WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:15.001 This, our country, and all its people, could be in danger of nuclear attack in 00:00:15.001 --> 00:00:19.001 minutes by enemy missiles, in hours by enemy aircraft. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.000 Our cities, our 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.000 farms, our factories. 00:00:32.001 --> 00:00:34.001 Prime target would be our air bases. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:40.000 With all our aircraft on the ground, our weapons of interception or retaliation 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.001 not instantly available, we might face another and infinitely more 00:00:44.001 --> 00:00:46.000 costly Pearl Harbor. 00:01:09.001 --> 00:01:14.000 To avoid surprise disaster, some of our aircraft must always be in the 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:15.001 sky or on the alert. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Carrying nuclear weapons. 00:01:20.001 --> 00:01:23.001 These weapons are always unarmed. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:27.001 They will be armed only following a decision by the 00:01:27.001 --> 00:01:29.000 President of the United States. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:36.000 Only these ready aircraft with nuclear weapons can form our first-line deterrent 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:41.000 force in peacetime, our sure striking force in case of attack. 00:01:45.001 --> 00:01:52.000 We, the American people, understand 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.000 and accept this necessity for our survival. 00:01:55.001 --> 00:01:58.001 But we want to know the facts about one question. 00:02:02.001 --> 00:02:08.000 Do we live in danger of nuclear explosion and radioactive fallout if one of these 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:13.000 airplanes should crash or one of these nuclear weapons accidentally drop? 00:02:14.001 --> 00:02:20.000 To give you the facts, the United States Air Force 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.001 presents... 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 This bomber carries a nuclear weapon. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000 It is a well-designed, carefully maintained, skillfully flown airplane. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.001 But airplanes just like it have crashed and burned. 00:02:50.001 --> 00:02:55.000 There was no nuclear explosion, no radioactive fallout. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.000 These are the facts. 00:03:00.001 --> 00:03:05.001 The bombardier watches over controls as safe as human ingenuity can make them to 00:03:05.001 --> 00:03:07.001 prevent accidental bomb release. 00:03:08.001 --> 00:03:11.000 But nuclear weapons have been dropped inadvertently. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.000 There was no nuclear explosion, no radioactive fallout. 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:18.000 These are the facts. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:24.000 And specially instrumented aircraft verify these facts in a continuing nuclear 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:29.001 safety program that tests our nuclear weapons under controlled conditions that 00:03:29.001 --> 00:03:32.000 simulate every conceivable hazard. 00:03:33.001 --> 00:03:38.000 Vital to this nuclear safety program is Air Force Special Weapons Center 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.000 at Albuquerque, New Mexico. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:50.000 Here, in ultra-modern laboratory buildings, work scientists 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.000 in and out of uniform. 00:03:55.001 --> 00:04:02.000 They work with the incredibly complex equations of nuclear physics, which derive 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.001 from Einstein's famous relationship of mass to energy. 00:04:06.001 --> 00:04:12.001 These cryptic figures, programmed into lightning-fast computers, are the 00:04:12.001 --> 00:04:16.001 theoretical base upon which these scientists, together with those of the Atomic 00:04:16.001 --> 00:04:20.001 Energy Commission, can build nuclear weapon safety. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:31.001 By research, design development, 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:39.000 and laboratory tests, they ensure weapons not yet built against 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.000 accidental nuclear explosion. 00:04:45.001 --> 00:04:52.000 They have been doing this, successfully, since 1945, in safety conferences 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.000 with other Defense Department agencies and the Atomic Energy Commission. 00:04:57.001 --> 00:05:04.000 In 13 years, there have been a few accidents, but not one has resulted in nuclear 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.000 explosion or radioactive fallout. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:08.001 These are the facts. