Nuclear Detonation Timeline “1945-1998″

[StainlessSteelCynic]

So how many nuclear devices do you think have been detonated on US soil
Do you know what nation has detonated nuclear devices in at least two other nations
How many nuclear devices do you think have actually been detonated around the world

Frankly I don't if I should be amazed or appalled by this but it's a 'must see' in my opinion.
Nuclear Detonations

[helbent4]

SSC,

This is an amazing video! Thanks for the post.

I liked the old school "Wargames/Damnation Alley" graphics, really evocative of the time period. Interesting, Russia doesn't seem to have conducted any tests since the end of the Soviet Union.

Tony

[Targan]

That video stunned me. I admit I'd never looked up how many nuclear detonations there had been over the years. The question that surfaced most often in my mind while watching the video was "why". Why so many detonations Did the nuclear powers really need to set off hundreds of nukes each to get the data they needed I suspect many if not most of the detonations were less about usable data and science, more about displaying who had the bigger nuclear penis. Absolutely ridiculous. For shame humankind, for shame!

[Morthrai]

(New member here so hello all!)

That's pretty scary Kevin! I suppose seeing it like that, all wrapped into one little video parcel o'doom, really makes a guy stop and think.

[Panther Al]

Holy nuclear batsh!t batman! I would have guessed about a thou, but man. Biggest surprise was how trigger happy france got.

[LBraden]

I question a few things

1) Why are the last 10 or so UK tests in US soil are these the "British scientist create new trigger and US test them out" or proper British scientific tests.

2) Note how he has left out a few minor nuclear accidents, notably Chernobyl.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

The list does not include nuclear accidents, only deliberate detonations of nuclear devices. It also does not discriminate between actual bombs and low yield devices detonated for safety tests.

[natehale1971]

Actually the number of tests might not have been a 'who's is bigger' exercise. Especially in the early days. My training for CBR Warfare, I got to read over the reports from them. Each of the different tests were to test a different aspect of just what the bomb could do.

Remember, only a very few knew that there would be any long-term effects. Something we can lay at the feet of Oppenheimer himself. Brig. Gen. Groves didn't even know that there would be something nasty as an after-effect. he had been told that atomic bombs would be clean. but instead Oppenheimer wanted to punish the Germans (his expressed statement when he asked if there was a way to make the effects last for years afterwards).

Thus the high number of tests in the early years, that actually had American soldiers, politicians and civilians standing around watching them! They had areas were battalions were actually moved around during the tests of the bombs going off. And had spectator stands for civies and politicians to watch the damn things go off!

it's terrifying if you look at it... we didn't know what we had at that time. it was the same thing as allowing infants play with bottles of deadly poisons.

reading all those reports made you realize that while we didn't know a quarter of the things we know today... and we only learned it through hit-and-miss tests that where done.

I'm not making an excuse here... but explaining the mindset of why so many bomb tests where done. And knowing that nearly 2000 bombs have already gone off should also tell us something... Something that the government already knew.

That surviving the bombs wasn't just possible. it was confrimed with all those tests. That the biggest killing aspect of the bombs, was the aftereffects. The aftermath of the bombs were what would kill more people. It's one of the reasons we in the States did the ignorant thing, and abandoned Civil Defense and went to FEMA (yes i'm still upset over something that happened when i was a child, because my father and grandfather had been part of CDC and at one time i had all of the stuff they had from that period).

[dragoon500ly]

Frankly I don't if I should be amazed or appalled by this but it's a 'must see' in my opinion.

I think my vote has to go for appalled!!!

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I think my vote has to go for appalled!!!

Yeah I have to agree. Actually when I first watched it I sat there in stunned disbelief as more detonations took place and the audio tones for each nation's detonations started to resemble a tune. You almost feel like screaming at the film, "What were you idiots trying to do to my planet!"

Considering the sheer number of detonations in the 1970s AND the 1980s, I don't believe that the USA or the USSR were conducting nothing but "scientific tests" with most of them. Not when you see one, two or three detonations in a single month and something like 20 to 30 for an entire year and that continuing on for nearly half the decade.
Seems like in the 30 years from 1945 to 1975 they should have had plenty of data on yield, radioactivity, fallout and so on. So why the need to continue exploding nuclear devices for the next two decades

[dragoon500ly]

Yeah I have to agree. Actually when I first watched it I sat there in stunned disbelief as more detonations took place and the audio tones for each nation's detonations started to resemble a tune. You almost feel like screaming at the film, "What were you idiots trying to do to my planet!"

Considering the sheer number of detonations in the 1970s AND the 1980s, I don't believe that the USA or the USSR were conducting nothing but "scientific tests" with most of them. Not when you see one, two or three detonations in a single month and something like 20 to 30 for an entire year and that continuing on for nearly half the decade.
Seems like in the 30 years from 1945 to 1975 they should have had plenty of data on yield, radioactivity, fallout and so on. So why the need to continue exploding nuclear devices for the next two decades

I think a lot of it has to go with the constant game of one upmanship that the super powers engaged in. After all both sides were busy using every means possible to find out about the nuke arsenal that the other had. Still doesn't explain why popping 2000+ nukes would be considered a good idea, does it

[Legbreaker]

They went bang.

What's not to like about things that go bang

[dragoon500ly]

They went bang.

What's not to like about things that go bang

Nothing wrong with a bang, I think the world goes smoother with the occasional bang

Its the becoming your own personal night light, hair-falling, puke your're guts outs aftermath that bothers me!

[Mohoender]

Interesting even if it's hard to draw a conclusion from it. The only thing I would conclude is that we are indeed the most stupid species to have ever lived on this planet.

A french comic scenarist had stated that solar erruptions should, in fact, be the sun puking at us when it is looking over the human race. That might be true.

[Grimace]

Yeah, that video really makes you want to live in the southwestern U.S., doesn't it

Sad and unfortunate.