Movies of Cold War Bomb Tests Hold Nuclear Secrets (wired.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Nuclear weapons specialists are limited in their research today. Prudence and international treaties prevent them from setting off any nuclear weapons, so they have to run tests through other means and interpret the results. But this wasn't always the case. In the '50s and '60s, the U.S. government performed a huge number of nuclear weapons tests, and filmed most of them. As happened with a lot of film from that time, most laid untouched in storage facilities until people generally forgot about them. But physicist Greg Spriggs recently realized they could be a trove of useful information, so he started tracking them down, eventually locating thousands of them. His team has started scanning and analyzing them. They've finished about 3,000 so far, with more than half yet to go. "Now, of course, scientists have computer programs that can analyze every single pixel in a frame over hundreds of frames. What might have taken days by hand takes only minutes. With computer analysis, Spriggs is pinpointing more precise yields. Computer models then use yield to estimate the damage from a bomb in different situations."

Comments

Re:Secrets

[KGIII]

It's okay, I must be out of touch. I could have sworn the treaties signed still allowed for underground testing. I seem to recall Dan Rather (quite specifically though I suppose it might have been the News Hour on PBS) talking about it on the nightly news? Have we ratified any treaties since?

Hmm... Unless I am not reading something properly, Wikipedia agrees with me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I don't think we're strictly prohibited from testing nuclear weapons in and of itself but I do seem to recall that we've only agreed to end atmospheric and above-ground tests. While we're not prohibited, I don't think (from my limited memory and quick scanning), it would be socially unacceptable behavior. Of course, Starfish Prime might indicate that we're not always worried about being polite or responsible. At least I think that's the project name where we decided setting off nukes in space was a brilliant idea.

Re:Secrets

[Richard_at_work]

I wonder what the actual output of Castle Bravo was in the end then, if there was such a variation in original estimates and bearing in mind that Castle Bravo was massively in excess of its prediction.

Want to calculate nuclear yield? Buy Glasstone

[Nova Express]

If you want to calculate nuclear yields, I suggest picking up a copy of Samuel Glasstone's The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (that's an Amazon link, but there are a fair number of used copies floating around). I have the revised 1962 edition.

Be sure to pick up a copy that still has the yield computer wheel in the back of the book.

Also, this web page lets you map nuclear bursts using Google maps, and seems to be heavily based on Glasstone.