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The visual effects of a high-altitude or space-based explosion may last longer than atmospheric tests, sometimes in excess of 30 minutes. Heat from the Bluegill Triple Prime shot, at an altitude of 50 kilometers (31 miles), was felt by personnel on the ground at Johnston Atoll , and this test caused retina burns to two personnel at ground zero ...
It was launched from Johnston Atoll on July 9, 1962, and was the largest nuclear test conducted in outer space, and one of five conducted by the US in space. A Thor rocket carrying a W49 thermonuclear warhead (designed at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory ) and a Mk. 2 reentry vehicle was launched from Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, about ...
In July 1962, the US carried out the Starfish Prime test, exploding a 1.44 Mt (6.0 PJ) bomb 400 kilometres (250 mi; 1,300,000 ft) above the mid-Pacific Ocean.This demonstrated that the effects of a high-altitude nuclear explosion were much larger than had been previously calculated.
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Before the discovery of the natural Van Allen belts in 1958, N. C. Christofilos had suggested in October 1957 that many observable geophysical effects could be produced by a nuclear explosion at high altitude in the upper atmosphere.
The Cold War ended in 1991, but the looming threat of nuclear attack lives on with more than 14,900 nuclear weapons wielded by nine nations.. A terrorist-caused nuclear detonation is one of 15 ...
Death is highly likely and radiation poisoning is almost certain if one is caught in the open with no terrain or building masking effects within a radius of 0–3 kilometres (0.0–1.9 mi) from a 1 megaton airburst, and the 50% chance of death from the blast extends out to ~8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the same 1 megaton atmospheric explosion. [54]
Historical above-ground nuclear weapon tests included 189 megatons of fission yield and caused average global radiation exposure per person peaking at 1.0 × 10 −5 rem/sq ft (0.11 mSv/a) in 1963, with a 6.5 × 10 −7 rem/sq ft (0.007 mSv/a) residual in modern times, superimposed upon other sources of exposure, primarily natural background ...