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.001 What keeps our nuclear weapons safe? 00:05:12.001 --> 00:05:18.000 To understand why there has never been an accidental nuclear explosion, you must 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:22.000 first know how these explosions can be produced, the general principles 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 of nuclear explosions. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:34.000 Any explosion is the result of a very 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.000 rapid release of a great amount of energy. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.000 Conventional explosions result from the rearrangement of whole atoms in 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:44.001 some explosive material. 00:05:45.001 --> 00:05:50.001 For example, in TNT, the rearrangement of whole atoms of hydrogen, carbon, 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:54.000 nitrogen, and oxygen produces explosive force. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:01.000 On the other hand, nuclear explosions result from the rearrangement 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:02.001 within each atom. 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:13.001 This may be a joining together or fusion, as in an H-bomb, or the splitting apart 00:06:13.001 --> 00:06:16.000 or fission, as in an A-bomb. 00:06:17.001 --> 00:06:23.000 At present, an H-bomb explosion starts with fission, so the splitting of the 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:27.000 nucleus of the atom is the basic principle of nuclear weapons. 00:06:28.001 --> 00:06:33.001 All matter is composed of one or more of the 100 odd elements. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:40.000 Of these, the atoms of the metals uranium and plutonium can be most readily 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:42.001 fission to cause nuclear explosion. 00:06:43.001 --> 00:06:46.000 These elements are mildly radioactive. 00:06:47.001 --> 00:06:50.001 They emit short-range, low-penetration alpha particles 00:06:50.001 --> 00:06:52.000 while in their unfissioned state. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:57.000 These alpha particles do not have the harmful effects of the longer range and 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:01.001 stronger gamma rays, which are given off by certain elements such as radium or 00:07:01.001 --> 00:07:03.001 by the products of nuclear fission. 00:07:05.001 --> 00:07:11.000 The atoms of uranium and plutonium are among the heaviest, heavy because the 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:15.000 nucleus of each atom contains large numbers of the fundamental particles 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:16.001 called protons and neutrons. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:24.001 When a free neutron hits this nucleus, it splits into two parts, releasing more 00:07:24.001 --> 00:07:27.001 neutrons which may go on to split other nuclei. 00:07:28.001 --> 00:07:34.000 The resulting fission products become highly radioactive, emitting the long-range 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:36.000 and dangerous gamma rays. 00:07:37.001 --> 00:07:42.000 The split nucleus weighs less than the whole one, and this difference in weight 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:45.000 is released in the form of energy, nuclear energy. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:52.001 After fission, harmful gamma radiation. Before fission, innocuous 00:07:52.001 --> 00:07:54.001 alpha radiation. 00:07:57.001 --> 00:08:04.000 To build up a nuclear energy release, the fissionable material must be of a 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.001 certain size, shape, or density. 00:08:08.001 --> 00:08:13.001 Then one of the neutrons escaping from a split atomic nucleus will in turn split 00:08:13.001 --> 00:08:16.001 another, and a chain reaction is set up. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.000 The mass is now releasing nuclear energy but not quickly enough 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:22.001 to cause a nuclear explosion. 00:08:23.001 --> 00:08:25.001 This condition is called critical. 00:08:26.001 --> 00:08:31.001 If the mass is now suddenly increased so that more neutrons are trapped each time 00:08:31.001 --> 00:08:36.001 an atomic nucleus is split, a multiplying chain reaction is maintained. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:42.000 Now the mass is supercritical, causing a nuclear explosion. 00:08:44.001 --> 00:08:49.000 Density of the fissionable material can be as important as mass in 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:50.001 building up a nuclear explosion. 00:08:51.001 --> 00:08:56.001 The same sphere can be compressed so that the atoms are closer together and 00:08:56.001 --> 00:09:01.000 neutrons split more atomic nuclei, making the smaller mass critical. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:10.000 If compressed still more, a multiplying chain reaction sets in, causing the mass 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.000 to become supercritical in a nuclear explosion. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:19.000 Nuclear weapons make use of both of these principles. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.000 A gun-type device can increase the mass of fissionable material to a 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.000 supercritical state instantaneously. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:32.001 One subcritical mass is propelled forcibly into another by 00:09:32.001 --> 00:09:34.000 an ordinary powder charge. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.001 The increased mass becomes supercritical. 00:09:38.001 --> 00:09:43.000 A multiplying chain reaction builds up until the nuclear explosion. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:50.001 Obviously, if any mechanical device keeps these two subcritical masses apart, 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.000 the weapon is nuclear safe. 00:09:53.001 --> 00:09:57.001 Applications of this fact prevent accidental nuclear explosions 00:09:57.001 --> 00:09:59.000 in gun-type weapons. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:06.001 Another kind of nuclear weapon is the implosion type. 00:10:08.001 --> 00:10:12.001 It compresses the fissionable material to greater 00:10:12.001 --> 00:10:14.000 density to make it supercritical. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:21.000 To do this, the sphere is enclosed by a shell of ordinary explosive designed to 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:22.001 direct its explosive force inward. 00:10:23.001 --> 00:10:25.001 This effect is called implosion. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:31.000 The detonators attached to the explosive are connected to a complex firing 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:34.000 device, which can fire every detonator simultaneously. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:40.001 When all the explosive is detonated simultaneously, the nuclear material is 00:10:40.001 --> 00:10:45.001 compressed into a supercritical mass, which results in a nuclear explosion. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:53.001 Implosion-type weapons are nuclear safe because only the specially designed 00:10:53.001 --> 00:10:58.000 firing device can produce the simultaneous detonation of all the ordinary 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:03.001 explosive, a deliberate effect possible only by the precise firing mechanism. 00:11:05.001 --> 00:11:10.001 Should a single detonator be fired accidentally, whether by malfunction, crash 00:11:10.001 --> 00:11:15.000 impact, or fire, the explosive would not provide the all-around 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:17.000 compression necessary for implosion. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:23.000 Instead, it might push the nuclear material out of the shell, break it into small 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:24.001 pieces, or even burn it. 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:30.000 This unfission material emits only alpha particles because no nuclear 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.000 explosion has taken place. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.000 These alpha particles do not penetrate the skin. 00:11:37.001 --> 00:11:42.001 The simplest precautions can prevent their intake into the body, and the simplest 00:11:42.001 --> 00:11:44.000 cleanup measures can remove them. 00:11:45.001 --> 00:11:50.001 So you see, each type of nuclear weapon has its own safeguards against 00:11:50.001 --> 00:11:52.001 accidental nuclear explosion. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:59.000 These are the facts, and they are based upon practice as well as theory. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:05.001 Specially instrumented aircraft fly the tests that verify what happens inside a 00:12:05.001 --> 00:12:10.001 weapon, what accident hazards the nuclear components may have to withstand. 00:12:18.001 --> 00:12:21.000 The nuclear safety is everybody's business. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:26.001 Although Air Force flies the test missions, scientists and technicians from the 00:12:26.001 --> 00:12:32.000 Atomic Energy Commission and other services man the test range and evaluate the 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.001 findings of the elaborate instrumentation. 00:12:36.001 --> 00:12:41.001 Drop tests measure impact characteristics of various weapon types. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:45.001 They are made without nuclear components, so that this precious 00:12:45.001 --> 00:12:47.001 material is not wasted. 00:12:50.001 --> 00:12:53.001 They supplement the detonation tests that have been made with the 00:12:53.001 --> 00:12:55.001 complete nuclear weapons. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:07.001 Impact, or shock, does not cause nuclear explosion or radioactive fallout. 00:13:09.001 --> 00:13:16.001 What has exploded is the ordinary explosive, 00:13:16.001 --> 00:13:19.001 which is an essential part of nuclear weapons. 