices were stored elsewhere.

Rockets, bombers, and submarines can be used for other missions that do not involve nuclear weapons. At least one Minuteman squadron has satellite packages, not warheads. But a nuclear warhead can only be used for it's designed mission. How many warheads are enough? We could debate that question endlessly. Like other issues in the present day the public got mis-lead with SALT/START into thinking that the world would be safer with fewer 'weapons'. That would be a great sentiment had they destroyed actual weapons instead of only the launcher.
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charliebrown (profile), 18 Jul 2015 @ 11:11pm

Last Year Tonight
John Oliver already covered this last year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35g
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