Word: megatons
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...bulk of the atmosphere. The behavior of a nuclear explosion near sea level is known precisely. The nuclear fireball expands very fast at first, but both its temperature and pressure fall as it gets bigger. When its pressure equals that of the air, the ball stops expanding (for a megaton explosion, at a diameter of about one mile). The air also absorbs gamma and ultraviolet rays, confines radioactive particles to a comparatively small cloud...
...publication, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, gives some idea of the energy required. A 100-kiloton charge exploded on the surface of dry soil will form a crater 80 ft. deep and 580 ft. in diameter. The crater of a one-megaton charge exploded on the surface will be about 140 ft. deep and 1,300 ft. in diameter. If a charge is exploded 40 ft. down instead of on the surface, the diameter of its crater is nearly doubled. All these figures are for soil, not for resistant rock, but it looks as if a single megaton charge...
...nuclear bomb that fell in Florence, S.C. (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) had produced only a low-order explosion in the U.S., but it brought megaton repercussions in Britain. The Labor press broke into "we-told-you-so" editorials. Even the Conservative Daily Sketch had a suggestion about the H-bomb: "Keep it. But keep it on the ground...
Present planning is that Minuteman will be grouped in batteries of 50 missiles, controlled from one command post, and with individual missiles dispersed to the point that an enemy five-megaton hit on the installation would theoretically take out no more than one Minuteman missile. Each missile will be countdown-ready at all times, will be hooked up electronically to the underground battery command post so that any defect can be spotted. If a red sensing-light flashes trouble, the sick missiles will be removed, replaced at once and repaired at a specially built factory not more than 500 miles...
...Convair ICBM Atlas, has scored two hits at a programed initial 500-to 600-mile range. Atlas, U.S. missilery's prime weapon (cost: about $4,000,000 apiece) is fueled with a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene, is designed to deliver a hydrogen warhead of megaton dimensions at a speed of about 14,000 m.p.h. to a target five miles in diameter at a 5,500-mile range. Atlas has 300,000 parts, is so thin-skinned that it must be pressurized to stand upright; its three engines, simultaneously ignited on the ground, can generate a total thrust...