In their own words: Trinity at 75 – The First Nuclear Bomb | Hacker News Reader

In their own words: Trinity at 75 – The First Nuclear Bomb

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83 pointspseudolus12 comments

>Back at the Base I was furious to hear of discussions of the possibility that the atmosphere might be detonated. This possibility had been discussed at Los Alamos and had been quashed by intensive studies of all possibilities by Hans Bethe and others. It was thoughtless bravado to bring up the subject as a table and barracks topic before soldiers unacquainted with nuclear physics and with the results of Bethe's studies.

This part is interesting. I had always heard that there was some concern about the Bomb literally lighting the sky on fire, but it sounds like they did their due diligence.

> intensive studies of all possibilities by Hans Bethe and others

One thing that fascinates me is that there must be quasi-journals for classified papers hidden away in places like this

This link has some details about what they were actually worried about - which appears to be that a nuclear weapon would trigger fusion of nitrogen nuclei:

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/chung1/

That's fascinating - and, later, a somewhat similar calculation was done erroneously. The yield of the Castle Bravo bomb - the first hydrogen bomb to use lithium as its source of tritium - was 250% greater than predicted, on account of overlooking the prompt conversion of lithium-7 to tritium when bombarded by high-energy neutrons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo#High_yield

I'm sure I read that someone had done that calculation for Castle Bravo and was watching the test and for a few moments, as the fireball got bigger and bigger and bigger, that they had actually got the calculation wrong!

weren't they on the same Island with it in a bunker or something?

Longform pieces from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists are always worth a read. I can also recommend a pilgrimage to the museum at Los Alamos if you find yourself in the high mesas of NM.

One popular subject of discussion is the use of AI for command and control of nuclear launch capability. Taking the human hand out of the equation. SkyNet looking more like prophecy than fiction ;)

https://thebulletin.org/2019/08/strangelove-redux-us-experts...

Related: the excellent 1981 documentary The Day After Trinity has interviews with many of these scientists.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm5fCxXnK7Y

This is incredible. Reminds me of the phenomenal book The Plutonium Files. If you are interested in the history of the first atomic bomb, definitely compliment this reading with that book.

May I also add the supurb documentary Trinity and Beyond. I've watched it several times and always come away simultaneously parts awed and terrified.

“Command & Control” focused on the 374-7 Damascus incident, but it also weaved in a very interesting history of the nuclear age along with various broken arrow incidents in other chapters to break things up. It’s a longer read, but I’d say worth it if you’re interested in the history.

Also checkout The Making of the Atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes.

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