In 1962, at 11:00:09 pm local time on July 8th, the United States detonated a thermonuclear warhead riding atop a Thor missile at 400 km above Johnston Island at a distance of 826 miles from Honolulu, Hawaii. That night was one that many on the Hawaii Islands would never forget (Berkhouse, 1962). Operation , as the test was code named by the U.S. military, caused the first damage in the United States from an electromagnetic pulse created by a nuclear detonation. Though the damage was not intended or planned, the 1.4-megaton weapon caused “the failure of street-lighting systems, tripping of circuit breakers, triggering of burglar alarms, and damage to a telecommunications relay facility.” (EMP Commission, 2004, p. 4)
We’ve all heard the conspiracy theories, the conjecture, and the out and out crazy talk that some fear mongers have envisaged for decades. Let us put all the scary thoughts that we’ve ever had nightmares over and discuss the real facts about an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). With the world so closely tied to its love of all things electronic, can the EMP actually take our civilization from the twenty-first century to the pre-industrial ago so quickly? The evidence will show that this is a grave threat, and needs to be taken by as such.
The United States, as well as the world, is more and more dependent on electronics. Everything around us runs on electricity; from the cars we drive, our dependency on mobile electronics we use, all the way down to the cappuccino machines that make our favorite beverages. We love our electronics. Last year alone “retail sales of consumer electronics fell just short of $1 trillion in 2011,” reports John Laposky of TWICE magazine, and those sales “are predicted to hit $1.04 trillion in 201...
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...the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack - Volume 1: Executive Report. 108th Cong., 2nd sess. H. Rept. Vol. 1. EMP Commission, 2004. Commission To Assess The Threat To The United States From Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. EMP Commission, 22 July 2004. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. .
United States. Defense Nuclear Agency. Operation Dominic I - 1962. Vol. DNA 6040F. L. Berkhouse, 1962. T24298. U.S. Department of Defense - Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. .
United States. Federal Trade Commission. Electronic Banking. Dec. 2006. Web. 11 Feb. 2012. .
protection of people around the world. We don't need to get rid of electronics because they are
The Trinity Project was a project conducted to test the effects of a nuclear weapon. The Trinity nuclear device was detonated on a 100-foot tower on the Alamogordo Bombing Range in south-central New Mexico at 0530 hours on 16 July 1945. (Rohrer, 1995-2003). This project was organized by the Manhattan Engineer District (MED). This organization worked diligently planning and coordinating all of the logistics for the groundbreaking event. From 1945-1946 over 1000 personnel either worked or visited the test site. The United States was trying to gain nuclear proliferation throughout the world so this project was necessary for our enemies to see the devastation of a nuclear blast.
Mendelsohn, Jack. 1999. “Missile Defense: and it Still Won’t Work.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. May/June 29-31.
Burke, Robert. Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders. 2nd ed. Florida: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, 2007. Print.
“Little Boy” and “Fat Man”, the world’s first two nuclear bombs were dropped in two major cities in Japan: Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th of August 1945. This “experiment” by the United States Government completely demolished the two cities, killing over 150,000 people instantly and nearly 50,000 people died from aftermath as well as radiation.
During the summer of 1946, a joint task force was given the mission to test the effects of nuclear radiation on ships, equipment and material. Formed in the winter of 1946, Joint Task Force 1 was made up of Navy, Army and civilian personnel (“Operation Crossroads, 1946”). The test was done using two atomic bombs, ABLE and BAKER. The target, was a fleet of 71 to 90 ships, depending on the source, and was made up of older U.S. ships and captured German and Japanese ships the first detonation in the series was named ABLE. ABLE was a 23 kt air burst that would fall short and to the left of its target resulting in only 5 ships being destroyed (“Operation Crossroads”). Experts determined the radiation was low enough to only require a couple of days before a crew could board the vessels and do their research. The BAKER detonation would be a similar weapon with only slight modifications to allow it to be suspended underwater. Anchored to the LSM-60, a landing ship, the BAKER detonation would test the effec...
