Amazing Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion between 1945 & 1998 | Hacker News Reader

Amazing Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion between 1945 & 1998

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14 pointshusein1011 comments

Wired article with more details: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-07/6/japanese-artis... The data set referenced in the credits: http://www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Publ...

Fascinating. And interesting to see that the UK conducted some explosions on US territory too. And that there have been over 2,000 nuclear explosions to date. The tests go crazy in the late 50's, then again in the 70's through about 1993 after which hardly any take place.

Perhaps related to the nuclear test ban treaty [1], which is not in force? There was a partial test ban treaty [2] in the 60s. I'm not informed at all about nuclear politics, but perhaps some combination of better physics knowledge and/or better computer modeling helping remove the need for detonation to test designs and better knowledge of the effect of fallout made countries slow or stop?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Nuclear-Test-Ban_...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_Nuclear_Test_Ban_Treaty

Edit: it would be fascinating, since I can't seem to google the info, if there is an expert here who could share a rough timeline of the state of the art of nuclear explosion modeling

Interesting, but the video should have been played faster and made much shorter.

I played it a 2x speed, which is available if your using HTML5 video over flash.

This is probably one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Does anybody know what became of this test sites? Are they restricted, what are the radiation levels etc ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Flat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nevada_Test_Site_craters.j...

Yucca Flat has been called "the most irradiated, nuclear-blasted spot on the face of the earth".[2] In March 2009, TIME identified the 1970 Yucca Flat Baneberry Test, where 86 workers were exposed to radiation, as one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.

In 2004 while living in New Mexico, I went and visited the trinity site, stood at the base of the tower, walked around, took pictures - the usual thing.

If there wasn't stuff telling you a detonation had taken place, I doubt you'd be able to tell without a geiger counter. Theres a nice bowl shaped depression in the ground, and that's really about it. I had figured there'd be, I dunno, a big scar on the ground or something, but there really isnt. Life goes on there.

What about radiation?

That video made the cold war look like a hot war.

It looks like South America and Antarctica are the only two continents free of blasts.

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