What the hell is a "safe nuclear weapon"?

[Dr.Phool]

Is it one that doesn't work?

I just heard on NPR News that the US was upgrading it's arsenal to make it "safer and more reliable".

[arcane1]

1. requiring Bush to pass a 3rd-grade math test before he can fire?

:shrug:

[MrCoffee]

2. Our nukes are unreliable????

I'm sleeping under the bed tonight.

[MuseRider]

5. Duck and Cover?

Sorry, won't work. ;)

[everythingsxen]

3. It's just an overhaul of the computers and..

guidance systems. You gotta remember how old a lot of our arsenal is.

Safer I assume means adding an extra step in the arming procedure. More reliable is no doubt affecting the propulasion system/updating buggy code in the on board coputers.

[Pavulon]

4. w87, w88

are supposed to have more advanced safety features.

[Solon]

6. I take it to mean safe to store, rather than safer to use...

Bombs, any bomb, is volatile to store for long periods. A classic example is dynamite, which, in the old days, was a clay core that was infused with Nitroglycerin wrapped in paper, with a wick sticking out. If stored for too long, the Nitroglycerin would leak out through the paper, and could concentrate anywhere, without the base of clay, it could explode at any time. Many other explosives operate on similar principles, the first Atom bombs used TNT to initiate the Fission process, the first Hydrogen bombs used old atom bombs to initiate a fusion reaction. Not to mention the decaying of Plutonium and Uranium, which can also lead to either catastrophes or duds.

This is actually a good idea, a better idea is to simply dismantle the bombs, and bury any volatile or radioactive components in a seismic ly dead area of the country that is unpopulated.

[loves_dulcinea]

9. weren't hydrogen bombs

discontinued under the salt treaties of the late seventies? or do i misremember?

[Solon]

12. I don't know, the Nuclear Antiproliferation treaty...

forced the dismantling of some Hydrogen and Atom bombs by both the US and Russia, but I never heard of Hydrogen bombs being outright banned, only the testing of said bombs on the surface.

[Solon]

17. Also, to give an example of how violatile bombs can be...

I knew a guy who bombed out stumps in the ground. Anyways, I consider him a little crazy, but he pulled out a stick of dynamite, very carefully, that he had in a shed for a while. It was shiny from "sweat", he took his finger, and wiped some of the "sweat" off, then he flicked his hand, and where the bead of "sweat" hit, a small bang and a puff of smoke and dust was kicked up from the ground. That's Nitroglycerin.

[WestSeattle2]

7. A safe nuclear weapon is one that detonates

6,500 miles from you.

[ThomWV]

8. Basically improved electrical circuitry

More protection from the effects of radiation on materials than anything else. As better radiation hardned materials become available outdated parts in weapons are replaced or other things are done.

For those who don't know it weapons are cared for on an individual basis and are given great care as to their maintainence.

[eviltwin2525]

11. the scenes from Planet of the Apes:

"Behold, I am Alpha and Omega." Anybody remember the lines?

[dogman]

10. To bushco it means it will only kill living things.

Fossil fuels will be spared.

[sweetheart]

13. The safest form of weapon is a plowshare

Sell the weapon and buy a person a spot of land and gift the plant-citizen a pot.

People are connected to the earth, and if they are denied a natural connect, it
subverts inside them in to a yearning for a peaceful communion with the planet,
one where a homan can honestly bow to mother earth and say they're causing her
no net-destruction by their presence.... but instead, we all rot her skin and
pus oozes out of her sicly eyes whilst we viruses feed on her tears.

Give a man a plowshare and make a nuke a peace.
Give a woman some land omen of time deceased.

[AX10]

14. What the HELL is a "safe weapon"? I had this conversation...

with many last year regarding taser guns. Assholes are spewing this kind of crap everywhere. Weapons are NOT designed to be safe.

[Renew Deal]

15. One that blows up in another country, preferably to the east.

:shrug: :nuke:

[Breeze54]

16. One that cheney, b* & Co. can't get their grimy hands on! n/t

;)

[CatholicEdHead]

18. One that blows up over there

not over here in a accident.

[Phrogman]

19. Read the "Jesus Factor....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812881044/002-7309412-2865644?v=glance&n=283155