Редкий в наши дни неофициальный рассказ о том, как выглядит наружный ядерный взрыв! Даньшего времени человек. 200 килотонн, кстати, взрыв уже средней мощности. Не тактический (тактические от 0.1 до 100 килотонн). I can tell you this from first hand experience. It was an atmospheric explosion from a nuclear test device (bomb!) suspended from what probably was a specially designed barrage balloon many hundreds of feet in the air. I won’t tell you where or when I saw it or whose it was, but I will tell you that it was about a 200 KT explosion and “we” saw it and heard it from over 20 miles away. The event occurred mid-morning on a warm, crystal-clear day with miles of visibility. I’ll tell you exactly what I heard, felt and saw. As zero-time approached we were told to put on our special goggles (these were made of a really dark glass, not unlike what an arc welder would use to protect his eyes), At zero time, there was a sharp point of light from where we knew the balloon was suspended. The point very quickly expanded into a huge white light that filled my field of vision. At the same time (I was wearing a short sleeved shirt) and along my exposed arms, I sensed a quick build-up of heat that kept rising but started to subsided just after it became uncomfortable and as the light intensity dimmed. (The sensation is not unlike what you would feel on a cool day when the sun quickly comes out from behind a cloud, but much hotter. This sensation with “instant sunlight” is most acute at high elevations.) As it was clear that I no longer needed eye protection, ,I removed the glasses and saw a very stark, white, developing mushroom cloud. As the cloud lifted toward the stratosphere, I heard a sharp “crack” and, I don’t know how else to describe it, but it absolutely was not the loud and rolling “BAADDOOM” that is often suggested by movie descriptions of such explosions. I remember being unimpressed by the sound given what I had just witnessed. Even one of the guys standing next to me remarked: “I don’t know about you, but that sounded just like a big firecracker to me!”, which meant to me he was similarly unimpressed by the sound. And that was it! - except that the memory of the power that resides in one of these weapons has never left me; notwithstanding the fact that the sound emitted seemed to be not much (but remember, we were a long distance away.) There aren’t many of us guys left that have this experience to tell and, in one way, that’s too bad. In reliving this experience over the years - and a few others that were similar - , I have often thought that everybody should know, firsthand, and really feel the power in these damn things. In fact, the best thing for preventing nuclear war might be, every few years or so, to take a good collection of world leaders out to a desolate site and light one of these big babies off to show them what these things really are. Maybe it would make a difference and maybe it wouldn't but one thing is certain, it would be an experience they would never forget. PS I think somewhere someone ask about smell after such an explosion. If there is a peculiar smell, we wren’t close enough to sense it. That is, none of us sensed anything unusual in smell after witnessing what we did. Robert Lanier Former Senior Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1969–2013) https://qr.ae/pGxLtb