Slashdot Mirror
British Chicken-Warmed Nuke
darrellberry writes "During the Cold War, British researchers developed a nuclear landmine, kept operational during cold conditions by packing it full of live chickens. This story has appeared in a few UK media channels this morning. Probably an April Fools', but who knows? The bomb is supposedly on display at the National Archives in Kew, so if you live in London you can go and see for yourselves..." Also a BBC story and an older New Scientist blurb.
Right up there with the spaghetti harvest.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
My father worked (among the other 10,000) engineers in Oakridge, TN, during WWII and they frequently packed delicate nulcear instruments in popcorn (dry popped, no salt or butter) simply because it worked well and was easy to dispose of.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I can't think that a terrified flock of irradiated chickens would produce more heat than something like a quantity of Pu-238 or Pu-240, the former of which is quoted as producing 1/2 watt of heat per gram...nor would they be as durable.
I'm inclined to believe this one, if only because it seems to bizarre to be fabricated.
Remember, this is the nation that gave us Supermarionation...
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
Yes, but they missed out on the story about newspaper editors being banned from reporting the results of school football matches if one team scores substantially higher than another team. In this case the score was 29-0 defeat.
I just love this quote at the end of that story:
Tom O'Leary, head of education and interpretation at the National Archives, told the paper: "It does seem like an April Fool but it most certainly is not. The Civil Service does not do jokes."
Excellent point - I think this pretty much settles the 'April Fool or not' debate for this one.
Or does it ??
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
I have heard of the nuclear landmines in a non-April 1st context before, so I think the underlying story is probably true. The idea is that there are some bottlenecks which an advancing Soviet force, particularly tanks, would have to pass through (bridges etc). Why send aircraft to bomb them at great risk when you could put the bomb in place at your lesiur. 10kt is not a particularly big nuke, anyway. I don't think the radiation part was intentional - it is the reason the idea got canned. If they had a "clean" bomb, they might still be there.
It goes along with thinking at the time: they were also training troops go hide as the battlefromt passed over them, the re-emerge to harrass the enemy rear and lines of communication.
The chickens, however, are probably someone's April Fool addition.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
The page also shows a SADM - the nuclear demolition charge intended for use by parachute dropped saboteurs. The SADM's W54 warhead was the smallest and lightest developed by the US and was also used in theDavey Crockett 'nuclear bazooka' and the AIM 26-A nuclear air-to-air missile.
1) Radioactive material tends to be self-heating. That's why you can run a power station off it.
2) A solid steel container, buried underground for a week. How do you train a chicken to hold it's breath, and how long can it do so for?
3) According to the NewScientist article, "If disturbed or damaged, they were primed to explode within 10 seconds". Surely chickens *inside* the thing would disturb it, and set it off?
However, a quick office poll still reveals 50-50 support for the idea. Whatever happens, half the office will get laughed at tomorrow...:)