Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
How To: Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
wired.com — Sure, the odds are slim that you'd ever be faced with an atomic device ticking down to zero. But think of how Jack Bauer it'd be if you were. And then who're you going to trust? Us or some do-gooder rock band?
skaaren- 919 diggs
- digg it
- Lane5slacker, on 10/12/2007, -4/+21You know, if the opportunity ever came up...
- ecable, on 10/12/2007, -53/+11I'd just leave it. Finally, the opportunity I've been waiting for to commit suicide and take out some million idiots at the same time.
- MrViklund, on 10/12/2007, -15/+8ecable you sick bastard.
- Simen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17"Love and Peace or Else"?
- TonyCubed, on 10/12/2007, -12/+6ecable...
It's idiots like you what has made this world a ***** mess. - tidu, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Don't forget Step 5.
- ronin9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Threaten to cut off the nuts of the bastard that put it together if he doesn't take it apart.
- theBrink, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1these other meatbags don't understand us ecable, hey, let's meet up and kill a few idiots ala trenchcoat mafia style...
- xtmno3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+70"If these tips don't work, give us a call and let us know what we got wrong."
Reminds me of the old shirt that says 'I'm a bomb technician, if you see me running, try to keep up.'- jasnmb, on 10/12/2007, -68/+2um, if the tip doesn't work I can't call you because i'll be nuked!
- ecable, on 10/12/2007, -5/+36Thanks Capt. Obvious.
- technique, on 10/12/2007, -0/+29@xtmno3
Or the scuba dive instructor that says "Remember, you never have to outswim a shark -- just your dive buddy" - zonk3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Last step is to wipe the sweat from your brow and turn off the cool music that is likely to be playing ethereally in the background..
- badave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13"Remove the neutron trigger. Don't eat it."
- LabRat777, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1You don't have to outrun the bear, just the other hiker.
- steve693, on 10/12/2007, -25/+2Hello hello, HOLA!
- the_d, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3I'm at a place called paroxysmal positional disorder.
- stlcadet11, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2...beep...beep.......beep....beep
*kick-ass 24 sound effect - Langford, on 10/12/2007, -5/+37I could have used this last week. Somebody left a bomb, and the darn thing went off and killed me.
Killed? ...Well, I got better.- bob301, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19I had that happen to me, only I got turned into a newt.
- Kbennett, on 10/12/2007, -10/+10Langford gets a Digg for the Monty Python reference.
- Lane5slacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks for ruining a perfectly good inside joke!
- ArmandoM, on 10/12/2007, -5/+30Please, please, PLEASE don't let the phrase "how Jack Bauer it'd be" enter the language.
- calcnerd256, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@ArmandoM
but if it did, it'd be so jack bauer!
- calcnerd256, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@ArmandoM
- happyfappy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20If you were Jack Bauer, you wouldn't need to know how to dismantle an atomic bomb -- just grab the guy nearest you and torture him (preferably with a make-shift electrocution device) until he tells you.
Unfortunately, this method would only work if there's time to ask the question three times...- ilyag, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Time? WE HAVE NO TIME!
- Eccohawk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.*
*courtesy Jack Bauer facts.
http://www.notrly.com/jackbauer/index.php?topthirty - m4v1s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14If everyone on 24 did what Jack Bauer said, the show would be called 12
- clayh, on 10/12/2007, -2/+53Feh. I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.
- dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Nicely done. I had almost forgotten about that movie. S'a good one.
- puttly, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2thats really useful, you never know when you might need the information.
- LycoLoco, on 10/12/2007, -10/+10I'll take potpourri for $800, Alex.
What is a bad album by U2?- technique, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9So many answers to such a simple question...
- bbdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2For a second I thought this was going to be about that album by U2. :P
- Flash0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+26Somebody set up us the bomb...
- brad06, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10You have no chance to survive make your time.
- ilyag, on 10/12/2007, -40/+9Ha ha ha! Oh gosh that's funny! That's really funny! Do you write your own material? Do you? Because that is so fresh. Someone set up us the bomb. You know, I've never heard anyone make that joke before. Hmm. You're the first. I've never heard anyone reference that outside the game before. Because that's what he says in the Zero Wing game right? Isn't it? Someone set up us the bomb. And yet you've taken that and used it out of context in this everyday situation.
God what a clever, smart boy you must be, to come up with a joke like that all by yourself. That's so fresh too. Any Titanic jokes you want to throw at me too as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity? God you're so funny! - D4r7h3v1l, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Ilyag, I find it ironic that you took that from Family guy.
- ilyag, on 10/12/2007, -20/+2D4r7h3v1l: That's because I am making a joke that is just as silly as the other guy's.
- InsaneMachine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10At least its actually decently relevant to the article.
- ecable, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Ilyag: you are an idiot. He took that (albeit overused joke) and put it, for the first time that I have ever seen, in a correct context. Props to the OP.
- DonPMitchell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Wired: spell checking
Tired: fact checking
Wired seems to be a junk science magazine, full of editorializing and postmodernism and ugly typography, but very short on real knowledge or insight. - brad06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Jack Bauer doesn't need to know how per se, as Chloe will just hack the pentagon and upload the schematics of the bomb via satellite to Bauer's PDA.