00:13:20.001 --> 00:13:25.001 The ordinary explosive in a nuclear weapon can be a hazard, exactly 00:13:25.001 --> 00:13:27.000 as in a conventional bomb. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:32.001 Depending upon the amount and location of the explosive and the speed and height 00:13:32.001 --> 00:13:37.000 of the drop, we may experience a variety of ordinary explosions. 00:13:38.001 --> 00:13:45.001 Large ones, small ones, or none 00:13:45.001 --> 00:13:47.000 at all from impact of the bomb. 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:56.000 Beside the hazard of impact, frequent tests are run on the hazard of fire. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.001 To learn what temperatures and pressures would be created inside a weapon by an 00:14:03.001 --> 00:14:08.001 aircraft fire, various types of bombs are subjected to a flame 00:14:08.001 --> 00:14:10.000 bath of burning fuel. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:14.001 Because fire would also destroy the precious nuclear material, 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:16.001 it is replaced by instruments. 00:14:16.001 --> 00:14:21.000 Their readings are compared with known characteristics of the fissionable 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:26.001 material to assure that temperatures higher than any aircraft fire will not set 00:14:26.001 --> 00:14:28.000 off a nuclear explosion. 00:14:30.001 --> 00:14:36.001 The characteristic white flame indicates that the ordinary explosive 00:14:36.001 --> 00:14:38.000 is burning in the weapon. 00:14:40.001 --> 00:14:46.000 Sometimes the explosive detonates because of close confinement and intense heat. 00:14:46.001 --> 00:14:50.001 The effects of such explosions are measured and compared with those 00:14:50.001 --> 00:14:52.001 in an actual nuclear weapon. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.001 Fire and ordinary explosives do not create the conditions necessary 00:15:05.001 --> 00:15:07.000 for nuclear explosion. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:09.001 These are the facts. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:15.000 And on the vast desert ranges of the Atomic Energy Commission, the facts are 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:21.000 verified by safety testing live prototypes of all new weapons before they go into 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:22.001 production for our stockpile. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:30.001 The tests are costly in money and manpower, even more costly in the fissionable 00:15:30.001 --> 00:15:33.000 materials on which our nuclear strength depends. 00:15:33.001 --> 00:15:39.000 But they do provide insurance against nuclear accidents, which make them 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:40.001 a bargain at any price. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.000 Some take place deep in the earth. 00:15:45.001 --> 00:15:49.000 Fantastically complex instruments replace the five senses. 00:15:49.001 --> 00:15:54.000 They record what happens when some of the explosive that surrounds the nuclear 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:57.000 material of a new weapon is deliberately detonated. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:01.001 They record only an ordinary explosive blast. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:06.001 A random detonation has not created the implosion which would compress the 00:16:06.001 --> 00:16:09.000 nuclear material to a supercritical mass. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.001 There was no nuclear explosion, no radioactive fallout. 00:16:17.001 --> 00:16:22.001 Each new design must be proved nuclear safe, able to withstand accident, 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:25.000 fire, or random explosive. 00:16:27.001 --> 00:16:31.000 Other tests with nuclear weapons are made above ground. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.001 These are also designed to test the nuclear safety of new weapon types by 00:16:36.001 --> 00:16:41.000 intentionally detonating the explosive which surrounds the fissionable material. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:51.000 Sometimes these tests also provide data on the side effects to be expected 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:54.001 if the fissionable material is broken up by the explosion. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:02.001 Air samplers and test pads are used to gauge the area intensity and 00:17:02.001 --> 00:17:04.000 duration of these side effects. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:10.000 In this way, they learn not only what does not happen when a charge is 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.000 deliberately fired, but what does. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:22.001 The explosive does break up the nuclear material and scatter 00:17:22.001 --> 00:17:24.001 parts of it over a small area. 00:17:24.001 --> 00:17:27.001 This fissionable material is mildly radioactive. 