The Cold War is a name given to the years following World War II up until the collapse of the Soviet Union. During that time, the United States and the Soviet Union had a tense standoff.

The two sides began an arms race, making as much advanced technology as possible to beat the other. When the threat of potential nuclear attack from the Soviet Union became a possibility, the Office of Civil Defense created a number of films aimed at educating the American people about the dangers of nuclear fallout.

Despite the fact that the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the aftereffects of the devastating damage caused by radiation were still a new phenomenon that needed to be studied. Many of these films are labeled as fearmongering, misleading propaganda, while others will argue that the government was simply trying to do the best they could with the information they had at the time.

10 Duck And Cover

This 1950s federally funded film was meant to be shown in elementary schools to educate children on how to protect themselves during an atomic bomb attack. It compares atomic bomb blasts to common disasters like house fires and radiation flashes to a bad sunburn.

The entire point of the movie is to encourage people to “duck and cover” if there is ever an atomic bomb explosion. It explains that if there is a warning that the bomb is coming, people should go to their homes and hide inside hallways, duck and cover against a wall, and keep away from doors or windows.

Obviously, with everything the public knows about atomic bombs today, ducking and covering is not enough to protect yourself from a radioactive blast. This film is a perfect example of how little people knew about the dangers of atomic power in the early 1950s.

For years, Duck and Cover was considered to be an example of the misguidance given to citizens from the government. However, in 2010, the United States government advised citizens yet again that if there was any attack from an enemy force, they should stay indoors

Critics of this advice have compared it to the uselessness of Duck and Cover. However, in modern times, aside from TV series like Doomsday Preppers, average US citizens are not preparing for nuclear fallout.

9 Fallout Shelter Life

This film shows what people can expect if they need to live in a community fallout shelter. During the Cold War, the Office of Civil Defense offered free supplies to buildings that were willing to provide their basements as community shelters. It is clear that this movie pushes the audience to want to build their own fallout shelters at home, which could be outfitted for months of survival rather than only two weeks.

The food that the government provided was part of their “emergency mass feeding” plan for these community shelters. They contained rations adding up to only 700 calories per day.

The daily meals were actually just biscuits and crackers that were infused with nutrients. There were also candies that were meant to be carbohydrate supplements. The red dye used in the candy is actually banned today because it was discovered to cause cancer.

The second half of this film gives terrible advice about what to do after canned goods are gone. They say that eating the rotting vegetables and moldy bread is okay as long as the rotting bits are cut out. In reality, poisonous mold spores contaminate the entire area surrounding it. The US Department of Agriculture now advises against eating any type of moldy food.

The film also tells people that eating livestock should be fine, too. In reality, we can see the aftereffects of livestock in Fukushima, Japan, after being exposed to radiation from the nuclear factory explosion in 2011.

By the end of this film, the group hears a radio announcement that they can safely leave their shelters two weeks later. This is also totally unrealistic as we learned from Fukushima, which still has harmfully high levels of radiation even years later.

8 Survival Under Atomic Attack

This movie was made by the Office of Civil Defense and featured the information in their 1950 booklet called Survival Under Atomic Attack. The goal of both the booklet and this film is to tell the American people, “You can survive atomic attack!”

The film downplays the seriousness of the effects that radiation had on the population of Hiroshima, Japan, after the nuclear bomb hit. Showing documentary clips of the recovery in Japan, the film explains that shadows forever cast on the pavement on the Yorozuya Bridge from the blast are proof that you can survive if you hide behind a cement object. In reality, it means the exact opposite because the shadows are permanently cast as a form of thermal radiance.

This movie discourages people from evacuating their cities and tells them to continue with their daily lives, especially continuing production in factories. It is clear that the government wanted people to keep working. Without factory workers, weapons would stop being produced and it would be unlikely that the US could bounce back from an attack.

The tips given in this film are general fire, safety, and emergency preparedness tips that apply to tornadoes and hurricanes, like keeping flashlights on hand and making sure your garbage can has a lid on it. The advice was ultimately useless for an atomic attack. It would only serve the government to keep citizens feeling safe so that society continues to function.

7 Town Of The Times

This film talks about the statistics of the average American town only having five finished fallout shelters built in the basements of private homes. Local politicians are hesitant to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars to build massive fallout shelters underneath public buildings like schools.

This movie goes through a scenario of what towns can do to create fallout shelters with their available public spaces and how life can continue in the event of an attack.

The government strongly preferred that individual families build their own fallout shelters rather than rely on state and local governments to spend taxpayer dollars on larger ones for the community. The government even offered lifetime guaranteed tax credits if families built fallout shelters in their basements that met the standards set by the government.

The last remaining up-to-code fallout shelter in New York City belongs to Francisco Lago, who now uses it as a storage area in the basement. Another woman named Edith Fetterman commented to The New York Times on her reasons for building a fallout shelter in Queens, New York, in the 1950s.

She is a Polish immigrant who survived the Holocaust as a young girl, but her parents and sister were killed. She grew up, got married, and had two kids. After knowing such evils existed from her childhood, the threat of nuclear war only made sense. Many Americans felt there was nothing to worry about, but building a personal fallout shelter was the logical thing to do for Edith.

