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Subject: Re: Brit nukes
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On 19/03/2015 18:51, Byker wrote:
> news:3sKdnfQED6pQCZfInZ2dnUU7-Y-dnZ2d@giganews.com...
>>
>> Vickers Valiant.
>
> One of which went into a high-speed stall after dropping "Orange Herald"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuFS91LrQ44
>
> It seems that the first few British "thermonuclear" bombs were actually
> massive A-bombs that consumed large amounts of expensive plutonium. This
> was
> a secret until after the Cold War. Until then, the largest fission bomb
> known to the public was the U.S. "Ivy King" test (500 KT) in 1952.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Z-mmu7f2E
>
> "Orange Herald" yielded 720 KT. The bomb was a nightmare to handle because
> its plutonium was almost at the point of critical mass. For safety reasons,
> the plutonium sphere was filled with ball bearings, which made the bomb too
> heavy to lift, so they had to be emptied out before takeoff.
>
> thermonuclear bluff: it seems that none of the four nuclear tests held in
> 1957 was a hydrogen bomb test as we now understand it. But the tests had as
> much to do with public relations, and especially relations with the United
> States, as with constructing an authentic hydrogen bomb, and the bluff was
> remarkably successful."
> http://www.lrb.co.uk/v14/n20/norman-dombey/britains-thermonuclear-bluff
Let's not forget that the British had a massive problem here. They made
a substantial contribution to America's atomic bomb research and
development, only to find that the US with the passing of the "McMahon
Act" (Atomic Energy Act of 1946) completely froze them out of something
they'd assisted in developing.
This was despite the The Quebec Agreement of August 1943, which was
reaffirmed in the Declaration of Trust in 1944 and the Aide-memoire at
Hyde Park in 1945 where again full exchange of information and close
collaboration was agreed.
When they were sold down the river they had little option but to develop
their own atomic weapon weaponry, albeit with far more limited resources
from their war ravaged country than America possessed.
As you quote: "the bluff was remarkably successful."
--
Moving Things In Still Pictures
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