of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif. Butkovich, Calculation of the Shock Wave From, an Underground, Nuclear Explosion, in. Furthermore, although the initial temperature can exceed a million ☌, the heat available to vaporize a cavity of rock extends only to a radius near 2 W 1/3 m, and the heat necessary to melt rock extends only to about twice that distance. In fact, nearly all of the neutron and gamma radiation are absorbed within just a few meters of the explosion. Because the mass density of soil or rock is roughly 2000 times greater than air, the radiation and high temperatures that are usually associated with a nuclear blast have a much shorter range in a buried explosion. Of course, the heat from the explosion is not evenly mixed, but is confined mainly to a small cavity of vaporized rock and steam that expands and vents to the atmosphere. So, one might naturally imagine that the temperature and radiation levels produced in a nuclear explosion would be the ultimate germicide, atomizing shallow-buried stockpiles of chemical agents before they could disperse into the environment. Kruger, Radiation-Neutralization of Stored Biological Warfare Agents with Low-Yield Nuclear Warheads, rep. National Research Council, US Committee on Review and Evaluation of Alternative Technologies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons: Phase II, Analysis of Engineering Design Studies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons at Pueblo Chemical Depot, National Academy Press, Washington, DC (2001). High temperatures or intense radiation can destroy chemical or biological agents such as VX nerve gas or weaponized anthrax. ( W is the explosive energy yield in kilotons of TNT.) For a typical third-world urban population density of 6000/km 2 those estimates imply that a 1-kt weapon would kill tens of thousands and a 100-kt weapon would kill hundreds of thousands of people. But straightforward estimates based on empirically determined scaling laws show that anyone within the roughly 3 W 0.6 km 2 area covered by the base surge would receive a fatal dose of radiation. The total number of fatalities due to radiation sickness depends on many factors: the population density, the local terrain and weather conditions, the time allowed to evacuate the area, and the radiation dose. To judge by the effectiveness of weapons used in the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the precision, penetrating capability, and explosive power of conventional earth-penetrating weapons has improved dramatically over the past decade, and those trends are likely to continue.Ĭasualties from an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon would be due primarily to ionizing radiation from the local fallout. For a more detailed description, see the report HTI-J-1000 High Temperature Incendiary J-1000. The warhead may also release chlorine and other disinfecting gases to destroy any remaining biological agents. Those weapons are designed to penetrate the interiors of a shallow-buried facility and then ignite a thermocorrosive filling that can maintain high temperatures for several minutes the high temperatures and low pressures are meant to sterilize toxins and bioagents without dispersing them to the environment. To supplement its supply of conventional penetrators, the DOD is also developing conventional agent-defeat warheads that combine the advantages of a hardened missile casing with a low-pressure incendiary warhead. This article addresses these questions and explains that the goal of minimal collateral damage falls squarely in the wishful-thinking category. How deeply, for example, can missiles really burrow into reinforced concrete? How deeply buried must these weapons be for the surrounding rock to contain the blast? Would the underground temperatures of a nuclear blast sterilize chemical and biological agents? 3 3. Nuclear weapons advocates in the Bush administration favor missiles carrying nuclear warheads that could be designed to penetrate the ground sufficiently to destroy buried command bunkers or sterilize underground stocks of chemical and biological weapons and yet produce “minimal collateral damage.” Crucial to the debate, therefore, is an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of earth-penetrating nuclear weapons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |