Been doing some fascinating reading lately, about nuclear weapons. I’m not an afficionado of weapons, and haven’t really followed the developments in this field, just read an occasional article and such over the years. Well, things have come a long way in the last couple decades, and there are some truly exotic things that go boom now.
At the heart of many advancements is a technique called the ‘shaped charge’. It involves directing the effects of a detonation in a specific direction, and can produce some amazing results. Rather than the classic pattern of a huge blast at the center of a destructive sphere of heat and concussion, these techniques yield a highly defined "cone of destruction" effect. They can even produce a sort of remote destruction, where things not actually at the point of detonation are most heavily impacted, and things much closer, but not in the cone, are left relatively intact.
One of the most striking developments involves combining this ‘shaped charge’ effect with what are called ‘micronuclear’ devices, which is to say, hydrogen bombs no bigger than a softball. And hydrogen bombs have come a long way from the early days of this macabre science, they don’t need a huge blast of force from an atomic bomb to set them off, they can be triggered quite "quietly". This means that these micronuclear devices can be used as the catalyst for incredibly powerful shaped charge effects, which can result in highly concentrated destruction in a very specific and definable shape and size.
And unlike old school nuclear weapons, these puppy’s don’t generate mostly concussion and heat energy, they generate a huge burst of neutrons. This creates rather bizarre effects that are only vaguely like what conventional bombs do. This tremendous burst of energy in the form of neutrons has the eerie effect of causing dense things, like steel, to vaporize at first, and then liquify as the incredible temperatures within drop to the melting point of the material. Less dense material, like concrete, simply turns to dust. Really flimsy stuff, like people and paper and such, is not dense enough to intercept the amounts of energy that heavy things do, and if not directly in the cone can remain relatively intact, even if rather close to the point of detonation. (Within the cone, it’s vapor city for everything)
If you were to place such a device, say at the bottom of a high-rise building with a central steel core of massive columns, you would be able to essentially implode the structure. And with relatively few strategically placed military "cutter" charges, you could bring even a huge building down on itself with only modest explosive effect. The result would be similar to a conventional "controlled demolition", without the blatant local outward blast effects that the massive amounts of high explosives needed to destroy such a building would produce.
Of course, there would be incredible amounts of dust involved, what with all the concrete in such a structure, and some general outward projection of even massive chunks of steel members. Kinda like what the Twin Towers experienced on September eleventh, 2001.
This technique will probably never be used for controlled demolition though, since it would make a huge mess, including the very nasty clouds of dust, large pools of molten steel at the base of the former buildings, and the remaining steel would be too radioactive to be scrapped and reused in run of the mill ways. Not all the steel would be turned into deadly radioactive material, but it would have numerous "hot spots", which would be difficult to isolate and remove. It could however be used in making stuff like bridges and oil tanks, if it was melted down on a large scale and the hot spots were dispersed.
Of course, using nuclear devices for anything is pretty much unthinkable for most people. Who knows where such a path would lead?
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Comments: 17
Did you catch the story on the several top generals putting the kibosh on a strike a few weeks ago? Seems they said, "We will walk if you do it", and that put a big crimp in the plan. Ya know, some of those fellas take that oath to the Constitution stuff rather seriously. Kinda fond of the old Republic.
No, I spent just a few hours catching up on this, I learned of such things years ago when they were still being planned and researched. I did not, however, recognize the fruition of this research when I truly suspect I saw it in action. No one had ever seen anything even similar to what the Twin Towers did, and there are these rather puzzling aspects. For instance, it can be calculated how much energy it takes to pulverize concrete. Oddly, to pulverize all the concrete in those towers, as basically occurred, would require far more than the total potential energy available due to the falling mass of the entire structure.
The question: "why so much dust?", simply didn't register fully. Things can't really violate the laws of nature (and surely God did not do this). You may be hearing more about these techniques, as this is thought through by more and more educated people, that have been holding off on speaking up about the various anomalies they can understand must have occurred that day, but had no explanation for. Till now.
I watched with open mouth what happened that day. The theory seems to be that the intense heat from the fire melted all the steel that was the skeleton structure of the building. When this started happening the weight started moving down. It was probably more intense than a controlled demolition. Lot of people simply got vaporised that day. I get sad when I think about this kind of stuff.
Jet fuel is kerosene. Black smoke indicates oxygen starved fire. Couldn't melt a spoon. Those were among the most structurally sound buildings ever made by man. They were not brought down by foreign entities.
Of course we get sad, and look away.
Of course those who question are called crazy.
There's nothing new under the Sun.
Rad Decision
A techno-thriller about a looming disaster at a nuclear power plant, written by an engineer with over twenty years of experience in the American nuclear industry
http://raddecision.blogspot.com/
Took a good look at it, pretty well written I think. Interesting to hear what the hands on reality of such a thing would be like.
Thanks. Haven't really studied the Kennedy question in any detail, and can't really feel confident about what happened. It is highly suspect though, and I've run into enough info about nefarious goings on in the high-up world of power and wealth to know such a thing is quite plausible.
This one I have studied, and though I began with very much hesitation and disbelief, the facts wore me down. I sat at the computer staring for several hours when I finally ran out of rationalizations to stave off the gruesome possibility. A huge let down for a Polly Anna type like me. I don't blame anyone who resists that dark door. Humans ought never have to face such monstrous villainy.
I have had the JFK administration on my mind this weekend, from inauguration to
magic bullet. Nice article. Fits in well with this repulsive administration's activities and diplomacy.
They call it "shock and awe". Works great.
Well, most of this stuff I learned about years ago when the "high tech" weaponry revolution was getting underway. You know; "smart bombs", active armour, and so on. The neutron bomb was developed in earnest twenty years ago, and I read of it's peculiar effects back then in science magazines and such. This wedding of the "shape charge" with the "micro nukes", is relatively new to me, and I just followed links that caught my eye. None of this is secret anymore, and I'm sure searching "shaped charge" and or "micro-nuclear" weapons and such will take you where you don't really want to go, but maybe ought to sometime.
OK, I got off my butt and went looking for something fairly informative which would give a good idea of the debates surrounding this type of scenario.
http://www.saunalahti.fi/wtc2001/H-device.htm