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Stephen Schwartz

@AtomicAnalyst

24 Dec 21

53 years ago today, astronaut and lunar module pilot Bill Anders took this photograph as Apollo 8 orbited the Moon. “Oh my God. Look at that picture over there! There’s the Earth comin’ up. Wow, is that pretty!” (This is the original B&W image that NASA remastered into color.)

Here's the story behind the photograph, and how it was remastered in 2018 for its 50th anniversary: jw9c.blogspot.com/2018/01/earthr…

The second “Earthrise“ photograph is the more well known (and more frequently reproduced) image, which Anders shot in color. However, for decades it has been incorrectly rotated 90 degrees so that the lunar horizon is nearly horizontal with Earth rising above it.

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Stephen Schwartz

@AtomicAnalyst

23 Dec 21

Today in 1963, “Ladybug Ladybug” opened in US theaters. Set in rural Pennsylvania, and based on an actual incident during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the tense film follows a group of young schoolchildren and their teachers as they react to a warning of an imminent nuclear attack.

Watch here:

Fun Fact 1: Kathryn Hays, who plays school secretary Betty Forbes, portrayed the mute Gem in the Star Trek original series 1968 episode “The Empath.”

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Stephen Schwartz

@AtomicAnalyst

22 Dec 21

THREAD: Over the years, Santa Claus has had an interesting relationship with nuclear weapons. During World War II—on a visit to the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee—his sack of toys was subjected to a thorough search before he was allowed to enter the secret city.

In 1955, a misdialed phone number by a Colorado Springs child led a clever colonel at the Continental Air Defense Command—and, later, NORAD—to craft a public relations campaign to protect Santa Claus from godless Soviet communists and normalize nuclear war.gizmodo.com/how-the-u-s-mi…

“When a childish voice asked COC Commander Col. Harry Shoup if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he answered much more roughly than he should …: ‘There may be a guy called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he’s not the one I worry about coming from that direction.’”

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Stephen Schwartz

@AtomicAnalyst

18 Dec 21

This morning in 1970, Baneberry—a 10-kiloton, weapons-related, underground nuclear test 912 feet beneath the Nevada Test Site—accidentally vented, releasing 80,000 curies of radioactive iodine-131, more than any other US underground test. For more, see: ctbto.org/specials/testi…

NTS workers were quickly evacuated and 900 were radiologically surveyed. Of these 86 were decontaminated onsite, with 66 of these individuals sent to Mercury, Nevada, for thyroid measurements (chart). Eighteen of those workers received whole body count measurements in Las Vegas.

According to a 1971 AEC report, “no exposure on onsite personnel was in excess of the occupational standards in AEC or Federal Radiation Council occupational guides for normal peacetime operations.” The highest exposures were received by two security guards in Area 12.

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Stephen Schwartz

@AtomicAnalyst

10 Dec 21

Today in 1967, the AEC, Dept. of the Interior, and the El Paso Gas Company conducted Project Gasbuggy, a Project Plowshare nuclear test to stimulate natural gas production ~55 mi. E of Farmington and ~12 mi. SW of Dulce, New Mexico, adjacent to the Jicarilla Apache Reservation.

Yes, someone (actually, many someones) thought nuclear fracking was a really good idea. So, as part of nuclear test series Operation Crosstie, a 29-kiloton device developed by Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory was emplaced at the bottom of a 4,240-foot shaft and detonated.

After the explosion, natural gas production increased relative to nearby conventional gas wells but—surprise!—it was too radioactive to be sold on the commercial market. It also had a significantly lower heat value. Production tests and evaluation activities continued until 1976.

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Stephen Schwartz

@AtomicAnalyst

10 Dec 21

Sixty years ago today, the US Atomic Energy Commission conducted Project Gnome, the first of 27 “peaceful” nuclear explosions under Project Plowshare. A 3.1-kiloton device was detonated inside a salt formation 1,184 feet underground, 12 miles from Loving, New Mexico.

Contrary to scientists’ expectations, the test shaft did not seal itself as a result of the explosion, and seven minutes after detonation, highly-radioactive steam was seen venting from it.

As an official AEC film (featuring an enthusiastic introduction by Edward Teller) put it: “Minor amounts of radiation released soon dissipate, and no harmful offsite contamination is reported. ... No exposure [to personnel] exceeds the limits established.”

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