6 Walt Builds A Family Fallout Shelter

This film was sponsored by the National Concrete Masonry Association, teaching a do-it-yourself method of building a fallout shelter in your basement. People are encouraged to build the shelter with the idea that it could double as a guest bedroom, a photography darkroom, or a playroom for children if a nuclear attack didn’t happen.

In 1959, the government circulated a booklet called The Family Fallout Shelter which gives blueprints on DIY shelters, ranging from very simple ones that would only cost $150 all the way to the more elaborate ones costing several thousand dollars.

By the end of this instructional film, Walt explains that it just makes sense to have a shelter in your basement in the age of nuclear threat. Author Melvin E. Matthews Jr. explains that while the fear of possible attacks was not irrational, much of this propaganda was funded by companies who would benefit from the sales of construction goods and the hiring of contractors to make these simple shelters, which they described as “just a swimming pool, only upside down.”

5 To Live Tomorrow

This film gives the appearance of a helpful public service announcement, although it is actually clever marketing to exploit society’s fears. At the beginning and end of this film, we see that it was sponsored by the Life Insurance Institute.

The plot of this short movie shows a man working as an insurance executive as he tries to come up with a way to let customers know how to be prepared for a nuclear attack. He keeps going to the conclusion that the key to survival is leadership. In panicked situations, people tend not to think clearly unless they are trained on what to do. The movie suggests that the viewer prepare to take action and become a leader.

One example they show is a grease fire in the kitchen of a family home. The children are frozen with fear until the mother instructs them to run and get the fireproof blanket from the other room. Meanwhile, she throws baking soda on the flames. As the leader, she delegates tasks to the children and they are able to put out the fire together.

Without explicitly saying it, this movie seems to be hinting at fathers that they have a responsibility to be prepared for absolutely anything as leaders of their households. One of those things would be the possibility of death during a nuclear attack, and they should probably think about purchasing life insurance.

4 Ten For Survival

In 1959, the Office of Civil Defense realized that jumping under tables and a two-week supply of crackers and candy wasn’t enough to protect the American people from atomic bombs. The government realized that they had made a huge mistake in all the films they were using to educate the public.

The TV series called Ten for Survival was an attempt to make up for the mistakes of the past and give correct information to the public. These episodes aired once a week for 13 weeks straight.

They also advertised an accompanying Family Fallout Shelter booklet. Multiple TV stations requested that they show Ten for Survival on their channels as well to make sure that all Americans had a chance to see it.

In an eerie interview in this episode, two ordinary citizens from Staten Island, New York, predicted that any attack on the United States would happen in New York City. In a survey by NBC, the vast majority of Americans agreed. They also agreed that it would be a surprise attack. Although it took many years, that prediction came true on September 11, 2001.

3 The Day Called X

This film demonstrates a scenario of what would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped on Portland, Oregon. During the Cold War, Portland was designated as one of the potential target cities. In 1955, there was an evacuation drill of the entire city. So this was a documentary that included a narrator and some dramatized scenes. This aired on CBS, which means that most people in America would have seen it.

During the drill, the entire city had to evacuate. The community shelter for normal citizens could only hold 300 people and only had enough supplies to survive for a week. So they were encouraged to evacuate instead.

Meanwhile, the members of local government moved to a bomb shelter 10 kilometers (6 mi) away from Portland, tucked away in the mountains with their families. “Government must survive if its people are to survive,” they said.

Author Brian Johnson analyzes The Day Called X and mentions that the people are calm in this film because it is only a drill. Normal citizens really had no idea how much nuclear warheads had advanced since World War II.

He also says that the film talking about the importance of people carrying out their civic duties during an attack is laughably unrealistic and clearly just pro-government propaganda. The truth is that, even if they were given notice, the people of Portland were doomed.

The only thing this film accomplishes is to potentially keep society running long enough for the members of government to get to their bomb shelter. This was the only place that was actually equipped for people to survive.

2 Three Reactions To Life In A Fallout Shelter

Sponsored by the Department of Civil Defense, this film goes over the variety of psychological reactions people may have while living in the confinement of a fallout shelter. Actors play out several scenarios, ranging from anger and fighting among the men to hysterical denial from a woman to depression in a man who believes his family was killed by the blast.

By the end of the film, the only advice from the government is to be organized and keep busy in fallout shelters. It leaves an open-ended question for the audience, “What would YOU do to prevent issues like this?” If the film accomplished anything, it was to encourage people not to act like the troubled people in this movie and to become mentally prepared before a nuclear attack occurred.

The Department of Civil Defense left out some of the gorier details of their research. Documents of these studies were only recently declassified so that the public can read them.

The conclusion of the government study was that community shelters would likely be overcrowded in the event of a nuclear attack. The air would become toxic with atmospheric contaminants and disease. The psychological turmoil alone would be enough to cause civil unrest among the survivors. Essentially, the situation would devolve into chaos.

1 Atomic Attack

Sponsored by Motorola in 1954, this full-length movie is about a suburban housewife who learns that there was a hydrogen bomb dropped on New York City. She was living in nearby Westchester County, which is 80 kilometers (50 mi) from the city.

The housewife ends up hosting refugees, including her daughter’s high school science teacher. The teacher had quit his job working on atomic bombs because he is a pacifist.

