Word: megatons
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Livermore calculations buttress Teller's theories. In one computer simulation of a detonation of a single-megaton explosion, Physicist Joyce Penner, who heads the laboratory's study of nuclear smoke, found that a column did indeed rise six miles into the sky, but that half the smoke dropped quickly into the troposphere. The 50% that remained aloft, Penner estimated, contained nearly three times the condensation needed to produce rain. This finding suggested that even smoke in the stratosphere, beyond the reaches of normal weather patterns, would create its own storm and fall back to earth...
...HAVE the guts? Would you kill millions of innocent men, women, and children, and possibly destroy the world, because the Soviet Union lobbed a few hundred-megaton nuclear warheads on the fair old U.S. of A.? The question is, of course, heavily loaded; and answering 'no' is crucial to coming to terms with Jonathan Schell's latest epistle. The Abolition...
Indeed, over last twenty years there has been a radical shift in the size of nuclear weapons, away from the multi-megaton hydrogen bombs of the early 1960's to the less powerful, but far more accurate missiles of today. If technological trends continue, precise but conventionally-armed missiles may become more attractive--that is, more cost-effective and more useful in actual warfare. As Dyson notes, "The primary requirement for carrying through any act of nuclear disarmament is the political will to do so, but the formation of such a will can be powerfully helped by a technological development...
Historical evidence supports these claims by Keju, a long-time activist on behalf of the Micronese. The story of the Japanese fisherman on the "Lucky Dragon" vessel is well known. The 1954 Bravo surface detonation of the 15-megaton bomb left the customary ash that accompanies fallout. Shortly afterwards several of the men experienced nausea, vomiting and itching skin--common symptoms of radiation exposure. Several crew members eventually fell ill and died. The U.S. government gave $2 million in compensation to the Japanese government...
Most disturbing, such experimentation seems to be an attempt to use the Micronese as subjects to find out the effects of nuclear exposure to humans. As one government report noted in 1957 following the Bravo test of the 15 megaton hydrogen bomb...