Doug Kerr
Well-known member
70 years ago today the World's first nuclear explosion occurred at the Trinity site near the Jornada del Muerto in southern New Mexico, only about 70 miles from our current home in Alamogordo.
There are of course widely diverging opinions on this event and on the two events closely after that it presaged, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan (The bomb used at Nagasaki was essentially identical to the one tested in the Trinity event, with one subtle mechanical difference in the core.)
One aspect of the test that is of great concern here is the presumed exposure of many southern New Mexico citizens to the radioactive "fallout" of the test. The citizens that were, by virtue of their geographic locations, subject to this are spoken of as "downwinders". There is considerable evidence of an abnormal incidence of cancer among the downwinders and their descendents.
(I myself was in Cincinnati at the time.)
There is a movement that believes that the federal government should provide specialized medical treatment for people affected and perhaps pay them some compensation.
All that notwithstanding, the Manhattan Project led to an early end to the war with Japan, averting the prospect that the USSR (our "other enemy" in World War II) would invade Japan and end up occupying it.
Of course as an engineer I greatly respect the extraordinary work of the Manhattan Project. As a human being, I am greatly saddened by the need to kill Japanese citizens (not only done with nuclear weapons, of course). War is awful, in all its aspects.
From time to time we work on "outlawing" various specific kinds of weapons, and we try certain people for "war crimes", two really silly notions. Of course, war is a crime. All of it. The notion that some types of weapons are "OK" is absurd.
I will augment this note with some relevant photos shortly (just now I have to take my morning medication so I will be ready for breakfast).
Bet regards,
Doug
There are of course widely diverging opinions on this event and on the two events closely after that it presaged, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan (The bomb used at Nagasaki was essentially identical to the one tested in the Trinity event, with one subtle mechanical difference in the core.)
One aspect of the test that is of great concern here is the presumed exposure of many southern New Mexico citizens to the radioactive "fallout" of the test. The citizens that were, by virtue of their geographic locations, subject to this are spoken of as "downwinders". There is considerable evidence of an abnormal incidence of cancer among the downwinders and their descendents.
(I myself was in Cincinnati at the time.)
There is a movement that believes that the federal government should provide specialized medical treatment for people affected and perhaps pay them some compensation.
All that notwithstanding, the Manhattan Project led to an early end to the war with Japan, averting the prospect that the USSR (our "other enemy" in World War II) would invade Japan and end up occupying it.
Of course as an engineer I greatly respect the extraordinary work of the Manhattan Project. As a human being, I am greatly saddened by the need to kill Japanese citizens (not only done with nuclear weapons, of course). War is awful, in all its aspects.
From time to time we work on "outlawing" various specific kinds of weapons, and we try certain people for "war crimes", two really silly notions. Of course, war is a crime. All of it. The notion that some types of weapons are "OK" is absurd.
I will augment this note with some relevant photos shortly (just now I have to take my morning medication so I will be ready for breakfast).
Bet regards,
Doug
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