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Image 1 — 'Structures' in very early fireballs
Image 2 — 'Structures' in very early fireballs
Image 3 — 'Structures' in very early fireballs
Image 4 — 'Structures' in very early fireballs
Image 5 — 'Structures' in very early fireballs
🔥 Hot ▲ 229 r/nuclearweapons

'Structures' in very early fireballs

While organizing some of my many bookmarks, I found a link to https://atomicphotographers.com/ website, where in the section dedicated to Harold Edgerton, you can see some of the famous photos captured by Rapatronic cameras.

I remembered the reason why I saved this link was the mystery behind the structures/regions clearly visible in the photos, so I went to The Effects of Nuclear Weapons to look for the answers. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon. My other go-to source of all nuclear knowledge, the nuclearweaponarchive.org website, also didn't have the answers I was looking for.
I also searched 'fireball' in the sub and read through many of the posts. I admit not all of them, so I may have missed the answer.

My assumption is that these regions are not really 'voids', but areas of gases at different temperatures/pressures, and are directly linked to the design, components, and internal structure of the corresponding device.

So my question is: what am I seeing in these pictures? What are those blobs and voids?

Note: I'm not talking about the 'rope trick', that's sufficiently explained in the source I have available

Image 1: Mohawk (360 kt), Operation Redwing
Image 2: Priscilla (37 kt), Operation Plumbbob
Image 3: How (14 kt), Operation Tumbler-Snapper
Image 4: Boltzmann (12 kt), Operation Plumbbob
Image 5: ??(??), Operation Tumbler-Snapper

u/DefinitelyNotMeee — 1 day ago
▲ 19 r/nuclearweapons

So what happened to the US's and USSR's nukes in the 80s? Where do you put a nuke if you don't want it anymore? Can you just throw it away? I assume not because it's still dangerous wherever it is, right?

u/Hefty_Education_7059 — 2 days ago
▲ 0 r/nuclearweapons

What happens with U-238 in a nuclear explosion? I'm thinking about an earthquake bomb with depleted uranium shell.

u/arstarsta — 2 days ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 2.4k r/nuclearweapons+4 crossposts

The 'Demon Core' - the core of the third atomic bomb in WWII that was never dropped. It still managed to kill 2 American scientists. (1945)

u/Suspicious-Slip248 — 8 days ago
▲ 15 r/nuclearweapons

Could Iran already have enough nuclear material ready for a nuclear test ?

Is it possible for Iran to a small, hidden undetected uranium enrichment plant ? How well detection can be prevented in such a case?

And is it possible that since 2021, or even 2025 they are using it to enrich uranium, let's say from some uranium they diverted given the iaea wasn't fully working since 2021 and left in 2025 ?

Is it possible for them to remove some enriched uranium undetected? How?

And given those assumptions how long would it take them to get enough enriched uranium for a nuclear experiment ?

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u/jonclark_ — 6 days ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 715 r/nuclearweapons+1 crossposts

Planned Swedish nuclear targets in Poland and East Germany, to be bombed by the supersonic Saab A36 if invaded by the Warsaw Pact. The targets were large harbors that could support an invasion. Both the nuclear weapons program and the A36 were cancelled in 1958.

u/ParrishRose1 — 10 days ago
▲ 1 r/nuclearweapons

Madman Theory (Current Day)

So the madman theory as far as I understand it is, North Korea suddenly decides to launch its arsenal (whole or partially) at US. The US in return, send a few of their missiles towards North Korea. Only problem from Russia, they don’t know that the missiles in the air are North Korea bound and assume the US has initiated nuclear Armageddon. So they in turn, empty the kitchen sink at US and her allies in Europe. This action signifies the end of the world because the nuclear powered allies of the US and US themselves empty the kitchen sink on their ‘enemies from the other side’.

My question is what’s the scenario, or thought process, when North Korea is no longer the most irrational nuclear capable entity?

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u/jayr254 — 8 days ago
▲ 10 r/nuclearweapons

Request for table of Soviet nuclear ballistic missile yields

This might be too vague but I remember finding and now losing a black and white pdf, probably old, in a serif font, potentially the SIPRI one, with a very very large table across many pages, of Soviet nuclear ballistic missiles, all of their codenames, ranges, and the yield of their warhead (although this was usually blank). Does anyone know the title?

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u/dit__zee — 8 days ago
▲ 13 r/nuclearweapons

Question: "Amber Time" reference in a Minuteman III Test Short Film

Full source video: https://youtu.be/rGmBlyGm6Bo
Clip at indicated time: https://youtu.be/rGmBlyGm6Bo?si=DQVF4VBeLmLf9H1s&t=1098

A few months ago, Peter Kuran (atomcentral) posted a restored short film from I'm assuming the 1970's that outlines the process of randomly pulling Minuteman III missiles on alert and testing them at Vandenberg. At 18:20 in the video after launch, someone calls "amber time" over the comms loop.

If anyone knows what that means, or can infer what they are referencing, my curious mind would appreciate it, lol.

Thank you for your time.

u/ShellAnswerMan — 7 days ago
▲ 11 r/nuclearweapons

What is done to prevent neutrons from making a sphere supercritical before it is greatly compressed

Is there some kind of material layering technique to prevent “pre-supercriticality” in a sphere of U/Pu? Also, does the Gallium-Pu alloying have much of an effect on the speed of achieving criticality?

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u/FirstBeastoftheSea — 9 days ago