MovieChat Forums > Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (1995) Discussion > what if nukes had no radiation?

what if nukes had no radiation?

posted 16 years ago by parkpunk
7 replies | jump to latest

I've always wondered how the world would be different if nuclear weapons produced the same heat and blast, but no radiation. Would humans have used them without inhibition? You could blow up the entire country of your enemy, then simply walk in and take over and rebuild it to your liking. Would it actually be worse? We could annihilate the entire planet without causing any real long term effects other than that of the heat and blast effects. Life would continue. Plants would re grow. It would be tantamount to a world wide forest fire.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] winterview 15 years ago

Orion nuclear impulse spacecraft would have already allowed humans to colonize the solar system. Interstellar craft with speed capabilities > 0.05C would be under construction right now.

If these radiation free nukes were also cheap, vacation packages to Saturn would be commonplace.

[–] chouse1020 14 years ago

Yeah that would have been interesting to see how we would have resculpted certain coastlines to add deep water ports where they didn't exist before, flattening mountains and using the fill to add new land above the water level...

Unfortunately I think people would have gotten carried away and Earth would be a boring looking place. Mountain in the way of your new golf course? File the permit and wait a few months... then they NUKE it for you, so it's easier to cart off. Sheesh.

[–] rwsmith29456 12 years ago

This was debated in the 'clean' bomb vs. the 'dirty' bomb. The clean bomb was as free from radiation as could be made (though they still had plenty) and a dirty bomb that was meant to contaminate and area for a few million years. Today there is a real threat of individual groups making a low yield bomb, but loaded with nuclear waste to poison a population.

[–] Mononoke-hime 11 years ago

"but no radiation. Would humans have used them without inhibition?"

YES. For sure. 110%.

[–] CashHog 9 years ago

The US Government truly believed that a nuclear weapon could be used for peaceful engineering projects, deemed the "friendly atom." Project Plowshare explored the possibilities for excavation, oil and gas stimulation. But, alas, the radiation produced was so intense and pervasive the idea of using these devices was abandoned.

There were many negative consequences from Project Plowshare’s twenty-seven nuclear explosions. One such test, a 104-kiloton detonation at Yucca Flat, Nevada, displaced twelve million tons of soil and resulted in a radioactive dust cloud that rose 12,000 feet and drifted toward the Mississippi River. Other consequences of the blast blighted the land, relocated small communities, tritium-contaminated well water, radioactivity, and fallout from debris being hurled high into the atmosphere. All those effects were ignored and downplayed by the government until the program was terminated in 1977, due in large part to public opposition.

[–] bqbabykilller 8 years ago

4th generation