US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled [Supposedly. Amarillo, Texas, Oct 25 2011]

'Rethinking nuclear weapons' - discreet lies - covert policy reversals - managed nuclear closedowns - payoffs

US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled

Postby bamzam » 25 Oct 2011 19:34

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http://news.yahoo.com/uss-most-powerful ... 25260.html

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War.

The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal of reducing the number of nuclear weapons.

Thomas D'Agostino, the nuclear administration's chief, called the bomb's elimination a "significant milestone."

Put into service in 1962, when Cold War tensions peaked during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the B53 weighed 10,000 pounds and was the size of a minivan. According to the American Federation of Scientists, it was 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing as many as 140,000 people and helping end World War II.

The B53 was designed to destroy facilities deep underground, and it was carried by B-52 bombers.

With its destruction, the next largest bomb in operation will be the B83, said Hans Kristensen, a spokesman for the Federation of American Scientists. It's 1.2 megatons, while the B53 was 9 megatons.

The B53's disassembly ends the era of big megaton bombs, he said. The bombs' size helped compensate for their lack of accuracy. Today's bombs are smaller but more precise, reducing the amount of collateral damage, Kristensen said.

Since the B53 was made using older technology by engineers who have since retired or died, developing a disassembly process took time. Engineers had to develop complex tools and new procedures to ensure safety.

"We knew going in that this was going to be a challenging project, and we put together an outstanding team with all of our partners to develop a way to achieve this objective safely and efficiently," said John Woolery, the plant's general manager.

Many of the B53s were disassembled in the 1980s, but a significant number remained in the U.S. arsenal until they were retired from the stockpile in 1997. Pantex spokesman Greg Cunningham said he couldn't comment on how many of the bombs have been disassembled at the Texas plant.

The weapon is considered dismantled when the roughly 300 pounds of high explosives inside are separated from the special nuclear material, known as the pit. The uranium pits from bombs dismantled at Pantex will be stored on an interim basis at the plant, Cunningham said.

The non-nuclear material and components are then processed, which includes sanitizing, recycling and disposal, the National Nuclear Security Administration said last fall when it announced the Texas plant's role in the B53 dismantling.

The plant will play a large role in similar projects as older weapons are retired from the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal.

[This was credited by Yahoo to Betsy Blaney, Associated Press, October 25, 2011 2:26 PM. Presumably copied from some kind of press release. - Rerev]
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Re: US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled

Postby rerevisionist » 25 Oct 2011 22:56

Yes, thanks for this. What evidence have you that the object is in fact a bomb?
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Re: US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled

Postby Heiwa » 26 Oct 2011 11:05

The 'object' is just a dummy! Like all similar 'objects'!
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Re: US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled

Postby NUKELIES » 26 Oct 2011 13:43

Heiwa wrote:The 'object' is just a dummy! Like all similar 'objects'!


Lol! That bomb is not the only thing being dismantled. They're dismantling the whole program of propaganda thanks in large part to our efforts - all delusions of grandeur aside, we are the ones asking the questions and shining light on the LIES.
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Re: US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled

Postby Heiwa » 26 Oct 2011 16:42

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B53_nuclear_bomb we learn:

“The B53 was 12-foot-6-inch (3.81 m) long with a diameter of 50 inches (1.27 m). It weighed 8,850 pounds (4,010 kg), including the 800-to-900 lb (360-to-410 kg) parachute system and the honeycomb aluminum nose cone to enable the bomb to survive laydown delivery. It had five parachutes:[1] one 5-foot (1.52 m) pilot chute, one 16-foot (4.88 m) extractor chute, and three 48-foot (14.63 m) main chutes. Chute deployment depends on delivery mode, with the main chutes used only for lay down delivery. For free-fall delivery, the entire system was jettisoned.

The warhead of the B53 uses oralloy (highly enriched uranium) instead of plutonium for fission, with a mix of lithium-6 deuteride fuel for fusion. The explosive lens is a mixture of RDX and TNT, which is not insensitive. Two variants were made: the B53-Y1, a "dirty" weapon using a U-238-encased secondary, and the B53-Y2 "clean" version with a non-fissile (lead or tungsten) secondary casing. Explosive yield was approximately nine megatons.

It was intended as a bunker buster weapon, using a surface blast after laydown deployment to transmit a shock wave through the earth to collapse its target. Attacks against the Soviet deep underground leadership shelters in the Chekhov/Sharapovo area south of Moscow envisaged multiple B53/W53 exploding at ground level. It has since been supplanted in such roles by the earth-penetrating B61 Mod 11, a bomb that penetrates the surface to deliver much more of its explosive energy into the ground, and therefore needs a much smaller yield to produce the same effects.

Assuming a detonation at optimum height, a 9 megaton blast would result in a fireball with an approximate 4 to 5 km (2.5 to 3.1 mi) diameter.[15] The radiated heat would be sufficient to cause lethal burns to any unprotected person within a 28.7 kilometers (17.8 mi) radius (995 square miles (2,580 km2)). Blast effects would be sufficient to collapse most residential and industrial structures within a 14.9 km (9.3 mi) radius (300 square miles (780 km2)); within 5.7 kilometers (3.5 mi) virtually all above-ground structures would be destroyed and blast effects would inflict near 100% fatalities. Within 4.7 km (2.9 mi) a 500 rem dose of ionizing radiation would be received by the average person, sufficient to cause a 50% to 90% casualty rate independent of thermal or blast effects at this distance.”


Note that a B53 bomb was either delivered by a US air force B59 plane or by ICBMs. In the first case it was dropped from the plane using five parachutes or free fall dropped (!). How the plane would survive the latter is?????

Anyway, it was just a BIG JOKE propaganda show all the time. Now all 340 have been dismantled.
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