When one thinks about warfare, the average mental picture is usually a movie war scene with soldiers, and planes; very rarely do people think about about the average Joe, trimming his hedge. In the short story “Grace Period”, by Will Baker, there is a man trimming his hedge outside with an electric hedge trimmer when a nuclear bomb is dropped; his wife has gone to get the mail. In “an instant [he felt as] everything stretched just slightly, a few millimeters, then contracted again” (Baker, 1989, p. 7). Although the character does not know what is happening, the reader may realize that this description is a high altitude nuclear burst. The article “Nuclear Weapon Effects”, by John Pike, describes what a nuclear bomb’s effects are and what could happen if one was dropped. Based on clues in the story and the information from the article, the reader can determine what is happening to the man and what he can expect will happen to him.
The USA’s new weapon, the Hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb, was one of the most powerful weapons of the time. In 1950, the H-bomb was tested in the Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands (Cold War History). The reaction was so fierce, the explosion wiped the island off the face of the earth, leaving a crater on the ocean floor. The explosion reached a range of 25 square miles and had a mushroom cloud which dropped radioactive fallout on the surrounding areas (The Cold War Museum). This new weapon scared the Soviet Union into creating their own bombs.
Although nuclear technology can be used for good, it can also be used for destruction. One example of this was the bombing of 2 Japanese cities using the a...
Headquarters, Department of the Army (31 August 2007), FM 3-05.132 Army Special Operations Forces Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Operations,
Radio bikini was a documentary about an operation known as operation crossroads. After the atomic bombs were dropped on japan during world war two many questions arose such as what type of effects would a bomb of this magnitude have on a single battleship or an entire fleet? What would be the effects of an air explosion and an underwater explosion? What are the effects from the radiation? How would the underwater explosion affect the ships and the harbor? How long would the deadly affects linger? In this paper I will talk about Operation Crossroads and answer a lot of the major questions about the atomic bomb and the affects it would have. Also I will talk about the two test conducted on the island of bikini atoll known as Able and Baker.
The nuclear bomb was the most devastating weapon ever created by man. It was developed between 1942 and 1945 during the second World War. The project to build the worlds first atomic weapon was called The Manhattan Project. The nuclear bomb was based on the idea of splitting an atom to create energy, this is called fission. Three bombs were created, “Trinity”, “Little Boy”, and “Fat Man”. “Trinity” was dropped on a test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, proving the theories, engineering and mathematics of the bomb to be correct. Shortly after that, not more than 2 months, the U.S. performed the first actual nuclear attack in the history of war. The bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on the town of Hiroshima, instantly killing thousands. “Fat Man” was dropped shortly after on the town of Nagasaki. After the bombing almost all scientist involved with the creation of the bomb regretted its construction and spoke out against the abolishment of nuclear weapons.
The world’s conflict over nuclear weapons all began with President Truman’s decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II was coming to a close but Japan would not surrender. So, on August 6, 1945, the bomb Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima. It was triggered by a gun mechanism where a small piece of uranium-235 was fired down a barrel into a larger piece. This caused an explosion of 15 kilotons, or 15,000 tons of TNT, killing 90,000 to 166,000 people. Surprisingly, Japan did not surrender, so on August 9, 1945, the bomb Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. It was triggered when shock waves from high explosives set off the plutonium-239 core. It caused an explosion of 20 kilotons, or 20,000 tons of TNT, and killed 60,000 to 80,000 people. This second attack really sent the message to Japan, and they finally surrendered on August 15, 1945. World War II was finally over, but the Cold War began with the reveal of the United States’ nuclear power. It is believed that dropping the bombs saved both Japanese and American lives by ending the w...
... but the personal relationships they could form at home or at work are ruined because of the surplus hours individuals spend with their electronics.
"Technology is like fish. The longer it stays on the shelf, the less desirable it becomes." (1) Since the dawn of computers, there has always been a want for a faster, better technology. These needs can be provided for quickly, but become obsolete even quicker. In 1981, the first "true portable computer", the Osborne 1 was introduced by the Osborne Computer Corporation. (2) This computer revolutionized the way that computers were used and introduced a brand new working opportunity.