The housewife and the teacher debate the issue, and the movie concludes that America will only respond to an attack by returning the attack on the enemy’s major cities as well. In this way, the movie serves as propaganda in favor of continuing the arms race against the Soviet Union.

This movie is credited as the original inspiration of much apocalyptic fiction that was created in the years following the 1950s. At first, this movie was spread to give people information on nuclear attacks in an entertaining way.

However, just three years after its release, the film was removed from circulation by the Federal Civil Defense Administration when they realized that it was teaching incorrect information. In the film, they claim that nuclear fallout debris was only spread through rainwater, and the characters are walking outside within days of the blast. In reality, radiation can travel through the air, and it lasts for far longer.

Shannon Quinn is a writer and entrepreneur from the Philadelphia area. You can also find her on Twitter.

In all of human history, the most devastating weapon has been the nuclear bomb. With just one piece of ordnance, a military can (and has) wiped out entire cities. Still, the engineers who make weapons weren’t done with those early models.

In the years since the bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, scientists and engineers have continued to improve their designs. The results are both fascinating and horrifying. These 10 nukes were designed, created, or both by various militaries, and with any luck, they’ll never see the light of day.

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10 W54
Man-Portable Rocket-Launched Nuclear Weapon

When nuclear weapons were invented, they were large, bulky objects with relatively low yields. Over time, the size of these weapon systems got much smaller while the nuclear yields grew larger. As far as we know, the smallest nuke developed and deployed by any military is the W54.

The United States developed the bomb in the 1950s as a tactical, low-yield nuclear weapon capable of delivering a 10-ton to 1-kiloton blast. It was created for use in the M-28 and M-29 Davy Crockett short-range rockets and had a range of 2–4 kilometers (1–2.5 mi).

The W54 was adapted into a man-portable Special Atomic Demolition Munition. Specifically, it was to be used if the Soviet Union invaded Europe. It was designed to be carried and fired short distances as an artillery munition.^[1]

W54s were enhanced to become nuclear-tipped, air-to-air missiles. The W72 model was a rebuilt W54 used with the AGM-62 Walleye-guided bomb, which was capable of delivering a 600-ton nuclear yield. However, no models are believed to have been completed.

The W54 was extensively tested before the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. Between 1957 and 1979, the US produced around 400 W54 bombs.

9 Mark-18
Ivy King

Some people feel that nuclear bombs should be precise, low-yield weapons, while others favor more of a “go big or go home” attitude. The Mark-18 Ivy King satisfies the latter as it was the largest pure-fission nuclear bomb tested by the US.

In direct response to the Soviet Union’s development of high-yield nukes in the 1950s, the Truman administration launched Operation Ivy, which resulted in the aptly named Ivy King. On November 16, 1952, the bomb was tested, and it achieved a yield of a 500-kiloton blast.^[2]

The massive bomb weighed 3,900 kilograms (8,600 lb). It used a 92-point implosion system and contained an enormous amount of highly enriched uranium (equivalent to four critical masses). This put the bomb on the edge of criticality safety, so aluminum and boron chains filled the central chamber to prohibit accidental collapse.

The chains absorbed neutrons, which were needed to achieve the desired reaction. To arm the bomb, the chain was removed. Overall, the US produced 90 Mark 18 bombs from March 1953 to 1956.

8 W82
Nuclear Artillery Shell

There are two types of deployments concerning the use of nuclear weapons: tactical and strategic. The bombs dropped in Japan were strategic. Their purpose wasn’t to destroy two Japanese cities. Rather, it was a display of force meant to compel a Japanese surrender.

Tactical nuclear weapons were meant to be used in specific combat operations alongside conventional weapons. The best example is the W82, a low-yield tactical nuclear warhead designed to be used in a 155 mm artillery weapon system.

The W82 was a dual-purpose weapon with a blast yield that reached two kilotons. It came with interchangeable components that would enable the shell to function as either an “enhanced radiation” or a “standard” fission device.

Like many nuclear weapons developed by the United States, the W82 was meant to provide a “cohesive forward defense” of NATO territory if the Soviet Union invaded. The ordnance could be fired to a range of 30 kilometers (18.6 mi) via an additional rocket assist.^[3]

The United States planned to produce 2,500 rounds of W82 ordnance. But the government only developed around 1,000 before the program was canceled in 1991 after the Cold War ended.

7 W44
Nuclear Depth Charge

Submarines have proven to be one of the most effective naval vessels in combat as they represent a clear and present danger to surface vessels during warfare. To counter this, navies across the world have developed torpedoes and depth charges designed to find and destroy submarines.

As the United States had to put a nuke on every type of ordnance during the Cold War, one was developed for use in the RUR-5 ASROC (Anti-Submarine ROCket) in 1961. The system fired a Mark 44/46 torpedo fitted with a W44 nuclear warhead.

These torpedoes were only launched by surface ships, and they carried a great deal of explosive energy. The W44 achieved a yield of 10 kilotons, making it particularly deadly if it was fired and detonated anywhere near a submarine.^[4]

The ASROC would fire on a sub’s position with a rocket carrying an acoustic homing torpedo to deploy the system. After entering the water, the depth charge detached from the torpedo and sank quickly to a predetermined depth. There, it detonated.

