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A comment on A Burning B-52 Nearly Caused A Nuclear Catastrophe. Parent comment

Re:A Burning B-52 Nearly Caused A Nuclear Catastrophe by olex on Sunday September 22, 2019 @11:51AM (#21041916)
According to the article, the W69 would not have detonated their nuclear payload, but there was a significant risk of their conventional explosives (used to compress the nuclear mass for detonation) as well as rocket engines igniting and spreading the radioactive payload in a "dirty bomb" manner.

Also, in the other type of bomb that was on board there apparently was a design flaw that could've actually triggered the nuclear detonation after prolonged exposure to extreme heat.

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Re:A Burning B-52 Nearly Caused A Nuclear Catastrophe by giancarlostoro on Sunday September 22, 2019 @12:02PM (#21042001)
> Also, in the other type of bomb that was on board there apparently was a design flaw that could've actually triggered the nuclear detonation after prolonged exposure to extreme heat.

So who found that bug and how? I mean... Yikes.

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Re:A Burning B-52 Nearly Caused A Nuclear Catastrophe by tolien on Sunday September 22, 2019 @02:41PM (#21043076)
It was a known issue that setting explosives on fire makes them...quite unhappy (hence why nowadays the detonators mostly use insensitive explosives [1]).

In the context of a partial/asymmetrical detonation around a warhead - they tried it! [0]

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_57

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insensitive_munition

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