"bunker-busters"

[mmcirvin]

Here's a short but excellent Seed blog post on nuclear "bunker-busters". The map at the top (from the linked UCS presentation) is worth contemplating.

Comments

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

I'd have thought most people how knew anything about the subject would know that shallowly-buried nukes are just about the worst in terms of fallout, what with having lots of material around to neutron-activate, and still letting the fireball break the surface and take all that newly-activated material along with it.

I really have some trouble seeing how people who'd propose a bunker buster nuke wouldn't be familiar with this.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I think some people have a vague image of the warhead somehow tunneling deep underground before exploding, so that the end result is like an underground nuclear test where the ground just humps up a little. (I get this suspicion from a quote I read somewhere in which some expert was taking pains to emphasize that it would not be like that at all.)

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you'd have to have some people who actually knew what they were doing who'd draw up the plans for the thing. They'd have to know it was a ridiculously dangerous idea.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Assuming that everyone involved isn't a complete and total dumbshit, yes.