Travels by Tom: National Museum of Nuclear Science

The subheading here should be pornography. The museum was full of 20th century porno in the form of early crude Atomic bombs, more refined nuclear bombs, Hydrogen bombs, and every way imaginable to combine fissionable material and generate enormous amounts of energy according to Einstein's formula E=MCsquared. Completing the mix is various delivery systems and detonators. This stuff used to be classified but now you can get up close and personal with a 5 megaton thermonuclear bomb. Pose for pictures with it too as a group of Japanese tourists were doing!

Road Sign to the Porno Museum

As I entered the National Museum of Nuclear Science I was immediateley struck by the lobby mosaic on the floor. Only a geek could love this. A large periodic chart of the elements makes up the mosaic. Museum supporters have the chance to purchase their favorite element. Sorry, Plutonium and Uranium have already been taken.

Periodic Chart Floor Mosaic

The first bombs encountered on the museum tour are actually replicas. The Uranium Fission bomb (the green one) and the Plutonium bomb (yellow) which were dropped on Japan in World War II. The Fission bomb was actually inefficient. It took 135 pounds of Uranium to build and only 1% of the material fissioned creating a blast equivalent to 13 kilotons of TNT but it was enough to destroy Hiroshima. A few days later only 14 pounds of Plutonium were needed to create a 21 kiloton blast that destroyed Nagasaki.

Replicas of Nagasaki bomb (upper) and Hiroshima bomb (lower green)

Nuclear bombs were complex and difficult to maintain. The fissionable material was kept shielded and separate from the conventional explosive portion of a bomb. The bomb works by packing conventional explosives around a core of nuclear material. The conventional explosive explodes compressing the nuclear material and forcing it to begin the fission process where within milliseconds a runaway nuclear reaction occurs releasing megatons of energy. The nuclear material is kept separate from the rest of the bomb in a device called the birdcage. Pictured here is the M102 birdcage from some of these early weapons. The description says "the neutron absorbing material in the center tube prevented nuclear components that are stored close together from causing a nuclear reaction". I certainly hope so.

M102 "birdcage"

Development continued throughout the 1950's and 1960's to streamline bombs making them smaller and lighter so that more types of aircraft could use them. The MK 5 is one such nuclear weapon carried from 1952 to 1963. I'm not sure if 11 feet long and 43 inches in diameter meets my definition of smaller and lighter. Look at this thing:

MK 5 nuclear weapon carried by aircraft from 1952-1963

Now, for the "piece de resistance", the B28 thermonuclear weapon. The placard on the bomb says "the B28 was the most versatile thermonuclear weapon in the US arsenal". This little toy was very versatile because it included 5 different fusing options. You could decide if you want to incinerate 5 million people by having it go off dangling from a parachute over a medium sized city or if you just wanted to kill 1 million people in a smaller city by changing the fusing option. Who comes up with this stuff???


A "versatile" nuclear weapon, the B28, stockpiled from 1953-1991

The British also have an array of nuclear weapons, some of them such as this one, the WE177, could be carried by helicopters. The placard says "The We-177 has three versions: A,B, C. The A version was a boosted fission weapon while the "B" and "C" were thermonuclear weapons." Unbelievable! Here is the We-177 carried by the Royal Air Force:

WE177 Thermonuclear weapon carried by Royal Air Force

If perhaps you wanted to destroy multiple cities at the same time, you need a delivery system with 10 thermonuclear weapons tucked away safe and secure in the nosecone. The old fashioned way was to destroy one city per missile launch but with the Titan II ICBM there is a dispenser to deliver up to 10 one megaton thermonuclear devices. Just like dispensing soda from a vending machine!

Titan II ICBM thermonuclear dispenser. One launch, many bombs (black cones)

Titan II ICBM outside the Nuclear Science museum

Every once in a while something goes wrong and a nuclear weapon falls from a plane and gets banged up. In military terms these are called "Broken Arrows". If one of these falls in your backyard, remember to duck and cover.

"Broken Arrows" or damaged nuclear weapons

In an ever more creative way of delivering death and incineration, here's the B61 thermonuclear weapon yielding a few megatons. You can drop this while flying only 50 feet high. The bomb will land, lay on it's side for a time delay then destroy everything for miles around. This one joined the arsenal in 1968.


The B61 low altitude Atomic weapon

For a more modern thermonuclear weapon, how about the B83. this thing is carried by the B1 and B2 bombers. Wow, it even comes with a full FUFO fusing option (see placard below, I won't even begin to try explaining this insanity).

B83 nuclear gravity bomb carried by B1, B2 bombers

It's astounding to see the sheer number of ways that have been devised to use nuclear weapons. On display are nuclear bombs to use for engineering projects. Let's say you wanted to dig a new Panama canal but you wanted to accomplish the task perhaps this Friday instead of over many years. Enter the TADM or Tactical Atomic Demolition Munition. You definitely need one of these.

Tactical Atomic Demolition Munition

Out back of the museum, there is a collection of ICBMs, cruise missiles and this B52 bomber. This particular plane air dropped nuclear bombs onto Christmas Island in the South Pacific in 1962.

B52 nuclear bomber

The Nuclear Gift Shop

I can't leave the National Museum of Nuclear Science without a visit to the gift shop. This is a gift shop like no other. There's quite a collection of books for do it yourself Atomic Bomb makers or maybe you would like a mushroom cloud t-shirt commemorating the first Atomic Bomb test at Trinity, NM?