Placed into service in 1961, the W44 was only tested one or two times, although 575 were produced. The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 put an end to underwater nuclear testing.

6 B61 Mod 11/12
Nuclear Bunker Buster

For the most part, keeping yourself safe from a nuclear weapon requires staying deep underground. This protects you from the blast and ensuing radiation, but that presents a problem for the people trying to take out the target. To mitigate bunkers, the United States developed the Mod 11 for the B61 thermonuclear gravity bomb.

The device works by combining ground shock with earth penetration of around 3 meters (10 ft). This combination works to force the bulk of the explosive energy further into the Earth, resulting in the target’s destruction.^[5]

Bunker buster bombs carrying the B61 Mod 11 can carry one of three nuclear yields: 0.3, 340, or 400 kilotons. Beginning in 2019, the US started developing the GPS-guided Mod 12, which will produce yields of 0.3, 1.5, 10, or 50 kilotons. It is believed that the weapon was designed to penetrate up to 304 meters (1,000 ft) of solid granite to counter the continuity of government facility at Kosvinsky Kamen in Russia.

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5 MK-54 Special Atomic Demolition Munition

While the W54 was designed to be launched via rocket, the MK-54 Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) was meant to be carried by personnel into combat. The SADM was intended to be used to counter a Soviet invasion of Europe.

The device was relatively lightweight at 23 kilograms (51 lb) and able to fit inside a duffel bag. The warhead carried a yield of between 10 tons and one kiloton. It was equipped with a time delay, so troops could place the weapon and escape the target location before detonation.

Three hundred MK-54s were developed, and airborne troops were trained in their use. Ideally, paratroopers would jump from an aircraft over enemy or occupied territory. They would head to a predetermined target, which would be a power plant, bridge, or another resource. Then they would remove it from the battlefield.

The bomb is enveloped in controversy . . . more than other nuclear weapon. This is due to allegations that any mission carried out by a paratrooper was a suicide mission. It wasn’t practical to outrun the timer or the blast radius. According to Mark Bentley, a soldier trained in the deployment of atomic bombs, “We all knew it was a one-way mission, a suicide mission.”^[6]

4 RA-115
Suitcase Nuke

The United States’ development of the MK-54 wasn’t something that the Soviet Union was willing to let slide, so the USSR created its own so-called “suitcase nuke.” The RA-115 weighed 22–27 kilograms (50–60 lb). They were designed to be placed for long periods at a target location for eventual detonation.

The bombs were connected to a small power source with a battery backup, which would signal a potential loss of power to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate office. Numerous RA-115s were placed at strategic locations around the world.

Much of what is known about the RA-115 weapon system has been provided to the West by Stanislav Lunev, the GRU’s highest-ranking defector. According to him and the former Russian National Security Adviser Aleksandr Lebed, the USSR created 250 of these weapon systems and more than 100 are missing.^[7]

That’s a frightening proposition as the weapons were designed to be placed inside the United States to eliminate targets and politicians if the Cold War turned hot. The Russian Security Council has investigated these claims and suggested that they are misleading. But with so much secrecy, there’s no way to know for certain.

3 Blue Peacock
Nuclear Land Mine

The United Kingdom developed a nuclear land mine to support a NATO defense if the Soviet Union crossed north Germany in a European invasion. The project was known as Brown Bunny before the name was switched to Blue Bunny and finally became Blue Peacock.

The mines were designed to produce a yield of 10 kilotons. They would either be detonated via an eight-day timer or by wire manually. According to a policy paper, the thinking was that “a skillfully sited atomic mine would not only destroy facilities and installations over a large area but would deny occupation of the area to an enemy for an appreciable time due to contamination.”^[8]

The Blue Peacock program went through development but was never deployed. There was too much risk of fallout and the contamination of territory that NATO nations wanted back.

Interestingly, the system had a problem in keeping the electronics from freezing. One suggestion was to seal live chickens with food and water inside the casing. The chickens’ body heat would theoretically keep the weapon system from freezing.

The proposal was so outlandish that many thought it was an April Fools’ joke when the project was declassified in 2004. It wasn’t.

2 9M730 Burevestnik
Nuclear-Powered, Nuclear-Armed Cruise Missile

Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled six new Russian strategic weapons in March 2018, with the 9M730 Burevestnik being the most extraordinary. It’s a nuclear-tipped cruise missile that’s also nuclear-powered.

The intercontinental cruise missile was in development shortly after the United States deployed the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system, which was intended to counter nuclear ICBMs. The 9M730 Burevestnik was designed to counter the THAAD.

According to Russian claims about the weapon, it has an unlimited range and “is invincible to all the existing and advanced air and missile defense systems.” Theoretically, the THAAD can’t stop them.

As the weapon is relatively new, no declassified or confirmed information exists about its potential yield. It is believed that the development of the system caused the Nyonoksa radiation accident in August 2019. This resulted in the deaths of five weapons scientists following a test of an “isotope power source for a liquid-fueled rocket engine.”^[9]

Aleksei Karpov, the Russian envoy to international organizations in Vienna, stated that the accident was related to “one of the tit-for-tat measures in the wake of the United States’ withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.”

1 RDS-220
Tsar Bomba

The RDS-220 Tsar Bomba is probably the best-known nuclear weapon. Tested in October 1961, it was the largest man-made explosive ever detonated.

The device was developed as more of a proof of concept than a usable weapon system. It was 8 meters (26 ft) long and weighed a massive 27,000 kilograms (60,000 lb). Only one was ever built and tested.

There are various claims about the atomic yield, which might have reached 100 megatons if a uranium-238 fusion tamper had been included. Instead, the RDS-220 Tsar Bomba is estimated to have achieved a yield of 50 megatons, as measured by Soviet scientists at the time. That was more than 3,300 times the size of the Hiroshima blast.^[10]

The aircraft used to deploy it was stripped down to support the massive ordnance. The craft’s outer hull was covered in a special white reflective paint, and the crew was given only a 50 percent chance of survival. Despite this, they dropped the bomb, which unleashed a mushroom cloud that reached 67 kilometers (42 mi) high.

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About The Author: Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, and writer. He is a Retired Soldier and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects.

Since 1945, there has not been one military use of a nuclear weapon. For the most part, the concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD) kept the nuclear powers in check. However, that doesn’t mean that the world has been safe during this time. To the contrary, the age of the atom bomb has arguably been the most dangerous period in human history. The number of near misses since its invention is disquieting to put it mildly. The worst part is that many of these incidents were caused by minor mistakes or basic miscommunications, and any one of these examples could make the case for nuclear disarmament.

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10 Two Nukes Were Accidentally Dropped On North Carolina

North Carolina narrowly avoided disaster on January 24th, 1961. A B-52 bomber carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs was flying over the state when it experienced a massive fuel leak in its right wing. This worsened to the point that the wing broke off and sent the aircraft plummeting to the ground. Only five of the eight-man crew were able to parachute to safety.

During this freefall, the two bombs were released. The arming sequence of one of the bombs was activated as it fell and was ready to detonate upon impact. The only reason it didn’t was because of a single low-voltage safety switch. Due to the mid-air accident, the other three remaining safety mechanisms had failed.

Eventually the bombs were recovered by the authorities. The device that was armed had its parachute deployed and subsequently got tangled in trees, preventing it from becoming buried in the soil. The other inactivated bomb slammed into the ground at roughly 700mph, imbedding itself deep into the earth. If one of these nuclear weapons had exploded, anything within an eight and a half mile radius would have been destroyed.^[1]

9 One Vote Prevented A War

The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most nerve-wracking standoffs of the Cold War. America had responded with a naval blockade to the Soviet Union placing nuclear missiles in Cuba, and war seemed inevitable.

On October 27th 1962, when tensions were at their highest, US warships released depth charges in order to get a Soviet submarine to surface. The submarine was too deep to communicate with anyone above and believed that all-out war had begun. Two commanders ordered that a tactical nuclear torpedo be fired at the enemy fleet, which would have actually started a nuclear war. However, unanimous approval from all senior officers on board was needed and the remaining commander, Vasili Arkhipov, refused to authorise the launch.

Following this confrontation, the senior officers decided to surface. They were greeted by an American vessel and after negotiations, were allowed to leave. It was only 50 years later that it was revealed just how close the crisis came to Armageddon.^[2]

8 Radioactive Dust Over Spain

In the skies over Spain on January 17th 1966, a B-52 bomber was undertaking a regular mid-air refuel during its aerial patrol.

Unfortunately, the bomber came in too fast and hit the refuelling plane. Both aircrafts were covered in fuel and an explosion occurred. Three of the bomber crew and all four of the refuelling crew died.

The two planes broke apart and debris was scattered across the Spanish coastline-including four Mark 28 hydrogen bombs. One of the devices landed in the sea with its parachute deployed. The three other bombs crash landed near the small town of Palomares. While there were no nuclear detonations, the standard explosives in two of the weapons went off, spreading plutonium particles across approximately 650 acres.

The US military had to remove 1,400 tons of topsoil that had been contaminated with radioactive dust and spent three months searching for the bomb that fell into the ocean.
The authorities tried to keep the media focused on the search for the missing bomb rather than the radiation that had spread across the countryside. In an attempt to reassure the public, U.S. Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke, invited the press to watch him go for a swim beside a Palomares beach.^[3]

7 The Training Tape Incident

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser of the Carter Administration and father of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski, received a frantic phone call on the night of November 9th, 1979. He was told that the Soviet Union had launched 250 nuclear missiles at America. This warning was followed by another call informing him there was in fact 2,200 ICBMs on their way, more than enough to wipe out the Unites States and the world several times over.

Brzezinski was meant to contact President Carter and authorise a counterattack, but he held off as he wanted complete verification that they were really at war. Fortunately, a third call came through to tell Brzezinski that no other detection systems had picked up any incoming threats. It was a false alarm.

Later it was discovered that a training simulation had been accidentally uploaded into the NORAD computer system, causing military staff to believe the USSR was actually launching a full-scale nuclear attack. After this near miss became public, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev contacted President Carter and drily stated “I think you will agree with me that there should be no errors in such matters.”^[4]

6 Socket Nearly Caused A Nuclear Explosion in Arkansas

Even the most minor accidents can create the right conditions for catastrophe. This is what happened at a nuclear base in Damascus, Arkansas in September 1980.

