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100 - The Bomb

The Nonsense Bazaar

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The History of the Atomic Bomb

In 1953, the Soviets proved that once you have nukes, it's actually pretty quick to make thermonuclear weapons. Many US generals thought that the only way to win a war against the Soviet Union was to hit them before they had a fully functional thermonuclear arsenal. In early 1954, the most infamous of its nuclear testing programs, Operation Castle, began on Bikini Atoll. On March 1, 1954, when castle bravo fired, those observing immediately knew something went unspeakably wrong. The predicted yield of castle bravo was 6 megatons, which, by the way, is still a fucking nightmare bomb.

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