US Nuclear Weapons Facts

[Tavaruawon]

Came across this, and I thought it was pretty interesting. It's a wee bit old but all of the facts are referenced.

 

FULL LIST Here ...

 

11. Largest and smallest nuclear bombs ever deployed: B17/B24 (~42,000 lbs., 10-15 megatons); W54 (51 lbs., .01 kilotons, .02 kilotons-1 kiloton)

 

17. States with the largest number of nuclear weapons (in 1999): New Mexico (2,450), Georgia (2,000), Washington (1,685), Nevada (1,350), and North Dakota (1,140)

 

18. Total known land area occupied by U.S. nuclear weapons bases and facilities: 15,654 square miles

 

19. Total land area of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey: 15,357 square miles

 

21. Money paid by the State Department to Japan following fallout from the 1954 "Bravo" test: $15,300,000

 

30. First and last test: July 16, 1945 ("Trinity") and September 23, 1992 ("Divider")

 

31. Estimated amount spent between October 1, 1992 and October 1, 1995 on nuclear testing activities: $1,200,000,000 (0 tests)

 

1. Cost of the Manhattan Project (through August 1945): $20,000,000,000

 

That last one ^

 

$20,000,000,000 for the Manhattan Project and not a single member of Congress even knew about it.

 

Somebody saying the US Government is incapable of keeping secrets? :huh:

[n8galicia]

Well a whole bunch of defected scientists were able to

[shai]

Is that $20,000,000,000 in 1945 dollars or has the figure been adjusted for inflation?

 

The reason for the blackout you mentioned was called Adolf Hitler.

[Tavaruawon]

Coming out of the woodwork, what up Shai.

 

The figure has been adjusted for inflation. At '98-'99 rates. The original cost was between 2 and 2.2 billion. Which would be about 22 billion now.

 

Adolf Hitler was just one of the reasons for said 'blackout'. Russia was at the forefront of captured Nazi technology as much as anybody was at the time. For the sake of security within the arms race, secrecy may have been justified.

[KILZ FILLZ]

crazy

[shai]

Coming out of the woodwork, what up Shai.

 

More that I'd care to discuss here.

 

Adolf Hitler was just one of the reasons for said 'blackout'. Russia was at the forefront of captured Nazi technology as much as anybody was at the time. For the sake of security within the arms race, secrecy may have been justified.

 

Several of the theoretical physicists who contributed to the Manhattan Project (Einstein and Oppenheimer come to mind) had connections to Germany. If you're talking about Operation Paperclip, that had more to do with the physics involved with getting the bombs to the USSR (Wernher von Braun) than nuclear physics.

 

I used to read a lot about this but I haven't retained much besides the main details.