Since the beginning of the nuclear era, humanity has lived under fear of a catastrophe that will claim millions of lives and make the planet uninhabitable. And these fears may not be unfounded. The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the incident at the Mayak chemical plant, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and Japan's Fukushima accidents.
Great Britain
But few know that at one time the UK also had to face the threat of a nuclear explosion during the Windscale fire, which resulted in the release of radioactive substances. This incident was hidden for a long time by the authorities.
The rise of the British nation began in the 17th century. It was then that by no means a powerful power began to actively develop overseas territories and build trade ports around the world.
But she was far from the then shining power of Spain or the cunning, agile Dutch, who created an extensive trading network and did not hesitate to impose their will on the overseas rulers. However, in the 18th century, a grandiose turning point came. Spain became a third-rate power, and Great Britain received the status of ruler of the seas. Genuine greatness came to the British with the conquest of India - a source of cheap resources and unthinkable wealth, and then the British monarchy turned into an empire where the sun never sets. Its influence has spread throughout the world from China to the Commander Islands. The British were slightly worried by the fact of separation from the empire of the United States, but these "cowboys" could not seriously challenge the power of Britain and only caused her annoyance. The industrialization process of the 19th century was also led by Great Britain, as was progress,because then it was she who was a storehouse of scientific discoveries. In the First World War, England, along with France, became the winner. And then the unexpected turned out! First, the British began to lose influence over the colonies at an astonishing rate. And then it turned out that the United States overtook Britain in the process of industrialization, and also became a powerful magnet for scientists from all over the world. And it was this state, not Great Britain, that showed the world the power of nuclear weapons.not Great Britain, showed the world the power of nuclear weapons.not Great Britain, showed the world the power of nuclear weapons.
A revolution in physics and grand designs
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Newton's classical physics has been criticized since the 19th century. Then, by the beginning of the 20th, the idea of a complex arrangement of the smallest particles - atoms - appeared. The Danish physicist Niels Bohr, a Nobel laureate, proposed a planetary model of the atom, where negatively charged electrons revolve around a positively charged nucleus. And then physicists around the world were interested in the question: is the decay of an atom into its constituent particles possible? It turned out that yes, it is possible, and at the same time new elements appear and a large amount of energy is released. Now politicians are thinking about the possibility of creating a superweapon based on the new laws of physics, which would give the power that developed it enormous power. And the United States of America turned out to be the first country that managed to translate these ideas into reality.
To create nuclear weapons, the United States attracted scientists from all over the world. As a matter of urgency, Niels Bohr was even taken out of Denmark in the bomb bay of the aircraft, whose contribution to the study of nuclear decay processes was invaluable. The project was led by American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves. All developments were carried out in the strictest secrecy. And as a result, the day of triumph has come!
On July 16, 1945, the first nuclear explosion in human history took place at the Alamogordo test site. Then two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All over the world, this tragedy is still remembered and many accuse the United States that the bombing was carried out only out of a desire to show the power of America and to intimidate the Soviet Union. In spite of everything, in 1949 the USSR tested its nuclear bomb, after which the Cold War era began.
Returning the crown to its former greatness
It was difficult for Great Britain to come to terms with the fact that the USA and the USSR were becoming the main players on the world stage. And she wanted to remind her of her former brilliance and greatness. The Manhattan Project team included the British mathematician and physicist William George Penny. Having graduated from the most prestigious educational institutions in his native England and in the USA, having a wide amount of knowledge in nuclear physics, as well as being a patriot of his country, he was a suitable candidate for the role of the head of the British atomic project. Upon Penny's return to England, he becomes a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and at the same time the coordinator of the nuclear technology development program.
In the mining region of Sellafield, a secret town unfolds, now known as Windskeill. Here British scientists and engineers tried to curb the destructive nuclear forces. Uranium-235 was chosen as the main material for the future bomb, and the reactor vessel itself was made of graphite, which absorbs radiation and is able to withstand high temperatures, and sea air from the coast is used for cooling. Under the influence of high temperatures, uranium was converted into weapons-grade plutonium, which, accordingly, became the core of a nuclear bomb. The work of British scientists led to success. On October 3, 1952, an atomic explosion took place, marking Britain's entry into the nuclear race.
Alas, the sweetness of victory was soon overshadowed by the creation of the so-called Sakharov puff, a powerful hydrogen bomb, which the USSR tested at the Semipalatinsk test site on August 12, 1953. Then it was decided to show all the power and superiority of British science at least over the United States. The need has ripened after the USSR to make its own "puff". For this purpose, the same reactor was chosen as for the previous bomb. However, the British did not take into account that different technologies are required here, and this time they cannot do with old equipment. Or maybe they did not want to take it into account, spellbound by the ghosts of a brilliant past.
Not only the installation itself, but also the measuring instruments were not adapted to such work. The reactor was heated to higher and higher temperatures, and the instruments could not detect significant temperature jumps in time. The most serious test for the old graphite reactor was the so-called Wigner energy. Under the influence of radiation, the graphite crystal lattice is deformed, but then restores its structure with the release of a considerable amount of energy. Such an uneven heat in the reactor could lead to the fact that either the body of the installation itself or the protective shell of the fuel would be damaged, which, when interacting with air, could lead to a full-fledged explosion, with the release of radioactive substances.
