
Nuclear Weapons Nerds - smogcutter
https://gizmodo.com/meet-the-nuclear-weapons-nerds-1826964319
======
jackpirate
If you're interested in the latest nuclear weapons developments, I highly
recommend reading the blog
[https://armscontrolwonk.com](https://armscontrolwonk.com) . There's lots of
detailed political and technical analysis of the world's nuclear weapons
systems there with an effort to track and limit their proliferation. If you've
never investigated this type of thing before, you might be surprised at just
how much knowledge there is to be had in unclassified "open source" material
like this.

~~~
irq
Your link is broken - I think it's because their TLS configuration doesn't
support the non-www hostname. This link works though:

[https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/](https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/)

~~~
toufka
I second their recommendation and add that their podcast is really good and
nerdy.

They also put to pragmatic social and geopolitical use a lot of tech in a low-
budget way: imaging from Planet Labs, machine learning in inage analysis, etc.
And they go through how they pit them to use in detail.

~~~
avar
I'm also a regular listener to ACW. Where is it covered that they use machine
learning?

According to the latest podcast, which goes into this topic in detail, they
don't use machine learning at all (but would like to try it):
[https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1205801/south-
korean...](https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1205801/south-korean-
missile-tracking/)

Instead, they're finding missile sites by manually tracking information leaks
in various places. E.g. that podcast discusses how they found a secret South
Korean site partially from publicly available images (it had a really
distinctive design), and from things like browsing the LinkedIn profiles of
people known to work there, which would mention that they worked in some
nearby town or county.

------
brandmeyer
No story about nuclear weapons nerds is complete without at least one
reference to

[http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/](http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/)

especially the physics lessons in
[http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq0.html](http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq0.html)

~~~
nyolfen
don't forget nuclear secrecy or the bulletin of atomic scientists:

[http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/](http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/)

[https://thebulletin.org/](https://thebulletin.org/)

~~~
ericzawo
Also fun(?) to see how destructive nuclear arms are based on data from Google
Maps.

[http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/classic/](http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/classic/)

~~~
Fej
Modern version:
[http://www.nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/](http://www.nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/)

(no reason to use classic except in very rare circumstances)

------
nyolfen
the book mentioned early on -- The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
-- is one of my favorite pieces of nonfiction. i can't recommend it highly
enough, it's totally engrossing.

also, really fantastic photos in this! the copy could use a little work
though.

~~~
ridgeguy
Second this. A great read.

Rhodes' layout of the early 20th century physics discoveries that lead to the
atomic bomb is engaging all by itself. Who knew it would matter whether your
lab benches were made of wood or granite?

------
Merad
If you’re interested in the topic, I highly recommend picking up a copy of
John Coster-Mullen’s book (discussed in TFA) on Amazon while you can. It’s
already somewhat hard to find and not commonly carried by libraries. The
author is in his 70s and won’t be able to continue self publishing forever.

~~~
3eto
Here's a good article on how Coster-Mullen did and probably still does his
research.

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/15/atomic-
john](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/15/atomic-john)

“The secret of the atomic bomb is how easy they are to make.” John Coster-
Mullen

------
ChuckMcM
I can recommend Coster-Mullen's book if you're interested in this stuff. Big
and bound with a spiral binding it is a remarkable collection of bits of
information that do pretty much tell you everything you might want to know
about those first two bombs.

------
krtkush
I'm currently reading "Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes (Mentioned
in the post). It's a thick book and dense with information. I have only read
the first two chapters but the book is very engrossing - it seems to be
covering all the important people who were part of the making of the Bomb,
both directly and indirectly.

Next is "Red Sun: Making of the Hydrogen Bomb" by the same author.

~~~
arethuza
Nitpick - I think you probably mean "Dark Sun":

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16889.Dark_Sun](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16889.Dark_Sun)

It's very good - although as a lot of it is about the Soviet bomb project it
"Red Sun" is oddly appropriate!

~~~
krtkush
Yes, thank you. I meant Dark Sun.

I usually correlate Red with USSR (and a Super Man graphic novel, named "Red
Son", about USSR does not help either) hence the confusion.

------
ggm
I recommend [https://www.amazon.com/Work-Fields-Bomb-Robert-
Tredici/dp/00...](https://www.amazon.com/Work-Fields-Bomb-Robert-
Tredici/dp/0060961643)

I have a copy, I treasure it. Extremely well curated collection of historical
images, interviews.

~~~
Finnucane
Also good along those lines, American Ground Zero, How To Photograph an Atomic
Bomb, and the classic, 100 Suns.

~~~
ggm
is 100 suns "brighter than 100 suns" by Robert Jungk?