- enivid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You forgot that Chloe will help Jack in the most socially awkward way.
OPEN A SOCKET!!!! - ilyag, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Chloe is the biggest badass in that whole show.
- ecable, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0I don't even know what schematics are, but they belong in labs!
D.C. FTW.
- enivid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You forgot that Chloe will help Jack in the most socially awkward way.
- labmonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Bomb expert on radio: Cut the blue wire. Do not, I repeat, do not cut the green wire.
Cop who is 1 week away from retirement: They're both green! Threre's only 10 seconds left. I’m going to cut one. HOLD ON!
*snip*- tidu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5boom.
- Qeveren, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Why take the risk of manually dismantling it and possibly set it off as a full-blown nuke? Slap a shaped charge on the side of the sucker and blow its guts out, instead. Sure, there's a bit more clean-up involved afterwards, but at least there's still a city standing around you when you're done...
- AdamWeeden, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I'd venture to say that's MORE dangerous. An atomic bomb works by using a small conventional explosion to force together radioactive material (which makes a BIG explosion).
- Qeveren, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5That's correct. However, atomic bombs rely on a very precise alignment of their components to operate, which is one of the reasons that they're so bloody difficult to construct in the first place. The conventional explosives that trigger them have to create nearly-perfectly spherical shock waves in order to compress the nuclear material in a useful way.
Using a shaped charge (or a rocket, or even a high-caliber projectile) to disrupt it will prevent the device from reaching critical density. Instead of a nuke, you get a somewhat dirty conventional bomb instead. It's a mess, but not a large one compared to the alternative. :) - hansonc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6you don't need a spherical shock wave for a uranium bomb. The original nuclear bomb, "little boy", was a gun style bomb meaning there were 2 pieces of uranium, one slightly less massive than critical and the second was fired like a bullet into the first causing the chain reaction and the boom.
Ok so I didn't actually bother to read what type of bomb Wired was talking about but not all need the spherical shock wave. - gwolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You are correct sir.
- Qeveren, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Also true. Gun-type bombs are much less technically complex, but they're also much larger and less efficient. And this method of 'disarming' would still work on them, as long as you place the charge in such a way that the damage it causes prevents the two fissile masses from colliding.
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -1/+111) find atomic bomb
2) go get bono
3) ?????
4) profit - DaneTrain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Anyone read that and wonder what the hell "polonium" is?
- Qeveren, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Polonium is atomic # 84 on the periodic table. A radioactive telluride metal. Well, okay, metalloid.
- Somniis, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3A random nuclear explosion would be good to shave a few million off the world population.
Stop having babies you *****! :-P- gwolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8You First
- Tarantulus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@Danetrain: seen the periodic table recently?
- opeth247, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2If that article was an attempt at humor, it has failed miserably.
- gardnmi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You never know when you'll be straddling a nuclear bomb, like Dr. Strange Love, thats falling from the sky. This is definitley useful.
- dbalaski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2in Dr.Strangelove
Wasnt it Slim Pickens on the bomb, and he was trying to make it drop and go off
Gotta digg your comment just for the Dr.Strangelove reference
Trivia : Dr.Strangelove was James Earl Jones first Film appearance
- dbalaski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2in Dr.Strangelove
- futzy99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"Kept apart, each emits only relatively harmless alpha particles – you could even handle them without gloves if necessary."
Not true. All forms of nuclear decay emit gamma radiation along with their other particles, alpha, beta or otherwise. That is why anything that is radioactive is very dangerous, gamma is emitted from anything that decays.- Graeleight, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Your gamma is decayed.
- u8myfoood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5all this time i though hitting it with a hammer would work...
- cudgel13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3*nerdy phd voice* The compact nukes of the convenient size that would normally be used by a terrorist would almost surely be the spherical initiator type. In this case, whacking the piss out of the spherical charge will assuredly disrupt the initiator shockwaves. Hence you'd only be killed by the high explosives going off, not a nuclear detonation.
- dbalaski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6DYI -- Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
1) If you find one: DON"T TOUCH IT
2) Call someone else to do the dirty work:
...... a) A profressional -- if you care about the area
...... b) someone you hate -- if they don't suceed, well - you can guess the rest
3) Leave area as fast you can
- Schamus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Now I just need to find an atomic bomb...
- puter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Just to clear some things up
I don't believe this is accurate, very rarily do you attempt to cut or disconnect any wires in a bomb, generaly you remove the detonation caps to avoide that whole annoying booby trap thing
so, in short what you would generaly do if you were to actualy dissassemble the bomb would be to remove the detonator caps from the explosive that initiates the chain reaction. I would not recomend doing the rest of the steps which would involve handling radiation, instead simply get the entire package away from the detonation caps in the safest way possible. - Ludwig, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1If you were Jack Bauer, you'd pronounce it "nukeuler".
- izmeh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3McGuyver > Atomic Bomb
- cudgel13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1McGuyver can't use the gun-type devices... against his principles...
- SirFoxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Step 1: Disconnect the red wire
Step 2: After you disconnect the green wire
oops! - wkdown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Maybe this is a sign of things to come for the third season of Lost?
- halosniper7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1666 diggs
- jgullickson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1duh,
Pull the trigger!
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by