[ RadSafe ] BBC Article, Nuclear winter...

[Bill]

Would someone with nuclear weapon knowledge please respond?

It is my understanding that you can not produce "nuclear winter" unless
you loft the material into the stratosphere, and you need explosions in
the hundreds of kilotons if not megatons to accomplish this. This was
proved in the first Gulf war when it was feared that the oil fires would
have global consequences but the burning oil did not reach the
stratosphere and only local (as far as India) effects were observed.

I believe that Carl Sagan modified his view in the early nineties to
match the above (no reference). He was correct, however, in that a first
strike with megaton weapons, by the USA or USSR, would have have been
suicide even it the other side did not retaliate. I believe that this
had an effect on the military planning on both sides and was a factor in
ending the cold war.

--- The cold war was won because we stopped playing poker and started
playing chess. ---

Baumbaugh, Joel SPAWAR wrote:
> Radsafers,
>
> This was, I thought, an interesting article on probable/potential
> climate change from a nuclear weapon exchange.
>   
>   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6169717.stm
>
> Joel Baumbaugh (joel.baumbaugh at navy.mil)
> SSC-SD
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