Safe Distance

I posted a question to a friend of mine about What is a safe distance from a Nuclear Explosion in or out of a Silo? (Excluding Fallout) Here is the answer.

Offered by Jon.

I have a copy of Glasstone's book but it didn't have the whizwheel with it. I have several other books on nuclear weapons testing and one of them goes into great detail about several of the tests. In answer to your questions the best distance to be from a nuclear explosion, whether it be above or underground would be 30 or more miles. At work the guy's I work with sometimes ask the same question, what’s the safest distance to be from a nuclear explosion and I usually answer with, the next upwind state.

• The Storax Sedan test which was done on July 6 1962 at the Nevada Test Range was detonated at a depth of 635 feet below the surface and it produced a crater that was 1280 feet in diameter and 320 feet deep. This test was only 104kt in yeild which these days is very small.
• The Ivy Mike test which took place on October 31 1952 at Enewetak was 10.4 MT and produced a crater that was 6240 feet in diameter and a 164 feet deep, pretty much eliminating the island the device was on.
• The big one (Castle Bravo) was presumed to have a yeild between 4-8 MT but when detonated was 15 MT. It produced a crater 6000+ feet in dianeter and 240 feet deep and the ground shock moved the control blockhouse several feet.
• The blockhouse was on Enyu island and the device on the western side on Nam island. The mushroom cloud diameter went out to 70 miles and rose to 47,000 feet.

I never had the chance to work on missiles while I was in the Air Force but my dad did and I learned a lot from him. My dad was a missile mechanic with the 69th Pilotless Bomber Squadron (later changed to Tactical Missile Squadron) at Hahn AB in Germany and after that was the mechanic on a Titan-1 launch crew with the 451st SMW at Lowry AFB (1960-1965). When the Titan-1 phased out he went to Grand Forks AFB and worked on the Minuteman II. I've been in several minuteman training silos and also have a photo with a missile in one. The Minuteman I and II had a single warhead that ranged from 1 to 1.5 MT and the Minuteman III had 3 MIRV's that ranged from 335-350kt and weighed 800lbs.

I have a lot here on missiles and nuclear weapons and have been to the following types of missile sites: Titan-1 and II Minuteman I, II, II Peacekeeper (MX), Atlas-D, E, F Matador, Mace, Bomarc, Thor, Nike Ajax and Hercules, the ABM complex in North Dakota (Sprint, Spartin), Vandenberg AFB and Cape Canaveral. If I can help with anything else please let me know.

Fred