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US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled
Yahoo News ^ | 10/25/2011

Posted on 10/25/2011 7:35:17 AM PDT by Scythian



AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War.

The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal of reducing the number of nuclear weapons.

Thomas D'Agostino, the nuclear administration's chief, called the bomb's elimination a "significant milestone."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: amarillo; b53; b53bomb; bomb; nuclearbomb; nuclearweapons; pantex; uraniium; uraniumpits
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To: Red6

The film department at Iowa had a copy of this movie and ran it free nearly every Saturday night when I was there in the 60s.
Most of the audience could repeat the lines as the actors said them.


21 posted on 10/25/2011 8:25:49 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: SargeK

But what is true is that are armed forces are in full scale decline right now, and that goes complelety under the radar because of the economy and a President that is very popular with the media.


22 posted on 10/25/2011 8:26:54 AM PDT by Red6
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To: Scythian

But what are we going to use to send out to a giant asteroid to blow the crap out of it before it hits the earth?


23 posted on 10/25/2011 8:33:31 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: newheart
What is more concerning is whether they are being replaced by anything other than this administration's well wishes to our enemies.

They were replaced in 1997. Back in the 90s B-52Hs were fitted with the Common Strategic Rotary Launcher. Those planes could no longer carry the B53. The B53 role of bunker busting by laydown delivery was replaced by the earth penetrating B61-11, up to eight of which could be carried on the CSRL, instead of the single B53 previously carried.

24 posted on 10/25/2011 8:36:22 AM PDT by Oztrich Boy (New gets old. Steampunk is always cool)
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To: Red6

My brand of humor includes taking absurdities to logical conclusions with a straight face.


25 posted on 10/25/2011 8:40:34 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com/)
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To: Red6

Agreed, and the biggest cause of the decline isn’t material (although that is bad enough).

It is the loss of focus, loss of a sense of mission and accomplishment and loss of the warrior ethos. The mental infection of the libtards is contagious. Every member of the armed services has to be asking him/her self, “What’s the point?” The social experimentation, and especially the withdrawal of DADT will have far reaching consequences. The interplay of sexual issues is bad enough now. Once the effects of the repeal of DADT are manifest, the prolems will increase exponentially and really cut into readiness.


26 posted on 10/25/2011 9:00:20 AM PDT by SargeK
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To: SargeK
Too bad no one in the lame stream media bothered to ask, “transform into what, exactly?”

Are you talking about the same lamestream media that couldn't find Chicago on a map when Obama ran last time, but could fine Wasilla? Might be they don't want to know...

27 posted on 10/25/2011 9:17:31 AM PDT by GOPJ (OWS - a scam to shift blame for unemployment and misery away from Obama..)
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To: Scythian

Damn, that’s like being 12 years old and having to throw away the biggest firecracker in your collection.

Couldn’t they’ve just dropped it on Tehran, say instead of sending a Chrismas card?


28 posted on 10/25/2011 9:31:04 AM PDT by Moltke (Always retaliate first.)
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To: Scythian

I’m surprised we didn’t donate it to a lesser country. It isn’t fair that Venezuela doesn’t have one, or the emerging democracies of Libya, Egypt...


29 posted on 10/25/2011 9:37:18 AM PDT by Professional
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To: Moltke

Assuming a detonation at optimum height, a 9 megaton blast would result in a fireball some 4 to 5 kilometers (2.5 to 3 miles) in diameter.[9] The radiated heat would be sufficient to cause lethal burns to any unprotected person within a 28.7 kilometers (17.8 mi) radius (995 square miles (2,580 km2)). Blast effects would be sufficient to collapse most residential and industrial structures within a 14.9-kilometer (9.3 mi) radius (300 square miles (780 km2)); within 5.7 kilometers (3.5 mi) virtually all above-ground structures would be destroyed and blast effects would inflict near 100% fatalities. Within 4.7 kilometers (2.9 mi) a 500 rem dose of ionizing radiation would be received by the average person, sufficient to cause a 50% to 90% casualty rate independent of thermal or blast effects at this distance.


Your post isn’t particularly amusing in light of this, is it? This weapon is immoral, and its dismantling should be celebrated by all people of good conscience.


30 posted on 10/25/2011 9:37:43 AM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: mvpel
I'm curious.

What, in your view, is a moral weapon?

I'd agree that the actual use of such a weapon may be immoral. But the mere prospect of the consequences of the use such weapons (conventional wisdom has it) kept two enemies apart for half a century.

The scenario wherein such weapons would have actually been used is apocalyptic. He who Is would render the verdict, not any of us.

31 posted on 10/25/2011 10:19:48 AM PDT by SargeK
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To: UriÂ’el-2012

I believe that’s been common knowledge for years.


32 posted on 10/25/2011 10:22:12 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Scythian

Obama is sure making sure the world for America is a very unsafe place! Middle East ready to erupt into G-d knows what, every ally we ever had wondering if we will stand with them and now here we are destroying weaponry we can’t afford to rebuild.


33 posted on 10/25/2011 10:22:36 AM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: DuncanWaring
I believe that’s been common knowledge for years.

You are absolutely correct.

It was published in the Sandia Base newspaper
in 1959 available in the PX on base for all to see.

Listing the locations involved in the softball league.

Sandia Base was an open base in 1959.


34 posted on 10/25/2011 10:39:37 AM PDT by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 119:174 I long for Your salvation, YHvH, Your law is my delight.)
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To: UriÂ’el-2012

Don’t be a smart-ass.

Anyone who knows anything about the US nuclear arsenal knows that everything goes through Pantex sooner or later.

And Pantex is almost 400 miles from Sandia.


35 posted on 10/25/2011 10:44:12 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: mvpel

Were Little Boy and Fat Man immoral weapons?


36 posted on 10/25/2011 10:45:23 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring
I give you a piece of TradeCraft
from 1959 and you go non-linear.

The article made no sense,
they did not know how to
disassemble something from 1964.


37 posted on 10/25/2011 10:53:59 AM PDT by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 119:174 I long for Your salvation, YHvH, Your law is my delight.)
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To: SargeK
I'm curious. What, in your view, is a moral weapon?

I'm not sure, but I reckon that a weapon that levels a 20-mile-wide circle and can inflict fatal burns across nearly a thousand square miles is not moral.

When in your war against a city, you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into a besieged city? - Deuteronomy 20:19.

38 posted on 10/25/2011 10:54:49 AM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: mvpel
This weapon is immoral, and its dismantling should be celebrated by all people of good conscience.

Do you own a firearm?

39 posted on 10/25/2011 10:56:21 AM PDT by Grizzled Bear (No More RINOs!!!)
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To: mvpel; SargeK
When in your war against a city, you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into a besieged city? - Deuteronomy 20:19.

Do you consider yourself under the Law ?

Or do you use the Law to promote Lawlessness ?

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
40 posted on 10/25/2011 11:04:54 AM PDT by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 119:174 I long for Your salvation, YHvH, Your law is my delight.)
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