In this episode, we eject from our aircraft and land on John Woo's 1996 slow-motion action opera, Broken Arrow. What happens when a disgruntled Air Force pilot decides to steal from his employer? Does an underground nuclear explosion set off an EMP? Is it really that easy for nuclear bombs to fall out of airplanes? We answer these questions and more.
Before we find the nukes we are looking for, we recommend reading Dr. Stephen Younger's The Bomb: A History (HarperCollins, 2009) and James Mahaffey's Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters, (Pegasus, 2014).
Other sources to check out include :
-Footage of underground nuclear tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSjratvNGmo
-USSR Gas Well Blow Out = Nuclear Bomb Puts Out the Fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iB9QYaSVEo
-Rob Coppinger, "NASA plans 'Armageddon' spacecraft to blast asteroid," FlightGlobal, August 3, 2007
-William Broad and David Sanger, "As U.S. Modernizes Nuclear Weapons, ‘Smaller’ Leaves Some Uneasy," The New York Times, January 11, 2016
-Ed Pilkington, "US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina – secret document," The Guardian UK, September 20, 2013
-William Broad, "Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says," The New York Times, June 2, 2010
-Tom Harris, "The Nuclear EMP Threat," How Stuff Works
-Review of Broken Arrow, Entertainment Weekly, February 16, 1996
We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, iTunes, Facebook, GooglePlay, YouTube, or SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com.
