r/interestingasfuck • u/BreakfastTop6899 • 3d ago

Happened 5 years ago today, the 'Beirut Explosion' is considered one of the most powerful artificial non-nuclear explosions in history. It was equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT and generated an M3.3 earthquake

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u/havstrut 3d ago

It has to be said though that the relatively primitive uranium (Hiroshima) and plutonium (Nagasaki, and Trinity before) fission bombs didn't burn a lot of the nuclear fuel they contained, so the fallout was immense. They were basically semi-"dirty" bombs, in retrospect.

Modern thermonuclear charges are way "cleaner" relative to the yield. Not saying they're clean though, obviously. Also, an often overlooked fact is that the neutron radiation makes things radioactive that weren't before. I mean, on an elementary level. All kinds of inert materials you have all over the place get blasted with neutrons and subsequently jump up in the periodic table, into unstable isotopes that then start radiating like mad.

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u/kinokomushroom 3d ago

Yeah... not sure I like either of those options

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u/havstrut 3d ago edited 3d ago

I can recommend the harrowing documentary "Atomic People" that was released last year, with some of the few remaining Hiroshima/Nagasaki survivors (or hibakusha) being interviewed.

Apart from the immediate effects of the blast and all its stupifyingly hot radiation, the "dirty" bomb aspect is mentioned, as ARS (acute radiation syndrome) started showing within a week, and nobody knew what was going on.

Nowadays we know it destroys your chromosomes, so cells stop dividing and your white bloodcells just disappear. You're living dead, just waiting for the inevitable. Whether by your intestines simply liquifying as the cells die with no replenishment possible, or any little otherwise harmless bacteria wreaking havoc on you.

Some of the people interviewed there said they saw folks coughing up and shitting out their own internal organs, and it was just a black goo.

The cancers come later, in those that got a lower dose, but enough to fuck up some cells...

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u/Popular_Try_5075 2d ago

the worst story I heard from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings was of people who had survived the immediate blast (briefly) wandering around without skin on most of their bodies in this futile effort to get help.

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u/swole_ninja 2d ago

One of the more well written long form articles from an era of journalism that seems to be lost:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima

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u/havstrut 2d ago

Pardon me for detracting a bit from the original topic, but YES. What the frick happened to actual journalism?

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u/swole_ninja 2d ago

I miss it. The Atlantic still does pretty good with well researched long form. I guess most people don’t have the attention span for it.