Nuclear Weapons

Glenn Elert

This page's content is no longer being maintained. Links may be broken, information may be outdated, and parts may not function correctly. 2025-02-15.

Resources

General
- The H-Bomb Secret: How we got it and why we're telling it. The Progressive. Vol. 43 No. 11 (1979).
- International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA works for the safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, contributing to international peace and security and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
- Nuclear Control Institute. The NCI is a non-profit watchdog and advocacy group that seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and stop world trade in plutonium and bomb-grade uranium.
- Nuclear Files. Project of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
- Nuclear Information and Resource Service. The NIRS is a national non-profit organization devoted to a nuclear-free, carbon-free world.
- Nuclear Weapons Archive. Carey Sublette.
- Virtual Nuclear Tourist. J.A. Gonyeau.
Historical
- Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man (paid link). John Coster-Mullen. Self-published (2002).
- Atomic Archive. A.J. Software & Multimedia.
- Atomkellermuseum. Haigerloch, Germany.
- Catalog of Known and Putative Nuclear Explosions from Unclassified Sources. James E. Lawson. Jr. Oklahoma Geological Survey (archived copy at the United States Air Force Air War College).
- National Atomic Museum. Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- Richard Rhodes. Author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb (paid link) and Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (paid link).
- Swords of Armageddon. Chuck Hansen (uscoldwar.com).
Leo Szilard
- General
  - Leo Szilard Online. Gene Dannen.
  - Einstein's Letters to Roosevelt. Two of which were written by Leo Szilard, including the most first and most famous one.
- Reactor patents
  - Improvements in or relating to the transmutation of chemical elements. Leo Szilard. GB Patent 440,023 (filed 1934, awarded 1935)
  - Improvements in or relating to the transmutation of chemical elements. Leo Szilard. GB Patent 630,726 (filed 1934, awarded 1936 but withheld from publication)
  - Neutronic Reactor. Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard. US Patent 2,708,656 (filed 1944, awarded 1955).
  - Air Cooled Neutronic Reactor. Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard. US Patent 2,836,554 (filed 1945, awarded 1958).
- Video on demand
  - Knowledge or Certainty (6/7). The Ascent of Man. BBC (1973). Jacob Bronowski tells the story of his friend Leo Szilard's work on the atomic bomb from its conception to its use in warfare.
  - Breaking the Chain. Stock Footage Pictures (2009). In 1939, after proving the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction, physicist Leo Szilard must convince his colleagues at Columbia University to keep their nuclear research secret and protect the world from a Nazi atomic bomb.
  - Retrobites: Atomic Bomb: Szilard (1960). Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (1960). Physicist Leo Szilard explains how he came up with the idea for the atomic bomb.
india-pakistan
- Pakistan Nuclear Weapons: A Brief History of Pakistan's Nuclear Program. Federation of American Scientists.
iran
- Iranian Science Teachers May Be Enriching Students. The Onion (2006).
north korea
- Monday, 09 October 2006 01:35:28 UTC
  - M 4.3 Nuclear Explosion - North Korea. US Geological Survey.
  - DPRK Successfully Conducts Underground Nuclear Test. Korean Central News Agency.
- 2009-05-25 00:54:43 (UTC)
  - M 4.7 Nuclear Explosion - North Korea. US Geological Survey.
  - KCNA Report on One More Successful Underground Nuclear Test. Korean Central News Agency.
- 2013-02-12 02:57:51 (UTC)
  - M 5.1 Nuclear Explosion - 24km ENE of Sungjibaegam, North Korea. US Geological Survey.
  - KCNA Report on Successful 3rd Underground Nuclear Test. Korean Central News Agency.
- 2016-01-06 01:30:01 (UTC)
  - M 5.1 Nuclear Explosion - 21km ENE of Sungjibaegam, North Korea. US Geological Survey.
- 2016-09-09 00:30:01 (UTC)
  - M 5.3 Nuclear Explosion - 23km ENE of Sungjibaegam, North Korea. US Geological Survey.
- 2017-09-03 03:30:01 (UTC)
  - M 6.3 Nuclear Explosion - 21km ENE of Sungjibaegam, North Korea. US Geological Survey.
  - M 4.1 Collapse - 21km ENE of Sungjibaegam, North Korea. US Geological Survey.
  - M 3.6 - 21km ENE of Sungjibaegam, North Korea. US Geological Survey.
United States
- Pantex Plant. The United States nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility.
vela incident (israel-south africa)
- The Vela Incident. Paul Drye. Passing Strangeness (2009).
- The Vela Incident. Alan Bellows. Damn Interesting (2007).
  - The Vela Incident: Nuclear Test or Meteoroid? National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 190 (2006). This web page comes with a great list of original, declassified source material.
- Nuclear Weapons Testing: Israel. globalsecurity.org (2005).
- Report on the 1979 Vela Incident. Carey Sublette. The Nuclear Weapon Archive (2001).
- Proliferation: A flash from the past. David Albright and Corey Gay. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Vol. 53 No. 6 (1997): 15–17.
- South Africa and the affordable bomb. David Albright. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Vol. 50 No. 4 (1994): 37–47.
Video on demand
- 1945-1998. Isao Hashimoto. An animated map depicting nuclear explosions conducted in various parts of the globe. Also available through YouTube.
- LLNL Atmospheric Nuclear Tests. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. YouTube playlist (2017–2018). The U.S. conducted 210 atmospheric nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962, with multiple cameras capturing each event at around 2,400 frames per second. These are the declassified films of tests conducted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
- Fallen Angel. Robbie Robertson. Euphoric Creations.
  - Teaser (2004)
  - Episode 1 (2008)
  - Episode 2 (2014)?
- Historical Nuclear Weapons Test Films. US Department of Energy.
- How Kodak Discovered Radioactive Rain. SciShow. YouTube (2018). The Trinity Test had some unexpected consequences, including the creation of radioactive rain found hundreds of miles away from the test site.
- Stay Safe, Stay Strong: The Facts About Nuclear Weapons (1960). Instructional film on nuclear weapons for U.S. Air Force personnel.
yield calculation
- Brady Haran
  - Atom Bombs and Dimensional Analysis. Sixty Symbols. YouTube (2009). How did a magazine photograph help a physicist crack one of the secrets of the atom bomb?
- Geoffrey Ingram Taylor. Proceedings of the Royal Society. Vol. 201 No. 1065. (1950): 159–186.
  - The formation of a blast wave by a very intense explosion. I. Theoretical discussion.
  - The formation of a blast wave by a very intense explosion. II. The atomic explosion of 1945.
- Restricted Data. Restricted Data is a blog about nuclear secrecy, past and present, run by Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
  - NUKEMAP
  - NUKEMAP_3D