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Just a question?


Nova
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Is it possible to break the ozone layer by letting nuclear waste explode in the upper atmosphere.

I am just asking because i watched a anime where the antagonist slowly broke the ozone layer of the earth by letting thousand of barrels of nuclear waste explode in the atmosphere.

I am just asking.

I mean some things are possible in RL.

But its not like i want to destroy the life on earth baka

 

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12 minutes ago, Nova said:

Is it possible to break the ozone layer by letting nuclear waste explode in the upper atmosphere.

I know that the US and the Soviets tested nukes by exploding them high up in the air and nothing like that happened, so maybe not

sometimes I wonder if it will ever be practical to just put all our dangerous waste products on the moon or something

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1 minute ago, Saxon said:

Did they check what impact the detonations had on O3 concentration, out of interest?

dunno, maybe

I wish I knew what resource I could point you to, but it was definitely in the cold war era that they got whatever info they could and I'm not sure if they bother testing nukes these days, though IIRC the North Koreans have been testing their toys out but I think that's mostly for the missile itself minus the warhead. Dunno if that's any help.

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3 minutes ago, Sir Gibby said:

dunno, maybe

I wish I knew what resource I could point you to, but it was definitely in the cold war era that they got whatever info they could and I'm not sure if they bother testing nukes these days, though IIRC the North Koreans have been testing their toys out but I think that's mostly for the missile itself minus the warhead. Dunno if that's any help.

I just did some googling and nuclear detonations in the troposphere cause ozone depletion in the stratosphere, because the thermal pulse causes Nitrogen to combine with Oxygen to produce NO2, which is the leading chemical species that destroys Ozone in a catalytic reaction.

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royptb/367/1593/1256.full.pdf

So yeah, OP is right; Nuclear detonations are pretty bad for the Ozone layer.

 

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54 minutes ago, Saxon said:

 

So yeah, OP is right; Nuclear detonations are pretty bad for the Ozone layer.

However, the OP is referring to nuclear waste, not weapons, so it would not, as nuclear waste is not explosive, just radioactive.

Even nuclear weapons are unusually not explosive unless specifically detonated; a nuclear stockpile can burn (one even burnt in my state, the area is still capped in many feet of concrete) and will release large amounts of radiation, but will not explode.

I find it surprising that so many people are under the impression that everything nuclear explodes, but I guess that is due in part to the success of the often untruthful anti-nuclear movement (financed, of course, by coal and oil) while my knowledge is partially due to my proximity to a nuclear power station.

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9 hours ago, Osrik said:

However, the OP is referring to nuclear waste, not weapons, so it would not, as nuclear waste is not explosive, just radioactive.

Even nuclear weapons are unusually not explosive unless specifically detonated; a nuclear stockpile can burn (one even burnt in my state, the area is still capped in many feet of concrete) and will release large amounts of radiation, but will not explode.

I find it surprising that so many people are under the impression that everything nuclear explodes, but I guess that is due in part to the success of the often untruthful anti-nuclear movement (financed, of course, by coal and oil) while my knowledge is partially due to my proximity to a nuclear power station.

Honestly, since the OP was talking about exploding, I just assumed they meant bombs.

One could complain that animé characters don't exist in real life if you want to be picky.

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