How the US Tests Nukes (Without Blowing Them Up)

Video written by Amy Muller

[SuprSBG]

3:32 Fun Fact: During covid, a bunch of nerds got together with their computers using a program to network them together and created a network with a total processing power that was around that same computer's power.

What was it used for you ask?

Finding the tallest possible cactus in minecraft.

[dancat]

At least the sensors only died when it got interesting... they got to experience half as interesting

[metrazol]

Worked with a woman whose job was literally, "unscrew panel, look at indicator, mark it down on clipboard, put panel back, move on to the next." In her years in the Air Force the little indicator only came up wrong once and that's when she found out they will, in fact, lock you in the bunker while they get EVERYBODY to come look at the bomb. It was fine.

[ATM]

I think HAI stockpiling a million videos will just force RLL to stockpile a million videos, creating an informative videos arms race with the end goal of mutually assured education

[Generalth]

Hi Sam!

Big thanks to Amy for going into the bunkers and testing out each one of the US's 5000 nuclear weapons personally. That's dedication! That deserves a raise!

[karenhaller]

"What were you all doing in the wardrobe?"

*Peter desperately tries to shove a missile three times his size in a closet* "You wouldn't believe us if we told you..."

[christopherverhoef]

"It's a BOMB! You can only use it ONCE!"

[Firelynxproductions]

Best before November 1959? Dammit, Bob. There were plenty of brand new bombs, but you had to go for that retro 50s charm!

[theorixlux]

"Theory is just making some guesses"

Listen here you little ship, I'ma theorize an anti-matter IAH at your exact location... Then! we'll see who has the capacity to procure a guess

[ryankohnenkamp]

Time traveler: Hey, I just arrived from 100 years in the future!
Me: Oh, good! So no all-out nuclear war then?
Time traveler: Oh, no, there was. Just that all the nukes didn't work after so long, so nothing happened and we all just went home...

[Karl_Mannerheimer]

The fact that Egypt hasn’t ratified it makes me question if they are building nukes.

[MyHandleIsGood]

I can hear it raining, so I'd assume it is raining.

[stevepittman]

Neat. Yeah, I've known about nuclear simulation since I had a friend many years ago who worked as a programmer for Sandia National Labs writing the networking code for ASCI Red, the then state-of-the-art supercomputing cluster for nuclear simulation.

[saturnv]

For those wondering why we no longer do atmospherical detonation
Because it is bad for all humans. Atmospherical test released radiation particles into the air which get carried around the globe, and released gamma radiation which ionized air, which also get carried around the globe. The most famous of which Carbon-14, yes that Carbon-14 we use to date stuff from millions years ago, had increased significantly in concentration since the nuclear age started in 1945, but luckily now dropping back to pre-1945 level.
Excessive nuclear test in atmosphere will increase Earth's background radiation and eventually lower human life expectancy due to genetic defaults caused by ionizing particles, so hopefully we will never had to detonate one ever.

[bobthegoat]

Oppenheimer - "Theory will take you only so far."

[SraTacoMal]

I completely forgot the last U.S. nuke was detonated the day before I was born.

You're welcome.

[etherigni]

This is pretty much how all nuclear engineering is done now a days. While physical testing is important for the data, it takes SOOOO fucking long to get good results and it's way to expensive. Thus, we've built mathematical and computational simulations to test what ever we want, which is pretty handy. The actual experiments are mainly to get better data for the models, such as more accurate cross section information, or to verify the model's results. When you hear about the field, you probably imagine people in hazmat suits working on massive detectors with large barrels of radioactive sources, but in reality it's 90% just computer models and statistics. To be fair, that's most engineering fields in reality, but at least they get to actually build something more than once a decade!

[mario_lemoose]

7:33: That's cavatappi! Yes, it is the *best* pasta shape. 😋😋😋

[davimurph]

Please don't nuke Narnia. Narnia was inspired by the landscape of County Down, Northern Ireland as seen from CS Lewis's childhood home and school in East Belfast. I also live in that part of East Belfast and, if you decide to nuke Narnia, things might get a little hot around here.

[wmeuse]

I think sam haa forgotten something we could just be nuking Narnia and just claiming they are running tests.