Reddit mentions: The best nuclear weapons history books

I am not totally sure what you are asking for actually exists in book form...which is odd, now that I think about it.

If it were me, I would think about magazines instead. And if you really want to push him, think about the following options:

1. Science News, which is very similar to the front-matter of the leading scientific journal Science. This includes news from the past month, and some in-depth articles. It is much better written -- and written at a much higher level -- than Scientific American or Discover. For a very intelligent (and science-interested) high school student, this should pose little difficulty.
   
2. The actual journal Science. This is weekly, which is nice. In addition to the news sections, this also includes editorials and actual science papers. While many of the actual papers will be beyond your son, he can still see what passes for presentation of data in the sciences, and that is cool.
   
3. The actual journal Nature. This is also weekly, and is the british version of the journal Science. In my opinion, the news section is better written than Science, which is important as this is where your kid's reading will be mostly done. IN addition, Nature always has sections on careers and education, so that your son will be exposed to the more human elements of science. Finally, the end of nature always has a 1-page sci-fi story, and that is fun as well.
   
4. If you must, you could try Scientific American or Discover, but if you really want to give your kid a cool gift, that is a challenge, go for one of the top three here. I would highly recommend Nature.
   
   If you insist on books...
   
   I see you already mentioned A Brief History of the Universe, which is an excellent book. However, I am not sure if you are going to get something that is more "in depth." Much of the "in depth" stuff is going to be pretty pop, without the rigorous foundation that are usually found in textbooks.
   
   If I had to recommend some books, here is what I would say:
   
   
5. The selfish gene is one of the best "rigorous" pop-science books out there. Dawkins doesn't really go into the math, but other than that he doesn't shy away from the implications of the work.
   
6. Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Dennett is a great book. While not strictly science, per se, it does outline good philosophical foundations for evolution. It is a dense read, but good.
   
7. On the more mathematical side, you might try Godel, Escher, Bach, which is a book that explores the ramifications of recrusiveness and is an excellent (if dense) read.
   
8. You could also consider books on the history of science -- which elucidate the importance of politics and people in the sciences. I would recommend any of the following: The Double Helix, A man on the moon, The making of the atomic bomb, Prometheans in the lab, The alchemy of air, or A most damnable invention. There are many others, but these came to mind first.
   
   Hope that helps! OH AND GO WITH THE SUBSCRIPTION TO NATURE
   
   edit: added the linksssss

Other comments here are spot on.

The simplistic version that underlies all of them is humans are smart so they can identify a problem and approach the desired solution iteratively. This creates a feedback loop.

Before "modern" (the mid to late 1800's onwards) machine tools, you had people making a lot of things custom every time using files to get parts to mate together. There are some exceptions to this with specific measurement and manufacturing tools that were conceived and used but they weren't in wide spread use before the Industrial Revolution and they didn't look as similar to today's machines as everything after. We humans are really good at tweaking stuff slightly until it is far beyond the precision of the individual pieces itself.

Similarly, if I took any old lathe or mill, measured my part to be 0.100" and needed it to be 0.050", I could dial a cut in at 0.05" and take it but depending on the quality and rigidity of the machine, workholding, bearing surfaces and tooling, I would be hard pressed to hit that 0.050" dead on. However, I could take as many passes I wanted while remeasuring until I'm happy with the result. Cut 0.020" off, measure again, I should have 0.030" left but I actually have 0.027" left. Cut again this time at 0.010" and I should have 0.017" left but I have 0.015" left etc.

As others mentioned, the 3 plate method allows you to generate with time and effort, a very precisely flat surface. I could generate that surface, use it as my surface referenced plate and then hand scrape a piece to match it's flatness and squareness to the best of my willingness to work on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_scraper if you're unfamiliar. The craftsman inks (blues) up a reference surface, imprints the work piece by rubbing it on that surface. Only the points in contact touch. Using a scraper and some training, you can remove .0002" with a scraper cut. Remove all of the high spots that are blue bringing the high spots closer to the average. Remark and do it again iteratively. Each time you bring your work surface closer to your reference.

