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In article , Paul F Austin
writes "Dave Eadsforth" wrote ... Jim Yanik wrote Any deep mine that had a nuclear explosion nearby deep underground would have it's shafts collapse,or become inaccessible,just as effective as destroying the WMD itself. They might even flood. At one point, it was feared that an exploding nuke could send a stream of VERY hot gasses along tunnels, thus spoiling everyone's day. However, later modelling (and maybe even testing) revealed that an underground nuclear explosion in an area containing shafts and tunnels tends to crush them flat, thus sealing them and saving the rest of the complex further damage. So, the lesson appeared to be; don't build caverns, stick to tunnels and shafts. That's interesting. Do you have a cite for that? I'm afraid not - it was described in a newspaper article many years ago, During the underground test era, in one test the blast doors failed. During a UGT, explosive-powered doors located a short distance from the bomb chamber close after the prompt radiation pulse drops off (a few hundred nanoseconds) and before the blast wave arrives, to preserve the down-hole equipment. In one test, the doors failed and the VERY hot gasses (and lots of fission fragments) both melted and contaminated the equipment in the test galleries quite far back from the bomb chamber. Was that because the blast hit the tunnel head on? If so, I could imagine the VERY hot gases etc going straight down the tube. However, if the complex were built of tunnels that zig-zagged sharply, the nuke would move enough rock to crush tunnels at 90 degrees to the explosion and any hot stuff entering a tunnel head on to begin with should be blocked when a section at 90 degrees to it collapsed. I still think that earth penetrating nuclear weapons is the triumph of "Wow, a NUKE" thinking over the realistic limits of what a nuclear weapon can do. Interesting point... Cheers, Dave -- Dave Eadsforth |
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