I mean in total, how many nuclear blasts have been detonated since we learnt how to do it? I realise that they are not all the same size but an approximation will do. Is it in the hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands?
What got me thinking about this was a documentary I caught part of a few weeks ago. It was one of the David Suzuki “The Nature of Things” docos and part of it was about these programs that the USA and USSR had going in the 60’s about using ‘small’ nuclear blasts for purposes like digging channels or extracting minerals. Anyway, they mentioned that the USA used about 150 blasts (I think) and the USSR (whose program lasted longer) used about 800 blasts!
So combined with all the weapon tests and other nuclear research, if any, how many times have we blow up a nuclear bomb?
“The average pace of nuclear weapons testing is remarkable: Since 16 July 1945 there have been 2,044 tests worldwide, the equivalent of one test occurring somewhere in the world every nine days for the last fifty years.”
I should perhaps clarify that the number I mentioned represents U.S. testing only. I guess I should have inquired as to what, exactly, was meant by “we” in the OP, eh?
Ok thanks.
Well, we have 2000 odd nuclear test, most of them in the atmosphere. It seems that ol’ Earth can take quite a beating. What about the whole nuclear winter thing I thought would happen when a couple of them off? Does this mean that we could have had a couple of smallish (50 odd nukes) nuclear wars already and keep the Earth in basically the same state as it is now? Is there a major difference between these tests and dropping one of the same size on a city? Im talking in terms of the health of the Earth as a whole here.
Sorry if I rant a bit but I would have thought with 2000 nukes gone off already we would all be glowing green by now.
It doesn’t take a few nukes to change global weather:
“The June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo was global. Slightly cooler than usual temperatures recorded worldwide and the brilliant sunsets and sunrises have been attributed to this eruption that sent fine ash and gases high into the stratosphere, forming a large volcanic cloud that drifted around the world. The sulfur dioxide (SO2) in this cloud – about 22 million tons – combined with water to form droplets of sulfuric acid, blocking some of the sunlight from reaching the Earth and thereby cooling temperatures in some regions by as much as 0.5 degrees C. An eruption the size of Mount Pinatubo could affect the weather for a few years.”
Spiny’s got the answer to that follow-up question. The TTAPS study was the first to wrestle with the particulate output of city firestorms, and was the study that coined the term “nuclear winter.”
I was surprised when I recently found out that nukes have been tested in Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska, and a Southern state (Alabama? Mississippi?) as well as Nevada
In Australia we (well actually the British government) tested nukes out in the middle of the desert of South Australia. It was apparently a suitable place for the tests because it was out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around for thousands of kilometres. It was at a hot, unhospitable place called Womera.
Now we keep our refugees there in a jail while their papers are being processed.