On October 6, 1957, the measuring instruments recorded small surges in heat. The personnel discovered that the reactor masonry was deformed in order. But we still managed to fix the problem. Then, for several days, the jumps were repeated, and on October 10, the station employees were horrified to find that the radiation level near the reactor tube was many times higher than normal, and the temperature in the reactor itself reached 400 degrees. It turned out that a fire had started in one of the technical channels, and outdated meters did not warn about dangerous temperature fluctuations in time.
As a result of a fire in an air-cooled graphite reactor for the production of weapons-grade plutonium, a large (550-750 TBq) release of radioactive substances occurred. The accident was Level 5 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) and is the largest in the history of the UK nuclear industry.
Thank God that a large-scale catastrophe was then avoided. With the help of timely delivery of water, the fuel was cooled, and neither an explosion nor a larger-scale fire occurred. Nevertheless, huge
large volumes of radioactive steam, which, having settled, poisoned the surrounding area. As a preventive measure, the government banned the sale of iodized milk in the area, but the ban only lasted a few weeks. None of the station's employees died of radiation sickness. The accident resulted in the release of radioactive elements, primarily iodine-131 - 740 TBq and cesium-137 - 30 TBq.
The UK's National Radiological Protection Commission has estimated that around 30 cancer deaths could have been due to the Windscale accident. Other estimates increase the number of cancer cases from this incident to 200.
In modern reactors at nuclear power plants, metallic nuclear fuel has ceased to be used, since the metal has a lower melting point. The Windscale accident was considered the most serious before the accident at the American Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979.
What world do we live in
Although, as a result of the Windscale incident, no one lost their lives. Even the environment was not as poisoned as they feared. However, this is also questionable. After all, the British authorities for a very long time did not want people to find out about what happened in the former mining town, and even tried to deny the danger of nuclear contamination. The impartiality of the national commission that investigated the incident is also questionable, so the scale of environmental pollution may have to be judged many generations later. But even if everything was as the official authorities described the incident, an unpleasant aftertaste remained.
It turns out that in pursuit of the shadow of its former greatness, it is possible to endanger the health and lives of, probably, millions of our own subjects. That in order to simply demonstrate to the enemy his technological superiority, nuclear bombs can be dropped on two peaceful cities, although the enemy has already been defeated and actually brought to his knees?
That in order to complete the work on time, it is necessary to hide the harm of radiation from scientists and technicians? That in order to save face in front of his main ally, who issues loans for the development of the country, it is worth writing down all those who have gone through a nuclear catastrophe as outcasts, and declaring their words slander?
Many writers of the twentieth century pointed to the danger posed by new advances in science. They believed that scientists' interest in the forces of nature would one day destroy civilization. But the knife is not guilty of the crime, but the hand that held it. Nuclear weapons and the incidents associated with them do not show harm to science, but once again prove that the principles of politics have not changed since ancient times.
She is as cruel and ruthless in achieving her goals as she always was.
US Air Force Nuclear Warhead Incident
On August 30, 2007, 12 AGM-129 ASM cruise missiles with training warheads were to be transported from the Minot Air Force Base (North Dakota) to Barksdale Air Base (Louisiana) for storage. It was planned to install 6 missiles on each of the pylons under the left and right wings on the B-52H strategic bomber of the 2nd bomber wing, which had arrived from Barksdale especially for this.
On the morning of August 29, in one of the storage facilities at Minot base, a group of US Air Force personnel began preparing the indicated twelve missiles for installation on a bomber. On six missiles, nuclear warheads were replaced with training warheads, on the rest, W80-1 warheads with a thermonuclear charge of variable power 5-150 kt were mistakenly installed. The personnel involved in the pre-dispatch inspection of missiles neglected a number of checks, as a result of which the preliminary replacement of the storage locations of six missiles with training warheads, in the place of which were placed missiles with thermonuclear warheads, intended for disposal, remained unnoticed. At about 9 o'clock in the morning, the crew of the tractor arrived at the storage, which, without preliminary inspection and without specifying the fact of inspecting the missiles, began to tow them to the aircraft. The military property department of the airbase also did not reveal the fact that the missiles were not checked properly, and signed the missiles for loading. The installation of missiles on the plane took about eight hours. After its completion, the plane without special protection stood the whole evening of August 29 and the night of August 29-30 on the apron of the Minot airbase.
On the morning of August 30, one of the crew members of the V-52N, an onboard radar operator, performed a thorough visual inspection of the missiles mounted on a pylon under the right wing, on which there were missiles with training warheads. After that, the crew signed a cargo manifesto, which listed 12 unloaded AGM-129 ASM missiles. The crew did not inspect the missiles on the left wing pylon. The crew commander did not conduct a visual inspection of the aircraft. At 8:40 am, the plane took off from Minot Air Force Base and headed south, landing at Bark Sale Air Base at 11:23 am. The crew parked the B-52 on the apron, and again for nine hours the plane was left without special protection.
At 20:30 a group of soldiers and officers arrived at the aircraft parking area to dismantle the missiles. After some time, one of them noticed external differences between the missiles on the pylons of the right and left wings. At 22:00, after an additional inspection, it became clear that non-training warheads were installed on the missiles suspended on the left wing.
Only then was a special guard posted around the plane, and the "find" was reported to the central command post of the US Department of Defense, and then to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Secretary of Defense and the US President.
Magazine: Historical Truth No. 2. Author: Daniil Kabakov