Debates around
the use of such a powerful, new weapon divided the scientific community built
around the “Manhattan Project”—the secret, war-time effort to develop an atomic
bomb before Germany did.* But after Germany’s defeat, in May 1945, the raison
d’etre for developing such a weapon seemed misplaced. Some scientists
resigned from the project and debate among the scientists at Los Alamos (where research for the bomb was done)
centered around whether such a destructive device was necessary to defeat Japan,
which by the spring of 1945 seemed on its last legs. Nevertheless, work went ahead;
the bombs were built and, scant months later, one was tested on July 16.
The Trinity
test of the plutonium bomb, the world’s first detonation of a nuclear weapon,
was necessary because the fissile isotope required a complex ‘firing’ mechanism
to achieve the necessary criticality, and so a test was made to ensure it
would work. By contrast, the scientists at Los Alamos did not need to test the uranium-cored Hiroshima
bomb because the firing mechanism was relatively simple—essentially shooting a
hunk of 235U into another hunk of 235U, with a high level
of confidence it would work as designed. There was another reason to use plutonium
cores for the Trinity test and Nagasaki atom bombs: it was because there was such a limited
supply of enriched 235U. [“Enriched” means that 90% of the bomb’s core was
composed of 235U. Ed.] During those early days of
nuclear technology development, processing uranium ore into weapons’ grade
fissile material was a slow, laborious process.
FUN FACT: The raw
uranium ore for the Hiroshima bomb came from Canada, notably from the Port
Radium mines in the Northwest Territories. Go Canada!
I GUESS I HAVE fissile material and atom bombs on the brain these days,
in part because of the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities during the “Twelve
Day War” in June, but also because of the provocative July 16 redeployment of
American nuclear weapons [twenty to thirty B61-12 gravity bombs kitted out with glide tech upgrades. Ed.] to RAF Lakenheath, a US Air Force base in
Suffolk, England, after a nearly twenty year hiatus. Why now? How is this in any way helpful in tamping down the flame wars between Western governments and Russia? America’s
second-in-a-row geriatric president, Donald Trump, has given another of his ultimatums
to Russia to make a "deal" with Ukraine. Or else! In a recent interview, Trump said he was “tired” of
talking to Putin. If he’s that tired, he should move back to Mar-a-lago and let
someone else pick up the damn phone with Putin. One suspects the 'or else' means further sanctions against
Russia: Since 2022, there have been eighteen sanction
packages between the EU and U.S. which have been totally useless wet squibs, and
more harmful to European economies than to Russia.
There is worry he
will authorize the deployment of long-range American “Tomahawk” missiles to Ukraine with the dangerous possibility of strikes deep inside Russia, perhaps targeting
its critical infrastructure or—saints preserve us!—another swipe at Russia’s strategic
defence installations. Such an action could provoke a significant response from Moscow
that will only add to the tensions.
 |
| GRAVITY BOMB WITH WING ATTACHMENT |
Russia, since America’s 2002 walk-away from the critical, Cold War ABM treaty
(Anti-Ballistic Missile), began work on a system to counter the possibility of
nuclear-capable missile arrays being stationed in various NATO countries which
could reach Russian targets in a matter of minutes. The system they developed was
a family of hypersonic missiles that could act as deterrents against such
attacks. Russia built them but did not deploy them, or even announce
they had such weapons, until 2019 when Trump walked away from the INF Treaty
which is seen in Moscow as a ploy to station medium/long-range missiles once more in
Europe. So, there’s that.
Oh, and Germany’s PM Mertz wants to
create the largest army in Europe (again); next year he may host American long-range
missiles, including a newly developed (?) hypersonic missile, the “Dark Eagle”. And he’s recently opined that Germany should develop its own cache of nuclear
weapons. What could possibly go wrong?
FINALLY, on July 17, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander General Chris Donahue (who should know better), bloviated publicly
how NATO could overrun the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in no time at
all. [If you don’t know where that is,
get out a map. Ed.] WTF! Doesn’t the fucktard know Russia has nuclear weapons
stationed there? This fool should be relieved of his command, but he’ll
probably get another star. Poke the bear once too often and you will be
mauled.
POINT BEING that underlying all these surface clusterfucks the Ukraine
conflict has wrought (and there are others) is the spectre of the nuclear genie ready to pop its cork and explode
upon the world. To tamp down such a possibility, treaties (nuclear and otherwise), dialogue, diplomacy
(appointing a permanent American ambassador to Russia, for example); gestures
of friendship or at least mutual tolerance; respectful relations in trade, sports, the
arts, science etc., anything to deescalate tensions and make bridges should be of
primary concern in any diplomacy or negotiations going forward. And acknowledging
Russia’s legitimate security concerns and working to allay them must have the highest of diplomatic priorities. And that
includes the EU and its increasingly fractious member states who are as bellicose
in their dialogue and ‘diplomacy’ with Russia as they were with the
USSR during the height of the Cold War. Even more so. At least back then people had a healthy respect for nuclear weapons and their destructive capabilities. It is time for the Europeans to cool their jets.
It seems we've forgotten how to talk with one another in this shiny, new century of ours.
FUN FACT: The Doomsday Clock is now set at eighty-nine seconds to midnight. For those unfamiliar with analogue timepieces, this is not a good thing. The clock measures the global threat risks and how near we are to a nuclear war. Since the Clock's inception in 1947 as an annual insert in the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists", it is set the closest it's ever been to midnight. Should the clock hands ever strike midnight, then its bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.
Nuke ‘em here.
Nuke ‘em there.
Soon they’re nuking
everywhere.
Have I mentioned Israel and Iran, nuke-wise? Well, ‘nough said, for now.
Cheers, Jake. ____________________________________
* Historians tell us that Nazi Germany’s quest for an atomic bomb was no
where near as advanced as the Americans. The American project’s overseer,
General Groves, and his ‘all-hands-on-deck’, crash program (the “Manhattan
Project”) to develop the bomb got the Americans across the finish line first.
1. In 1943, the Army Corps of Engineers carved out roughly 600 square
miles of rural Washington state, centered around the town of Hanford, and built
the first large-scale “critical” reactor. At the Hanford-B reactor plant,
Uranium-235 was processed into Plutonium-239 which was then secretly shipped to the Los
Alamos labs to be fashioned into the core of “Fat Man”. A second plutonium bomb
was prepared in the event a third bombing of a Japanese city would be deemed necessary
before Japan would capitulate.