The same thing was done with precision lead screws. Hand made screws were cut with primitive methods and put in early lathe like machines to cut more screws. These machines had error compensation methods built in that averaged the thread cutting across the original screw (or sometimes multiple screws) resulting in a screw that was more precise than what you started with.

For calibrating a reference surface for flatness, you can use levels or autocollimators for overall variations. The precision of your level can be increased by increasing the longitudinal radius of your glass bubble dial.

An excerpt from another post I made in /r/cnc:
Some source material to consider:
LINK A great site with collections of documents covering major works in the development of precision tools.

Precision Machine Design - Slocum more of a textbook on precision machine design but has tons of footnotes and talks about some of the developmental history.)

Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance talks about some of the accuracy needed in Oakridge etc to help make the atomic bomb and precision guided missiles before GPS existed even for the military. A number of military interests drove ultra precision development such as this and the large optical diamond turning maching (LODTM)

Rolling Bearings and their contribution to the progress of technology covers the history of bearings that allowed precision machinery.

Machine Tool Reconditioning is an older book and highly technical but is considered the bible for old machine tool rebuilding and goes into the processes of how one would make precision flat surfaces and check all of the geometry on their machines and fix them in a time before lasers and fancy computer controlled equipment.

Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy and the followup book Holes, Contours and Surfaces was written by Moore and his son (I believe, respectively), the first especially is considered a bible on the theory of obtaining super precision tolerances. The authors are part of Moore Tool Company which made amongst other machines Moore Jig Borers.

Mitutoyo has a pdf on the history of gauge blocks

You can further go down that rabbit hole and look at metrology books as one can achieve great tolerances by iteratively approaching a desired value and having proper metrology equipment to check your work as you go. For example, metrology standards

You can also look at old professional telescope building books and newer diy telescope making books as there's a lot of interesting information and techniques to obtain precision optics on the order of wavelengths of light.

As someone else here mentioned: How Round Is Your Circle

I can probably dig up a lot more. I've spent way to much money purchasing old out of print books related to precision machinery, machining and metrology.

From the iterative process of making basic tools, you can then use those tools to make even better tools through iteration. In many ways, it's similar to Moore's law in the electronics world; a exponential curve where we stand on the shoulder of giants and improve upon what already exists. Many have proposed technology as a whole as just that such as Ray Kurzweil in "The Singularity is Near" etc.

Edit: Thanks for the gold!

I copy and pasted most of this from my old notes, so don't think I'm crazy and wrote nearly 9,000 words just for you! But browse these and you'll have a fairly comprehensive idea about the impact of Nuclear testing in the continental US. I tried to find mostly websites and movies, but there are three books at the end if you're into that sort of thing. This is about 1/4 of the source material I had readily available, so if anything specifically interests you let me know and I can give a few more leads probably or answer any questions!

General history

Fifty Years From Trinity by the Seattle Times Company. This website provides the full text of the 1995 article “Fifty Years From Trinity,” by Bill Dietrich, and interactive presentations of information about atomic bombs. Focuses on the Trinity test site, the Nevada test site, and the plutonium production complex at Hanford Washington. Also has interactive learning tools for teachers and students, including a quiz, supplementary articles and documents.


Movies

The Atomic Café (vimeo link to movie) directed by Rafferty, Kevin / Loader, Jayne / Rafferty, Pierce - This creatively edited film depicts American uncertainty, fear, ignorance, and paranoia in the early Cold War, using the very propaganda that instilled these traits into the American consciousness. It is a montage of U.S. government archival footage and newsreel footage from the forties and fifties. It begins with Col. Paul Tibbets narrating his mission that dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, spliced with the footage of the explosion and ensuing human effects. Tibbets describes being demonized for his role, and states that America is suffering an atomic guilt complex. The clips include footage of U.S. Army training. One shows an officer telling soldiers that radiation is nothing to worry about, and then records the men racing into a still smoldering atomic test area. Other footage reflects the suburban paranoia—families gather in bomb shelters believing themselves safe, while children outside practice “Duck and Cover”. A memorable clip shows an American officer explaining to natives of Bikini Atoll that they must be evacuated for the good of mankind.

Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie directed by Kuran, Peter - This documentary film depicts the history of the development of nuclear weapons both within and outside of the United States from 1945 to 1963. It contains incredible atomic bomb footage from declassified materials that were painstakingly restored by the film’s production team, an effort which won an Oscar award for Peter Kuran. The film conveys the extent of nuclear testing that took place during that era, and includes footage of tests on the ground, underwater, suspended from balloons, and in the upper atmosphere. The footage is both visually stunning and unsettling. The film also features an interview with Edward Teller who is widely acknowledged as the “father of the hydrogen bomb.” I'm pretty sure it used to be on Netflix.

Dark Circle directed by Beaver, Chris / Irving, Judy / Landy, Ruth - This award-winning film focuses on the victims of nuclear weapons production, testing, and use. It features the stories of workers at the Rocky Flats, Colorado production facility; residents near the facility; United States servicemen participating in nuclear tests; survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki; and activitists who opposed the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California. Originally produced in 1982, the film was revised in 1991. It stresses the long term human impact of nuclear weapons.

Websites

http://www.atomictestingmuseum.org/ The National Atomic Testing Museum, Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation. The site features a virtual tour of the museum through photos and video clips. I've been to the actual museum and would definitely recommend it if you're ever in Las Vegas!

http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/ State of Nevada: Agency for Nuclear Projects - This is the official website of the Nuclear Waste Project Office of the State of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects. The website includes links to hundreds of government and other documents, including news clippings, many in PDF format.

http://www.atomicarchive.com/index.shtml Atomic Archive by AJ Software and Multimedia - This website is a comprehensive resource for information on nuclear weapons.The almanac contains information on nuclear facilities, forces, and test sites. The media gallery has photographs, videos, animations, and maps. The store offers items related to nuclear issues such as DVDs, books, and magazines for purchase or subscription. News links and a This Month in Atomic History section are featured on the home page.

http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/ “Radiation Protection” United States Environmental Protection Agency - This is the Radiation Protection section of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States website, which informs citizens of the harmful effects of radiation to people and to the environment and details ways to avoid exposure to radiation.


Fallout/Downwind Books

Justice Downwind: America's Atomic Testing Program in the 1950s book by Ball, Howard (less than $10 on Amazon and definitely worth it) - This book was among the first scholarly studies to examine the ways “downwinders” in Utah were affected by fallout from atmospheric atomic tests in Nevada in the 1950s and their early efforts to gain radiation exposure compensation from the U. S. government. Introductory chapters summarize the development of the atomic bomb and the creation of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the agency that created and operated the Nevada Test Site. Subsequent chapters describe the downwinder communities in southern Utah, their reactions to the above-ground atomic tests, and the health consequences that began to gain national attention in the late 1970s. The author presents medical research on cancer, especially leukemia, in the test site region, and explores legal action by the downwinders, especially Allen v. United States, to win compensatory damages from the federal government. The author’s study period ends in the mid-1980s, well before the U. S. Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to provide money payments to people who suffered cancers linked to the atmospheric tests in Nevada.


Atomic Soldiers: American Victims of Nuclear Experiments book by Howard L Rosenberg. This book describes how the United States military used its own personnel to test the psychological impact of atomic blasts. It also examines the effects of nuclear testing on people who lived close to the Nevada Test Site. In particular, the author, a journalist, uses the story of Russell Jack Dann as an example of what he indicates thousands of United States servicemen endured. He follows the story from the time Dann was recruited to be present at a nuclear blast through his testimony to Congress in 1978 about his experiences. The author sets the context for Dann’s story with background information about the decisions being made at the highest levels of government. The author relies on declassified Pentagon reports and extensive interviews with survivors for his source material, giving the book great authenticity. The majority of the content reflects personal experiences, not scientific information, for which other references should be consulted. (Used on Amazon for <$10.)


