Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space,net.physics
Subject: Re: Radiation from Sov. blast??
Message-ID: <4109@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Jul-84 15:37:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4109
Posted: Thu Jul 19 15:37:36 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Jul-84 15:37:36 EDT
References: <1374@pur-phy.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 16

> .........................  If so, and if any nukes cooked off in the blast,
> perhaps the count in the rainwater rose a few weeks after the blast.  ... 

Sorry to ruin your day, Eric, but nuclear weapons don't "cook off" in any
very spectacular way.  The most one would get would be a "fizzle" explosion,
which would spray radioactive debris through the immediate vicinity, but
wouldn't put anything substantial up into the stratosphere where it could
travel long distances.  Getting a nuclear explosion requires very fussy
timing and just the right conditions; nuclear bombs are precision devices.
[Obviously, I'm referring to their innards rather than their effects.]
They explode properly only when triggered properly; anything else (fire,
impact, mechanical damage) and they just go "splat" and make a nasty but
fairly localized mess.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry