Command & Control documentary (1980 Arkansas Titan II missile mishap)

Creepy Green Light

Don't mistake lack of talent for genius
IMO, this documentary should be required for students to watch. It's a piece of history that the bulk of U.S. citizens have never heard of. I was only about 10 yrs old but never heard a peep about it. I asked my mom if she remembered & she never heard of it. Plus it was never mentioned by anybody while I was in the Navy - even when I had to attend Nuclear Weapons Loading School. If you have NETFLIX - I would recommend watching it. Pretty unbelievable what happened (and what almost happened).

Here's the trailer;

 

CasualBystander

Celestial
Well, there wasn't much chance of a nuclear explosion.

The pit has to be loaded with tritium.

Further the implosion has to be symmetrical and there is no chance of a fire initiated implosion doing that.

You could contaminate a few acres (which probably happened).

The hypergolic propellants are poisonous.

But the pit contains the blast and you get what is shown in the video.

Even further - the only thing that could detonate is a primary and that is the size of the Hiroshima bomb - can't find good numbers for a Titan II typical warhead primary but we are talking a dozen kilotons. It is just used as a prompt radiation/neutron source.
 
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