The U.S. Atlas of Nuclear Fallout: 1951-1962 Volume I. Total Fallout by Miller, Richard L. This book is a comprehensive study of nuclear fallout in the United States based on published U.S. government documents released in the late 1990s. The fallout from every above-ground test conducted in Nevada is examined in detail, with illustrative maps. The book shows the 80 counties with the highest fallout from each individual test and the fallout for every county in the continental U.S. for each test series. The author also examines the concentrations of different types of radionuclide fallout across the U.S. The book concludes with statistical analyses of the relationships of nuclear fallout, including specific radionuclides, and cancers in the population. Strong relationships were found between fallout distribution and a variety of cancers, particularly female colon cancers and lymphosarcomas. These data were used in research such as the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) study of thyroid cancer. The book is supported by hundreds of pages of maps and tables. This is the abridged general reader edition... look for it at a University library near you, it's way too pricey to own but is a great resource if you're curious about the geographical spread of the fallout.

Edit: clarifying- I wrote all these summaries, they are not just copied and pasted from someone else ;)

North Korea is absolutely safe in this case, because like you said America values lives. And this has being the rationale behind China's minimal deterrence policy during the cold war. Because, during the game between the Soviet Union and the US, have nuclear weapon means it will be used as a easy game board for whatever political gains as the risks always outweigh the benefits. This is the game North Korea is playing now, basically North Korea is China during the cold war.

However, if the said country does pose a real threat, there is little qualms about taking the nuclear option, if there is little risk of return fire. See US plans to wipe the Soviet Union off the map in 1945, while the US has the nuclear advantage and the knowlege that the Soviets will soon have them too. US plans for first strike during the cuban missile crisis, while the US still the advantage of European and Turkish sites, while the Soviet haven't fully brought up the Cubans ones yet. And last the Herman Kahn's excellent book On Thermal War, where millions of lives lost is just statistic and can be calculated and sacrifice to pressed for an advantage.

Now the question is, what is China's position now. Does America see China on the same level as Soviet Union. Even worse, during the cold war, it quiet clears in the west (and in some circles inside the soviet union), long run the west will win. As long as the west contain soviet aggression and check soviet advances, then victory will be assured. This idea is vocalize most succinctly in the long telegram. In fact, the most dangerous time for nuclear exchange was in the 1980s, when the Soviet Union is clearly losing and the fear was the Soviets would go for it and hope a surprise a counterforce attack will prevail.

China, it seems that China is on the trajectory to to eclipse the US in the next two decade in terms of economical, comprehensive national power and even military power. And China is seeming to chart its own institution, national policy and governmental ideology that's different from the West and would not to controlled or guided by the west (this make it very different from Japan fear in the 1980s). So essentially, China no longer a north korea, but more like the United States, and the United State is a bit like the Soviet Union, with its leadership position erroting, the doubts emerge both about her exceptionalism as well as superiority of its ideology.

The United State currently have counterforce capabilities against China, while China only have limited countervalue capabilities. Additionally, the US is confident about it capability of tracking Chinese submarines. This means while a surprise first strike by the US will not only completely destroy China, it will also have a resonable chance of destroying most of China's nuclear arsenal as well. The US missile defense system could have catch the few missile missed by that first strike, leave the US mostly unscached (and in the views of a confident commander, completely unscached) in such an exchange and permanently stop a force that could not be stopped in the future. With other rational and moral leaders in power, this is very unlikely, even though RAND just recently published war plans with China. But with Trump in power, he might just wonna make it a reality.

With China archiving MAD, this places the possibility of a winnable nuclear war with China completely out of the windows, and would ensure the relative peace we all had since the end of WWII. And it is a policy that will not ending up saving Chinese lives, but American ones as well.