Richard Rhodes is my go-to for the back story, huge books. Not enough
photographs.

~~~
Finnucane
100 Suns by Michael Light, a book of bomb test photography.

~~~
ggm
New book for Christmas!

------
mirimir
I own some beautiful Mexican pottery with uranium glaze.

------
JoeDaDude
Until recently, this fellow, David Hahn, was a famous nuclear nerd, aka The
Radioactive Boy Scout:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn)

------
S-E-P
I've played enough DEFCON to know how this will end :P

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nasredin
"The Cold War was over and according to a 2016 survey of American fears by
Chapman University, more people feared The Affordable Care Act than the threat
of nuclear war."

Every single day my belief that people are amazingly stupid is reinforced.

\---

Somewhat related:

The Russians are looking for their nuclear-propelled cruise missile that they
reportedly recently lost.

IIRC that is the same one Putin mentioned in his "state of the union" speech,
shortly before his "re-election".

~~~
brandmeyer
> > ...more people feared The Affordable Care Act than the threat of nuclear
> war.

> Every single day my belief that people are amazingly stupid is reinforced.

Really?

ACA: Has definite impact on daily lives. Every US resident has had to make at
least one decision about their health care in the years since it took effect
that was directly affected by the ACA.

Nuclear war: No impact on daily life. US-developed ICBM defenses are
critically upsetting the balance of Mutually Assured Destruction, but almost
nobody is aware of that. Individual decisions are completely unaffected by
nuclear weapons or defenses against them.

Given that reality, it seems perfectly expected and rational that more people
will feel threatened by the ACA than nuclear war.

~~~
wowDude
Okay, this right here is pretty absurd.

The perspective is so wrong it begs disbelief on some level. An attempt to
open doors, to provide access to medicine is not some thing made of fear. You
can drive on roads, you can mail a letter, you can see a doctor.

Instantaneous annihilation, or worse, getting irradiated at lethal doses, only
to collapse into a heap of boils and sores, wretching and dry heaving until
you cough up your ulcerated intestines, actually is something to fear.

But yeah, you know, guns or butter. Nuclear deterents make war generally
unrealistic, once you arm yourself with enough bombs. Nevermind the liklihood
that that more bombs you have, the closer we all are to one of them going off
accidentally.

But you’re right, because of nuclear secrecy, and the government
classification of military secrets, we’re not allowed to know how close we are
to having our lives immediately and directly affected, _not by “Nuclear War”
but by accidents in pursuit of possessing a deterent_.

Therefore, since we cannot be permitted to know such things, our lives must
not be affected by those things, and it’s irrational to fear them.

Instead, we should fear the government trying to buy us all dog food, because
it would be ridiculously inefficient to allocate funds to supply such things,
when so many people don’t own dogs. It’s clearly a vector to corruption and
dog poisoning. Perfectly expected and rational.

~~~
brandmeyer
Its a fact of life in this country that your opinion about the ACA depends a
lot on where you get your news and your own interactions with the health care
system.

I'm fortunate to live in a populous area of a state that wholeheartedly
adopted its own exchange. There are plenty of good choices available. When my
employer ran out of money and went out of business a few years ago, I could
afford a plan for my family that was far cheaper than COBRA. We got affordable
health care through the exchange until I could land a regular job.

But many people don't. There are a growing number of markets that aren't
offering ACA plans _at all_. Other markets are seeing 20% y/y growth in their
prices. In short, the ACA is failing. You can be mad about that all you want
to, but it doesn't change the fact that being afraid of the ACA is totally
rational.

~~~
wowDude
Skepticism, sure. Disdain, maybe. Fear, pointedly ridiculous.

It's not so much that it's failing, as much as it's been resisted and
sabotaged. It's a distraction to think in terms of markets. Not when you can
plug a money hose, the size of the military budget, into the supply side of
the equation.

To name government subsidies as the ultimate and most fearsome form of
corruption, and an abyss which has no known bottom, is to call the size of the
U.S. military budget the purest form of corruption known to history.

And indeed, if the U.S. military, backed by its nuclear deterrent is such a
thing to be feared, then it is assuredly more fearful than the failure of any
medical plan.

Consider that we use nuclear powered aircraft carriers and cruise missiles
designed to carry nuclear payloads, such to the effect, that in a conventional
war, we smear an industrialized nation like Iraq, wiping maybe 100,000 people
off the face of the earth, at a cost of 1,000 enlisted personnel. So take that
degree of fear ( _or maybe just the portion of it, that happens to be backed
by our global nuclear strike capacity_ ), and point it directly at those who
would let an accountant stand between your children and a doctor. What then?

------
modells
If you want to play with nukes, work at Pantex.

