# Has anyone here seen a nuclear explosion, with their own eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 23, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602 "2003-12-23T04:31:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/1 "2003-12-23T04:31:29Z")
If it’s classified, or anything, I wouldn’t want you to tell me. But…are there any dopers here who’ve seen a nuclear explosion, in person? I mean, there have been a fair share of atmospheric nuclear tests, over the years. Some of them, like [“Operation Fishbowl”](http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Dominic.html) over the Pacific, could be seen from populated areas. In [“Desert Rock I”](http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Busterj.html) 6500 regular troops _performed field exercises_ in the aftermath of a nuclear detonation. Heck, according to the _Trinity and Beyond_ documentary, some of them even involved civilian(!) Civil Defense personnel as observers. So…have any of the 30,000 SDMB users ever seen a genuine nuking? And, if you’re out there, would you be willing to tell us? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/2 "2003-12-23T05:41:11Z")
Not personally, but I have an older aquaintance who was in the post WW2 navy and saw (I think) Ivy Mike (the first H-bomb) and two A-bomb tests. He doesn’t talk about it too much, but apparently they were just about as mind-blowing as you would expect. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/3 "2003-12-23T07:54:26Z")
I’ve got a framed print of the first A-bomb test (Project Trinity) in my living room, does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/4 "2003-12-23T12:52:53Z")
My boss, Mr. Graham, was posted to one of the Navy ships thar observed the Bikini H-bomb test. He doesn’t mind saying it scared the you-know-what out of him. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/5 "2003-12-23T14:01:55Z")
Every day the sky is clear I see one. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/6 "2003-12-23T14:12:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vunderbob \* > \*\*Every day the sky is clear I see one. \*\* Yeah but that’s not an explosion, that’s a stable, sustained nuclear reaction. I did see a supernova once, come to think of it. SN 1994I in M51. But that’s more of a gravitational collapse than a nuclear explosion… ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/7 "2003-12-23T14:17:23Z")
I went to school with a guy whose…grandfather, I believe…claimed to have been one of the soldiers involved in a test. He said it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Of course, this is one of those “friend of a friend” things, but I don’t see any reason he’d choose to invent that particular story. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/8 "2003-12-23T14:18:46Z")
You should have seen my Dad when I brought home a bad report card. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/9 "2003-12-23T14:19:39Z")
My step- dad was in the Army and in New Mexico for a testing, in the '50. He was an Army photographer and after the test he and some buddies drove their jeep through the dust. They didn’t know what the effects were going to be. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/10 "2003-12-23T14:28:07Z")
My father was in the RAF, and he met a USAF officer in the 1970s who had witnessed one of the first tests in the US. According to my dad, the guy said that when the bomb went off, he was facing the blast, had his eyes closed tight, and his hand in front of his face, but could still see the silhouette of the bones in his hand. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/11 "2003-12-23T14:40:30Z")
[Sam Eagle]That sounds very, _very_ unsafe.[/Sam Eagle] ---
**Author:** ![krisolov](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krisolov/32/3724_2.png) [@krisolov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krisolov)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/12 "2003-12-23T14:52:19Z")
My father in law was a contract diver for the Navy, and was at Eniwetok for a couple tests (Operation Ivy I think). He told me about one test that sucked the water out of the interior lagoon, along with the sensors he and his team had placed on the sea bottom. He had no pictures, but actually saw himself in one of those nuclear test documentaries! ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/13 "2003-12-23T15:41:57Z")
A colleague of mine was stationed on Christmas Island in the 1950s, when the British tested their device. They were told to turn their backs on the explosion. He told me he could see the silhouette of the bones in his hand too. He died of cancer ( he was sure the cancer and the nuclear explosion were related) V ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/14 "2003-12-23T21:08:45Z")
No, but I’ve stood at ground zero on Frenchman Flats at the [Nevada Test Site](http://www.ufomind.com/area51/orgs/nts/), right next door to Area 51, and seen some of the portait sized color photos they have in the Security offices there… And yes, I kept my eyes on the skies, and no, I did not see a UFO, an Aurora, or any aircraft at all. Just buzzards. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/15 "2003-12-23T21:12:08Z")
erm… the portrait sized color photos were of atomic bomb tests… Sorry… sometimes in haste I leave out essential detail… ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/16 "2003-12-24T00:42:37Z")
Never seen one, and never want to. However i did live a few miles from SL-1 at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho when it went critical in 1961. It was the first nuclear accident in the US and it took less than one second to happen. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/17 "2003-12-24T01:27:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tinkertoy \* > **…when it went critical in 1961…** Presumably it had gone critical many times before. Indeed, any time it was at power, it was critical. (I know what you meant :)) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/18 "2003-12-24T03:18:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tinkertoy \* > \*\*Never seen one, and never want to. However i did live a few miles from SL-1 at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho when it went critical in 1961. It was the first nuclear accident in the US and it took less than one second to happen. \*\* > [@](#): > > 3 January 1961 > A reactor explosion (attributed by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission source to sabotage) at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho, killed one navy technician and two army technicians, and released radioactivity “largely confined” (words of John A. McCone, Director of the Atomic Energy Commission) to the reactor building. The three men were killed as they moved fuel rods in a “routine” preparation for the reactor start-up. One technician was blown to the ceiling of the containment dome and impaled on a control rod. His body remained there until it was taken down six days later. The men were so heavily exposed to radiation that their hands had to be buried separately with other radioactive wastem, and their bodies were interred in lead coffins. … was not the first known nuclear accident. Try this one … > [@](#): > > 21 August 1945 > Louis Slotin , a physicist, was killed during the final stages of the Manhattan Project undertaken at Los Alamos, New Mexico to develop the first atomic bomb) from a radiation burst released when a critical assembly of fissile material was accidentally brought together by hand. This incident pre-dated remote-control assembly of such components, but the hazards of manual assembly were known at the time (the accident occurred during a procedure known as “tickling the dragon’s tail”). A similar incident occurred nine months later (dramatized in the Hollywood movie Fat Man and Little Boy); this time, eight people were exposed, one of whom died days later. Hand-maniuplations of critical assemblies was abandoned only after another accident on 30 December 1958. Source: [http://www.lutins.org/nukes.html](http://www.lutins.org/nukes.html) ---
**Author:** ![Granuaile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecccb3/32.png) [@Granuaile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Granuaile)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/19 "2003-12-24T04:54:41Z")
No, but I have a slice of the tree Enrico Fermi used to relax under when he was working on the Manhattan Project. I guess when they were renovating part of the campus, that particular tree was cut down, sliced up and passed out to some of the Physics Dept. ---
**Author:** ![cybersnark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@cybersnark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cybersnark)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602/20 "2003-12-24T15:01:51Z")
\ I once worked with a guy who once worked on the SL-1 reactor. He said he had actually been scheduled to work on the night they had the accident, but he had a lst-minute change with another worker, who was later killed in the accident. He said they never really did pin down the cause of the accident. It was a small and rather primitive reactor, which was designed for the potential use of providing power to the arctic DEW sites (which were radar installations that gave a “Distant Early Warning” of a Soviet nuclear missile launch). It had manual control rods that lifted by pulling up on a rope, either by hand or by a overhead pulley system. One theoretical cause of the accident was that one worker was in the process of correctly/slowly pulling up a control rod, when the other worker assisting him decided to get cute and play a game of grab-ass, startling the first worker who jumped up, pulling the control rod quickly, causing an exponential increase in reactor power and a steam explosion that shot the control rod out of the reactor like a spear, impaling the first worker against the ceiling. \ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-seen-a-nuclear-explosion-with-their-own-eyes/220602.md?page=2)