It's quite a lot to bite off, but everything you want is contained in these four books:

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-25th-Anniversary/dp/1451677618/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Sun-Making-Hydrogen-Bomb-ebook/dp/B008TRUB6O/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Arsenals-Folly-Richard-Rhodes-ebook/dp/B000W93DEO/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Bombs-Challenges-Dangers-Prospects-ebook/dp/B003F3PKXQ/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Rhodes is the guy for nuclear history. I've read all four, but the last two are, admittedly, somewhat forgettable. They deal with the continuing command issues surrounding nuclear arsenals and the eventual political movement to eradicate (or, as it happened, simply limit) strategic stockpiles.

That being said, the first two, Making of the Bomb and Dark Sun, are utterly indispensible. The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, 1986 history of the scientific effort to elucidate the physical principles which led to bombs and of the miliitary-scientific-industrial effort to realize the possibility of a weapon. It discusses many interesting characters within this history, such as Ernest Lawrence, Leo Szilard, and of course, Oppenheimer.

I have to be honest with you - I've saved Dark Sun for last for a reason. This is one of the most phenomenally engaging books I've ever read. It has everything: the creation of doomsday weapons of, and I don't use this term loosely, unimaginable destructive potential and the obsessive quasi-fetishization of their refinement and testing on behalf of the United States' and Soviet militaries. Rhodes discusses the post-war split within the scientific community over whether to develop a hydrogen "Super" bomb, whether to share information relating to it with the Soviet Union, and the factional leveraging of security privileges and political favor to exclude those from research who did not take a sufficiently hard stand against cooperation with the USSR.

Dark Sun details bomb physics and the minutia of the testing program in just enough detail to remain compelling and accessible. Rhodes also does his best to humanize Soviet scientific personnel such as Igor Kurchatov, the father of the Soviet bomb, and the strained relationship they shared with their political patrons, such as the Darth Vader-esque Lavrenti Beria.

I hope this answers your question, and I hope that you enjoy these books as much as I did!

If the history of The Bomb fascinates any of you, then I cannot recommend highly enough the Pulitzer prize winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. It is not only one of the most researched history books I've come across, but it reads like a work of literature.

Hands down the greatest work of history I've ever read.

Hermann Kahn's On Thermonuclear War & Thinking about the Unthinkable in the 1980s are still go-to texts for nuclear strategy.

The Parallel History Project is a good resource for Early to Mid Cold War era Warsaw Pact warplanning.

The CIA's Historical Collections contain declassified documents regarding US assessments of the WP and Soviet stances, The CAESAR, POLO, and ESAU Papers in particular.

For some interesting context, the GWU's National Security archive has some documents showing US intelligence failures.

Unfortunately, you will run into the secrecy wall really quick in this area, since nuclear strategy is more a political strategy, than a strictly military one, and grand strategy like this hangs around a good, long while (for example, I am not aware of any declassified Single Integrated Operational Plans).

Great insight here and in your earlier post!

I just finished reading Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance. Great read on this very topic!

Herman Kahn's "On Thermonuclear War" is a Wonderful (if dry) read. He was a badass, because when everyone else was talking OMG NUCLEAR APOCALYPSE, he was proposing timelines for nations restoring their prewar GNP. Can you imagine that shit? Sitting down and running the numbers for GNP? Anyway, the book's a fascinating read, and it's great to think of nuclear war as a "Now what?" kinda scenario, as oppposed to "everyone died".

In 1976, and underachieving 3rd year physics student at Princeton designed an atomic bomb in just a few months. It was his independent study term project.

The biggest problem he faced was determining the geometric configuration of the explosives used to implode the fissile core. After weeks of fruitless work, he had the crazy idea to call up DuPont and just ask them about it. They gave him the information over the phone.

He published a very entertaining book about the experience and the ensuing media frenzy. It's well worth reading.

