Re:Radiation spikes in Chernobyl
by ClumsyPilot on Friday February 25, 2022 @02:37PM
(#30471317)
"could be valuable as cover for nuclear weapons"
You can't hide a nuclear blast, we have satellites in orbit that detect the flash. Chech the vela incident - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_incident
"Russia's whole citizenry have been trained and prepared for nuclear fallout, to a much greater extent than most nations seem to prioritize today."
That's not been the case for like 40 years
Re:Radiation spikes in Chernobyl
by seizethegdgap on Friday February 25, 2022 @09:49PM
(#30474866)
I believe etiam means a higher level of background radiation means it's easier to move nuclear weapons, not use them.
Re:Radiation spikes in Chernobyl
by ClumsyPilot on Friday February 25, 2022 @10:03PM
(#30474929)
They are not detectable anyway - if you put a nuclear warhead in a truck, there is no way to detect it from a plane or a satellite,
In fact you probably could put a nuclear bomb inside a lead-lined shipping container and send it from China to US, across all US railways, and back across the world on another ship, and probably no-one would ever know.
Also why would Russia move nukes by land through chernobil, when they have bombers and complete control of the airspace?
Also, take the following with more than a grain of salt as I'm in no way really knowledgeable about such systems, but I would imagine both the area itself and temporarily disturbing it could be valuable as cover for nuclear weapons. One valuable tool for keeping track of them involves detecting and analyzing escaped isotope traces, and that's going to be harder to pick out and make sense of against that noisy background.
As I understand it, nuclear weaponry still features prominently in Russia's military doctrine and it's worth noting that not only the military but Russia's whole citizenry have been trained and prepared for nuclear fallout, to a much greater extent than most nations seem to prioritize today.
In addition to artillery I imagine for instance certain kinds of anti-air systems might be attractive to put on a site like that. Any further suggestions? They could have taken weeks to bring equipment in during the "military exercise" with Lukashenko's troops, so I guess few things are truly off the table.