Missile technician Dave Powell was doing routine maintenance on a nuclear missile when he accidentally dropped the socket from the socket-wrench he was using. It fell 20 metres and punctured the side of the weapon causing pressurised rocket fuel to seep out. This build up of highly flammable gas led to an explosion that physically ejected the warhead out of the silo and into a nearby field.

While total disaster was narrowly avoided, one man unfortunately died in the blast. Alongside the initial mistake that caused the leak, it was reported afterwards that senior staff made poor decisions that led to the situation getting worse.

Moreover, journalist Eric Schlosser, who wrote a book detailing this incident, said that the problem went further than individual human error. Rather, the larger system was at fault and the reckless culture of the Air Force had created an environment where accidents were likelier to happen.^[5]

10 Insane Nuclear Versions Of Normal Things

5 One Man Saved The World in 1983

Most people have likely never heard of Stanislav Petrov but this man prevented a full scale nuclear war.

On September 26th 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov was alerted by an early warning system that five nuclear missiles had been launched at the Soviet Union by the United States. Petrov’s next required course of action was to immediately raise the alarm to his superiors who would have almost certainly ordered for Soviet ICBMs to be launched in retaliation.

Moreover, at that time relations between the two superpowers were strained so it was not unreasonable for Petrov to assume that the USSR really was being fired upon. However, the fact that the system was only registering a small number of warheads made him hesitant. He reasoned that if America was really attacking, they would fire all of their missiles, not just five.

Based on this uncertainty, Petrov decided not to report the warning alarm, believing it to be an error in the detection system. Thankfully, his judgement was proven right, the system had indeed made a mistake. The gut instincts of one man saved billions of lives.^[6]

4 An Underwater Explosion

In 1986, the USSR was still dealing figuratively and literally with the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster. That same year there was another nuclear incident, this time with a Soviet submarine in Bermuda.

On October 3rd, a missile tube exploded in a K-219 vessel after one of the rockets had a fuel leak. This caused a missile with warheads attached to be pushed into the ocean. The crew was able to put out the fire and shut down the reactor, but the submarine was badly damaged. A Soviet commercial freighter was deployed to tow it back to base, but this salvage mission failed, and the order was given to abandon ship. The vessel sank to the ocean floor, roughly 18 thousand feet, with 16 nuclear armed missiles onboard.

Five crewmen died in the accident and the Soviet leadership opened an investigation, going as far as to accuse the crew members of sabotage. Nothing came of these suspicions and the case was dropped the following year.

Additionally, the Soviets were much more open about this incident and willing to accept help from the Americans as they had learned hard lessons from the mistakes of Chernobyl.^[7]

3 The Cold War Ending Didn’t Stop Misunderstandings

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the world breathed a sigh of relief as the threat of nuclear conflict seemed to disappear. However, this sense of security was badly rattled in January 1995.

When Norwegian scientists launched a rocket carrying a weather satellite, they didn’t realise that it would appear on the radar of a Russian military facility. The radar signal from the rocket was identical to that of a US nuclear missile and prompted the officers to alert their superiors that the Americans were carrying out a nuclear first strike.

President Boris Yelstin was informed and handed the dreaded ‘nuclear briefcase’. This device allowed him to communicate with his military commanders and ultimately decide if they should fire their own missiles. It’s reported Yelstin was sceptical of the alarm as he believed the US wouldn’t start a war out of the blue. After waiting 20 very long minutes, the radar operators saw that the suspected missile was travelling out towards the ocean and wasn’t a threat.

Between the initial alarm and the all-clear, Russian nuclear submarines were put on full combat alert and were one order away from launching their arsenals.^[8]

2 Misplaced Missiles

In August 2007, at an Air Force base in North Dakota, six nuclear armed cruise missiles were removed from their bunker, fitted to a B-52 bomber and flown to a base in Louisiana. This had not been authorized and was a massive breach of strict security procedures. At multiple points in this journey there were opportunities to catch the error, but no one noticed. The result was six nuclear weapons went missing for 36 hours. Worse still, these six warheads were left unguarded for several hours on the runway at the Louisiana facility.

This caused a scandal in the national press and led to claims that the US military was becoming distracted from one of its most important duties; securing nuclear bombs.

Severe disciplinary action took place after the incident. In total, 65 Air Force staff were stripped of their clearance to handle nuclear weapons and three colonels and a lieutenant colonel were dismissed. Additionally, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force General and the Secretary of the Air Force were forced to resign. A later report concluded that this mistaken transfer was due to a “breakdown in training, discipline, supervision, and leadership.”^[9]

1 Two Nuclear Subs Collide

The idea of a collision between submarines beneath the ocean is almost comical. Yet these vessels are actually very difficult to detect even with advanced technologies.

This was the case in early 2009 when two nuclear submarines, the French ‘Le Triomphant’ and British ‘Vanguard’, crashed into each other in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Each vessel was carrying nuclear warheads. Thankfully, both submarines were travelling at low speed, so the impact didn’t cause enough damage to cripple the ships. Additionally, there were no serious injuries reported on either crew.

Both defence ministries reassured the public that there was no chance of the warheads accidentally being detonated. Still, the idea of armed nuclear weapons lying in the middle of the ocean unclaimed and unmonitored is cause for concern. Moreover, the real risk that was pointed out was the nuclear engines of the submarines. If there had been enough damage to pierce through the containment barriers, then radiation could have leaked out from the reactors. This would have obviously harmed the crew but also would have caused further ecological damage as it spread throughout the ocean.^[10]

Top 10 Tips for Surviving a Nuclear Winter

The 1940s through to the 1960s saw nuclear attacks and tests that revealed the terrifying power of these devices. The World War II bombing of Hiroshima is famous but few realize what it did to the pilots of Enola Gay or that Australia was hit by a bomb twice as big. At the bizarre end of things, meet the guy who got nuked twice and the scientists who bombed beer and then drank it.

Top 10 Tips for Surviving a Nuclear Winter

10 First Nuclear Test Created Something Impossible

The world’s first test happened in the state of New Mexico on 16 July 1945. The blast created a new mineral called trinitite which looked like green glass. There was nothing mysterious about it. The glass formed when the explosion fused desert sand, asphalt, the test tower and its copper wires together.

But decades later, something was discovered inside the glass that rocked the scientific world. Called a quasicrystal, they were believed to be impossible. All crystals have atoms arranged in an orderly or disorderly fashion. A crystal with “in-between” traits could not exist but in 1984, they were acknowledged in theory and called quasicrystals.

Quasicrystals were eventually discovered in meteorites and they were also created in the laboratory. None had ever been found elsewhere on Earth but as researchers learnt that quasicrystals formed under extreme temperature, shock, and pressure, they realized that atomic blasts provided these conditions.

When the quasicrystal was discovered inside the glass, the surprise came with a mystery. The grain had 20 sides and an internal structure that was impossible in other crystals and so complex that nobody can explain how it formed.

9 Operation Teapot

The Nevada desert saw nuclear tests for decades. One project, called Operation Teapot, tried to answer an unusual question—can you drink beer that survived a nuclear attack? In 1955, bottles of soda and beer were arranged at a test site. Some were placed near ground zero, barely 322 meters (1,056 feet) away. Other bottles were placed a few miles off.

Operation Teapot detonated 14 nuclear bombs. Only 2 were used to test the drinks but they were powerful blasts equal to 20 and 30 kilotons of TNT. Once the dust settled, researchers moved in. The bravest took a sip of the beer, claiming that the brew tasted good except for the bottles closest to the explosion. Luckily for them, further tests showed that the beverages were only slightly radioactive and safe to drink.

8 American Honey Is Radioactive

In 2017, a teacher gave his students an assignment. He wanted to prove the lesson he was teaching—that fallout from nuclear tests of the 1950s and 1960s remained in the environment. Each student had to bring food to the class that came from a local garden or market. As predicted, various samples contained faint traces of caesium-137, a radioactive isotope found in fallout.

But one bottle of honey was 100 times hotter than everything else. Surprised by the jar’s high levels of caesium-137, a team collected 122 samples of raw and unfiltered honey from different beekeepers and markets in the eastern US. Around 68 samples contained the radioactive isotope.

But why is honey so hot? Plants absorb the isotope from the earth and store it in nectar. It becomes more concentrated when bees turn the nectar into honey. According to researchers, honey-lovers have nothing to worry about. The radioactivity levels are considered as safe.

7 The Glass Beaches Of Hiroshima

In 2015, a geologist named Mario Wannier was sorting through sand samples. They were collected from Hiroshima Port to determine whether the marine ecosystems of the Moto Ujina Peninsula was healthy or not.

But then Wannier found something odd—tiny glass spheres. Some had a melted appearance or were fused together. Others had tails. The most bizarre beads had a rubber-like composition. All told, up to 2.5 percent per kilogram scooped from beaches as far away as 12 kilometres (7.4 miles) consisted of glass.

This high concentration suggested that the glass was fallout from the atomic bomb that had destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. A university then examined the glass and found that the particles contained metals, crystals, carbon, and even oxygen. Incredibly, their composition suggested that the glass was, in fact, Hiroshima’s vaporized buildings.

When the bomb dropped, the materials of Hiroshima rose into the air with the fireball. The rubble melted and formed glass inside the atomic cloud where the spheres cooled and rained back down on Earth.

6 The Mysterious Vela Incident

In 1979, a satellite called Vela-5B was in orbit. It was part of a series of satellites designed to detect unauthorized nuclear detonations around the world. On September 22nd, Vela-5B recorded a blast.

The explosion happened in the air near the Prince Edward Islands, which is located in the southern Indian Ocean. Experts agreed that the event had all the signs of a nuclear bomb, including a double flash and an atmospheric wave. If this was a bomb, it would have been a 3 kiloton explosion (the Hiroshima bomb was a 15 kiloton event).

However, surveillance aircraft found nothing and no radioactive fallout was ever detected. Some suggest that the satellite was struck by something that made it give a false reading. However, highly experienced professionals, including researchers at Los Alamos, remain convinced that it was a nuclear test.

So who performed the sneaky test? The leading theory is that South Africa and Israel performed a joint test. Other suspects include France, India, and Pakistan. But nobody is admitting anything.

5 The Maralinga Nuclear Tests

Between 1956 and 1963, seven atomic bombs exploded at Maralinga, in Australia. The remote area was chosen by the British who detonated the devices as part of a Cold War project. One of the bombs was twice as big as the one that had destroyed Hiroshima but that was not the only disturbing fact about these tests.

Australia’s prime minister at the time, Robert Menzies, allowed the tests without taking the matter to cabinet first. There were also crazy smaller tests where plutonium was set on fire or blown up with TNT. The fallout reached Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide. Servicemen were exposed to the tests and 30 percent would eventually die of cancer. Many suspect that this was no accident and that the scientists wanted to study the effects of nuclear blasts on humans.

4 The Terrifying Tsar Bomba

When nuclear weapons became a thing, the Soviets wanted to prove to the world that they still had the technology and the power to be reckoned with. The result was the Tsar Bomba (meaning the Tsar’s Bomb). This enormous device was 8 meters ( 26 feet) long and weighed 27 tonnes (29 tons).

In 1961, the decision was made to test the bomb in a remote area called Novaya Zemlya. The Tsar Bomba was so powerful that the plane’s crew had a 50 percent chance of dying in the blast. Even so, they flew to the test site and dropped the bomb. What followed was horrifying.

The plane barely made it. Even though the crew was already 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, the detonation almost destroyed the plane. The mushroom cloud soared upwards and grew a cap that measured 100 kilometres (63 miles) wide. A village 55 kilometres (34 miles) away was completely destroyed and for hundreds of miles more, homes were severely damaged.

The Tsar Bomba released unthinkable power. The blast’s energy, which was 1,500 stronger than the Hiroshima event, circled the Earth three times. The most frightening fact? The bomb was originally twice as powerful. However, the designers feared that the fallout would also affect the USSR so they toned it down.

3 Enola Gay Pilot Meets Japanese Victim

Koko Kondo was eight months old when the world’s first atomic bomb detonated above Hiroshima. The house collapsed on her but Koko’s mother, who was also at home, fought through the rubble and freed them.

As Koko grew up, she saw the mutilated victims and buildings. After learning that a single US B-29 bomber was responsible, the girl swore revenge on the plane’s crew.

In 1955, when Koko was 10, she and her family were invited to America to share their experience on a TV show. The studio had an explosive surprise. To Koko’s shock, the host introduced them to the pilot of the Enola Gay. It was Captain Robert Lewis who had famously looked back at Hiroshima after the bombing and written in the plane’s logbook, “My God, what have we done?”

Koko wanted to attack Lewis. But then she noticed the tears in his eyes and something amazing happened. Instead of kicking him, the little girl walked up to Lewis and held his hand. After Lewis passed away in 1983, Koko regretted never having thanked him because the meeting replaced her hatred with forgiveness and the realization that war caused suffering on both sides.

2 The Other Pilot Turned To Crime

Whereas Captain Robert Lewis was the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, Major Claude Eatherly played a more direct role in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He flew another plane, a weather aircraft, to assess the city’s visibility. The decision to drop the devices hinged solely on Eatherly’s decision. He found that visibility was good and gave the go-ahead.

Eatherly was shocked by the devastation that followed. Realizing what he had done, the Major became plagued by nightmares of the bombings. He bounced between psychiatric institutions and spent years being arrested for petty crimes. Eatherly also robbed grocery stores at gunpoint but according to the authorities, he was really bad at it. After being caught, he was released by a jury who believed that the bombings had driven him insane.

But Eatherly was just deeply traumatized. He turned his life around (as best he could) and became famous as an anti-nuclear activist. Eatherly died young, aged 59, from cancer. But before he did, he identified himself to the people of Hiroshima as the man who gave the go-ahead that day and that he regretted his decision. Similar to Koko’s reaction to Captain Lewis, 30 bomb victims wrote to Eatherly and said, “You are also a victim of war like us.”

1 This Guy Got Nuked Twice

On August 6, 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was looking forward to going home. The 29-year-old lived in Nagasaki but was spending the last day of a business trip in Hiroshima. He was walking near a shipyard when he saw the Enola Gay drop the bomb. He hid in a ditch but he was too close to ground zero. The shock wave sucked him into the air and seared his skin.

Badly burnt, Yamaguchi tried to get back to his family in Nagasaki. At one point, to reach the train station, he had to wade through a river filled with bodies. The train arrived in Nagasaki where his own mother did not recognize him due to the burns.

On August 9, Yamaguchi was at work trying to convince his boss that a single bomb had taken out Hiroshima. His superior told him that he was insane. Ironically, it was roughly at that moment when Nagasaki was nuked. This blast tore through the office, ripped off his bandages and severely radiated Yamaguchi.

Although Yamaguchi suffered from terrible radiation sickness, he recovered and lived to be 93. Around 165 people reportedly experienced both attacks but Yamaguchi was the only one recognized by the Japanese government. He received the unique title of “nijyuu hibakusha,” meaning “twice-bombed person.”

10 Reasons Why A Nuclear War Could Be Good For Everyone