56
votes
Accepted
Has there ever been an instance of an active nuclear power plant within or near a war zone?
The Ten-Day War, in 1990, was Slovenia's war of independence from Yugoslavia. During this war, at least a few battles took places within 10-20 km of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant, which had been ...
- 3,038
54
votes
Has there ever been an instance of an active nuclear power plant within or near a war zone?
Best example I know of is the Zhaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. Its in Southern Ukraine, which unfortunately put it right within the area that the Russians "separatist rebel forces" wanted to use to ...
- 115k
51
votes
How and when did the word "nuclear" replace the word "atomic"?
At least regarding when, we can see with Google Books Ngrams.
First let's look at "atomic energy" vs. "nuclear energy":
In the 1940s, both terms were in use, but "atomic ...
- 17.9k
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 ...
- 96.9k
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. ...
- 71.3k
25
votes
What benefits were there to the USA of developing both Uranium and Plutonium bombs in World War 2?
To simply say that they wanted to try out different types is to miss the point that weapons-grade uranium and plutonium have fundamentally different production methods and lend themselves to very ...
- 2,027
19
votes
Has there ever been an instance of an active nuclear power plant within or near a war zone?
In 1981, Israel intentionally destroyed an Osiris-class research reactor. Basically, they flew in, bombed it to pieces, then flew away. While this was a just a sneak attack and not a part of ...
- 7,441
19
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 77k
18
votes
Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
It depends on what you consider worse.
Time magazine lists an incident that occurred on December 18 1970 at Yucca Flat Nuclear Test site where radioactive debris from the underground test of a 10 ...
- 4,770
17
votes
Is there any footage of the Chernobyl explosion?
IIRC the station operators weren't sure what happened initially because they had no cameras looking at the reactor. The first sign of how bad the explosion had been, was someone opening a door and ...
- 481
16
votes
Has there ever been an instance of an active nuclear power plant within or near a war zone?
Dimona Nuclear Research center is not a commercial power plant but it is 50 miles from the border with Gaza, which is a permanent war zone.
- 38.3k
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 ...
- 3,573
14
votes
What were the EMP effects, if any, of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
The existing answers do a good job of explaining why the EMP effect radius was not as large, but there's another important aspect we need to consider: We're talking about 1945.
EMPs do affect ...
- 761
13
votes
Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
I suppose you could consider Castle Bravo to be a 'nuclear accident.' While we did intend to nuke the atoll, we didn't intend the blast to be anywhere nearly as large as it was, contaminate islands ...
- 761
12
votes
Is there any footage of the Chernobyl explosion?
I'm also aware that back in 1986 not everyone was walking around with a camera in their pocket.
Are you really?
It goes a bit further than that, my friend. Of course lots of people did carry ...
- 19.5k
12
votes
Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
Yes. SL-1 is estimated to have resulted in a release of about four to five times as much I-131. SL-1 may have been made public because the scale and location of the event made it difficult to hide. It ...
- 121
9
votes
What benefits were there to the USA of developing both Uranium and Plutonium bombs in World War 2?
Wikipedia answers this rather well. Basically, a plutonium bomb is more complicated than a uranium bomb. However, weapon-grade plutonium is also easier to obtain than weapon-grade uranium, since the ...
- 5,631
9
votes
Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
It's going to depend on how you define "nuclear accident" and how you define "worst."
USS Thresher (SSN-593) went down with all hands in 1963. The cause (we think) was a significant sea-water leak (...
- 582
8
votes
Accepted
Why was Hanford, Washington, selected during World War II as the site of America’s first nuclear energy plant?
A vast, isolated area was needed to produce plutonium because no one knew for sure how much damage the radiation it gave off might do. Abundant power for plutonium production and water to cool the ...
- 6,259
8
votes
Did people on the Bridge of Death in Pripyat actually die?
The BBC's More or Less podcast discussed this, and interviewed Professor Jim Smith of Portsmouth University. He pointed out that Pripyat was fortunately not directly downwind of the disaster, and that ...
- 578
7
votes
Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
Hard to say, military-related nuclear incidents tend to be classified.
But I'll wager a guess as to why New York Times felt the need to specify TMI was the worst commercial nuclear incident:
...
- 1,568
6
votes
Did the United States have a third atomic bomb to drop on Japan?
A third bomb was in production, though it wouldn't have been ready until after the 15th. Truman specifically rescinded authorization for atomic bomb release prior to the 15th, though.
On August 10, ...
- 241
5
votes
Plans for More Nuclear Warfare in Japan during WW2
Professor Alex Wellerstein examined this question on "Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog" in a post titled "The Third Shot and Beyond" (April 25, 2012). He presented evidence that the U.S. ...
- 261
5
votes
Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
Hanford, right on the Columbia River which flows through my city of Portland, OR, is probably the largest non-commercial nuclear disaster in terms of cost and scale of environmental damage. Its a ...
- 54.5k
5
votes
What benefits were there to the USA of developing both Uranium and Plutonium bombs in World War 2?
Nuclear bomb making was a new endeavor and it was not clear which approach would be successful - cheaper, faster, more powerful, smaller, more reliable &c &c.
They really had to try all ...
- 26.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Did US and Soviet nuclear war policies allow for a pause?
Such points indeed existed, which is one of the reasons both sides always hung on to long range bombers even though ICBMs and SLBMs would be much more rapid to reach their targets.
Bombers would ...
- 11.2k
5
votes
How much support did America give to the scientists working on the Manhattan Project?
A good reference is The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Note that America (the government) initiated the Manhattan Project to develop the bomb and, as one aspect, recruited the necessary ...
- 1,476
4
votes
Is there any footage of the Chernobyl explosion?
This is so unlikely, I think its fair to even discount the possibility unless you hear otherwise.
Even in the USA in 1986 consumer video recording devices were a new luxury, and recording media had ...
- 115k
4
votes
Why did the USA ever test nukes on their own soil?
Perhaps you are not familiar with the US West? Even today (and more so in the 1940s & 50s) there are places where you can be miles and miles (substitute km if desired) away from anything much ...
- 2,895
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible