83
votes
Why were there no nuclear detonations in 1959?
Why were there no nuclear detonations in 1959?
The reason there were no tests in 1959 was that the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States agreed to a moratorium on nuclear weapon tests in ...
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77
votes
Why did the Soviet Union name their strongest bomb Tsar Bomba?
The official designation for that particular device was the RDS-220. The nickname Tsar Bomba was an appellation applied by the West, rather than the designers of the bomb (who - according to the site ...
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74
votes
Did the leaflets from the US to Hiroshima/Nagasaki civilians on bombing cities reduce the civilian casualties of the two nuclear bombs in August 1945?
There is a 1946 book by John Hersey, Hiroshima, which is an excellent compilation of personal testimonies from Hiroshima residents following the atomic bombing. Although it doesn’t mention Allied ...
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60
votes
Why did the United States drop a uranium bomb instead of a plutonium bomb on Hiroshima?
Details below on why a U-235 bomb was used at all. As to why that was the first bomb; because it was ready first and departed the continental U.S. only hours after the Trinity test for Fat Man.
The ...
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57
votes
Accepted
Was there a plan to use nuclear weapons for terrain modification in North America?
It was Project Chariot, in Alaska. A good book about it is the Firecracker Boys, I recommend you read it if you are interested in the subject. I think it was cancelled because conservationists and ...
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54
votes
Accepted
Why did the United States not resort to nuclear weapons in Vietnam?
The US did not resort to using nuclear weapons in Vietnam for a variety of reasons: fear of the damage it would cause to the US's international reputation, domestic political considerations, a ...
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46
votes
Why did the Soviet Union name their strongest bomb Tsar Bomba?
In Russian Language the word "Tsar" has also another, non-literal meaning.
Examples are: "Tsar-pushka" (king of the guns), the largest
(in caliber) existing gun, and "Tsar-kolokol" (king of the bells)...
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44
votes
Accepted
Was there a contingency plan in place if Little Boy failed to detonate?
If the bomb failed to explode in any way (which was unlikely, see comments and Mark's answer), the USA still would not have to worry about it (too much).
They would win the war anyway within a few ...
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43
votes
Was there a contingency plan in place if Little Boy failed to detonate?
The primary contingency plan was the design of the bomb itself. Little Boy was not a safe design: any number of unplanned events could cause a detonation. Foremost among these is impact: a 500 g ...
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39
votes
Historically, why did the US station their nuclear weapons in Germany for delivery through German pilots?
During the Cold War, there were always doubts if extended deterrence would hold. Would the US put Washington at risk to defend or avenge Bonn or Frankfurt?
So NATO needed powerful signals that they ...
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38
votes
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What was the plan for an abort of the Enola Gay's mission to drop the atomic bomb?
There was discussion of options. The "gadget" was an atomic bomb.
From the minutes of the Target Committee for 10 May 1945:
Gadget Jettisoning and Landing
A. It was agreed that if ...
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37
votes
Accepted
Is it true that Hitler led to the invention of the atomic bomb by the Americans?
The discovery of uranium fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (German chemists) in the Jan 1939 issue of Die Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature) sparked great interest among physicists ...
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34
votes
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Why didn't the Allies wait for the nuclear bomb before invading Normandy?
The driving force behind the Manhattan Project was less about using an atomic bomb and more about getting one before the Germans did. It was known the Germans had their own atomic bomb project and ...
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33
votes
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How much did J. Robert Oppenheimer get paid while overseeing the Manhattan Project?
On page 14 of FAS.org it indicates his salary was initially set at $10,000. Since that exceeded his previous UC professor’s salary he asked that it be reduced in line with others. Apparently the ...
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32
votes
What were the EMP effects, if any, of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Little Boy detonated at ~580 metres above Hiroshima, and Fat Man at ~500 metres above Nagasaki. While all nuclear explosions generate electromagnetic pulses of some sort, at these low altitudes their ...
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29
votes
Was there a plan to use nuclear weapons for terrain modification in North America?
Not Canada, but Alaska. In 1958 "Project Chariot" was the idea to use several nuclear explosions to build a harbour at Cape Thompson, Alaska. It was part of a series of ideas to use nuclear explosions ...
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29
votes
How important were Einstein and Szilard and other scientists to the creation and ultimate success of the Manhattan Project?
In regards initiating the Manhattan Project, Einstein and Szilard were clearly critical. Without them the entire project would, at a minimum, undoubtedly have started significantly later in the war. ...
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28
votes
Accepted
What were the reasons for Japan's surrender in WWII?
This question has been debated for a very long time, and I've never seen a conclusive answer one way or the other. I don't believe there is a single reason Japan surrendered. Rather there was a long ...
- 54.9k
27
votes
Did Truman really believe that Hiroshima was a military base?
I think we may be operating from a misconception, that the diary entry concerning that the 'target will be a purely military one' and that the statement that 'Hiroshima, a military base' imply Truman ...
- 38.6k
27
votes
Why did the United States not resort to nuclear weapons in Vietnam?
By the time of the Vietnam war, the US nuclear weapons policies had changed radically from the mid-1950s (when nuclear weapons were seen as the logical option for ALL conflicts), and were considered ...
- 11.3k
27
votes
Accepted
Were Soviets invited to the Marshall Islands to observe the first hydrogen bomb detonations?
The USA could be confident that the USSR would learn about the hydrogen bomb test from atmospheric sampling. It's possible to detect extremely low levels of radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere, ...
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21
votes
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What happened to all the nuclear material being smuggled after the fall of the USSR?
A team of researchers at the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University compiled the "Database on Nuclear Smuggling, Theft, and Orphan Radiation Sources" (DSTO) in 2002. At the time, ...
- 77.3k
19
votes
Why did the United States not resort to nuclear weapons in Vietnam?
At that time, the US was concerned that a repeat of the Korean war could happen, with China sending in masses of troops... North Vietnam shares a border with China, just like North Korea. China wasn't ...
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19
votes
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Where was Carl Sagan working on a plan to detonate a nuke on the Moon? Where was he applying when he leaked it?
The project that Scott Manley is referring to was known as Project A119, and was run at the Armour Research Foundation (ARF), which was based at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The ARF is now ...
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19
votes
Did the leaflets from the US to Hiroshima/Nagasaki civilians on bombing cities reduce the civilian casualties of the two nuclear bombs in August 1945?
It doesn't seem that either city knew with certainty that it was going to be subject to attack (nuclear or otherwise) on those specific days. Japan in general was experiencing relentless bombing. ...
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18
votes
Were US decision makers aware of the destructiveness of the Bomb of Nagasaki?
The unfortunate addition of the word "perfectly" before aware means no, and it really depends on who you define as "decision makers" and what you mean by "aware".
First off, here is a great ...
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16
votes
Did the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki contribute to Japan's surrender?
It did and the Japanese emperor, in announcing the surrender of Japan to Allied forces specifically referred to atomic weapons in his speech which was broadcast to the entire country with these words:
...
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15
votes
What were the EMP effects, if any, of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
My understanding is that the Electromagnetic Pulse induced by a nuclear weapon is mainly due to the ionizing effect of the gamma rays released by the nuclear reaction. However, for this ionizing ...
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