00:17:29.001 --> 00:17:36.000 If the explosion or fire should suspend any of this material in dust or smoke, it 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:39.001 should not be inhaled or otherwise taken into the body in quantity. 00:17:40.001 --> 00:17:45.001 That is why the trained monitoring and cleanup crews may wear respirators until 00:17:45.001 --> 00:17:49.001 air samplers or alpha counters have determined that no injurious 00:17:49.001 --> 00:17:51.000 concentration exists. 00:17:55.001 --> 00:18:00.001 The alpha particles emitted do not penetrate skin or clothing, so this material 00:18:00.001 --> 00:18:02.000 is harmless when on the ground. 00:18:06.001 --> 00:18:12.001 Only simple cleanup measures are necessary, plus an effort to find and 00:18:12.001 --> 00:18:14.000 save the valuable material. 00:18:18.001 --> 00:18:24.000 The findings from all tests set up to measure possible radiological hazard are no 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:28.001 external radioactive hazard from material on the ground, slight radioactive 00:18:28.001 --> 00:18:33.000 hazard from prolonged inhalation of material suspended in a small area near the 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:39.000 accident, but none from the short exposures necessary for firefighting, rescue, 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:41.001 or cleanup of the small area involved. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:50.000 These are the facts, facts that have dispelled the fearsome myths about accidents 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:52.000 involving nuclear weapons. 00:18:53.001 --> 00:18:57.001 For anyone near an accident, whether or not the crashed airplane carries a 00:18:57.001 --> 00:19:01.000 nuclear weapon, here are the safe and simple rules. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:05.000 Stay away from the crash unless you are needed for rescue. 00:19:05.001 --> 00:19:08.001 Bystanders endanger themselves and hamper others. 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:13.001 To be safe, keep at least a quarter of a mile away from any burning airplane. 00:19:14.001 --> 00:19:18.001 At this distance, you are safe from the flames, which may explode the jet fuel, 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:22.000 from detonating explosives, and from flying debris. 00:19:23.001 --> 00:19:27.001 These are the real dangers in rescue or firefighting, as they have always been. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:32.001 The trained men who bear these responsibilities know how to do their job and get 00:19:32.001 --> 00:19:34.001 quickly away from all these hazards. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:43.000 After the emergency is over, the area is monitored for radioactive material, and 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:46.000 if necessary, cleaned up by specially trained teams. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:51.001 Other specialists care for burned or undetonated pieces of ordinary explosive. 00:19:52.001 --> 00:19:57.001 Until this is done, access to any crash area is controlled to prevent 00:19:57.001 --> 00:19:59.000 accidents and speed up the work. 00:20:03.001 --> 00:20:08.000 The tests you have seen have proved the safety of our nuclear weapons program 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:10.000 over and over again. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:16.001 But the grim reality is the payoff. How safe is a nuclear bomber 00:20:16.001 --> 00:20:18.001 coming in for a crash landing? 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:18.001 Not the impact of the crash landing, nor the fire which often follows. 00:21:19.001 --> 00:21:24.000 Not even detonation of the ordinary explosive in the weapon caused nuclear 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.001 explosion or radioactive fallout. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:35.001 The safety that was designed in during research, built in during development, 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:40.001 proved in the laboratory and on the range, has withstood the 00:21:40.001 --> 00:21:42.001 ultimate tragic test. 00:21:43.001 --> 00:21:50.000 These are the facts. They prove that you, the American people, can stay both 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:51.001 safe and strong. 00:21:52.001 --> 00:21:56.001 Safe, because the weapons your air force must carry have 00:21:56.001 --> 00:21:58.001 been tested nuclear safe. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:04.001 The possibility of an accidental nuclear explosion is so small as to be 00:22:04.001 --> 00:22:06.000 practically non-existent. 00:22:07.001 --> 00:22:12.000 Strong, because an air force, nuclear armed and combat ready, stands guard 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.000 against surprise attack. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:22.001 Under this shelter, you and your family may live in peace, free from the fear 00:22:22.001 --> 00:22:24.001 of nuclear accidents.