As a companion piece, check out The Curve of Binding Energy, an investigation into just how astoundingly poorly secured nuclear material was in the 70's. I remember one description of a storage site where a chain link fence and an window with no alarm were the only barriers to entering a room full of containers of enriched uranium. The only security was a guard post around the corner, 1/4 mile away. Hopefully security is better now.

It's absolutely amazing there has not yet been a nuclear terrorist attack.

YS(also)K about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Von_Clausewitz - his book "On War" laid the foundations for the academic study of warfare. Many (many) years later, Herman Kahn wrote "On Thermonuclear War", an amazing book, as a follow-on.

For those interested in this most morbid of subjects, I can recommend:

• The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy
  
• The Utility of Force
  
• We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History
  
• and of course On Thermonuclear War.
  
  For an antidote, Joanna Bourke's superb Fear: A Cultural History may also be enjoyed.

You'd be surprised. The CEP of the Peacekeeper is estimated to be 120 meters or less than 400 feet. I did screw up my units, PKs range is about 10,000KM, not miles. :P The AIRS (Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere) is considered the pinnacle of inertial technology. To really boggle your mind you have to consider that PK is not dropping 1 warhead within 400 feet, but up to 10 warheads, on individual targets, within 400 feet!

The 500 foot number I quoted is for Trident II (Trident D5) SLBM. It is not solely black box though. It takes a single star sighting during flight, which corrects for INS offset due to the launch platform having initial errors in INS calibration. It's CEP is between 300-500 feet (depending on the source you cite). Trident D5 is also suspected of having an upgrade to GPS sometime in the near future (if not already on some lots), which will improve accuracy even further.

I highly suggest reading Inventing Accuracy by Donald Mackenzie. The book is about the most detailed publicly available information on ICBM INS development in the US. It is a really good read.

If you have time, I read this in a course on the safety and viability of nuclear energy, and it really seemed to cover all the bases. From there, I agree that you'll probably have to look through journals for newer information.

Megawatts and Megatons by Garwin and Charpack: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0226284271/ref=pd_aw_sbs_1?pi=SL500_SY115

Most people don't know it, but a fusion bombs actually uses a standard nuclear bomb as a detonator. It uses the x-rays generated to compress the fissile material to start the reaction.

Once that step was figured out, scaling them up to tzar bomba really wasn't anything more complicated than adding more fuel(lithium deuteride).

So yeah, pretty hard to set off.

EDIT: For those interested in the history of it, this is a fascinating book: https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Express-Political-History-Proliferation/dp/076033904X

> Two days later, the bombing of Nagasaki made it obvious to the entire world that Japan was defeated and had no choice but to surrender. The U.S.S.R. had no choice but to call off any invasion and join the Allies in victory.

This is completely wrong. It was not clear that the Japanese were going to surrender after Nagasaki, and it's not clear that Nagasaki had anything to do with their actual surrender. And I don't see any evidence that it stopped the Soviets' plans — they certainly continued invading Japanese territory on the Asian landmass, and even took the Kurils sometime afterwards. The USSR didn't "call off" anything. If the Soviets had plans to invade Hokkaido, they were called off later, when Japan actually indicated they were going to surrender. But even then, Stalin didn't order the invasion of the Kurils until after Japan indicated it would accept the Potsdam terms.

Great book on the uncertainty that reigned between August 9 and August 15: Michael D. Gordin, _Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War_.

Lastly, the notion that this was a big "choice" for Truman is incorrect. Truman and his advisors did not see this as a "use the bomb, or invade" question. It was a "we have a bomb, of course we'll use it," and they were still planning to invade if they needed to. They didn't know if the bomb would compel Japan to surrender. And, in fact, there is considerable evidence that it didn't.

It's out of date, but it was written deep in the Cold War and if you can find a copy you might enjoy it: Nuclear War: What's in it for You?

War Day is fiction but it's definitely worth a read as well.

I think Alibris is your friend when looking for this kind of thing of course...

There's a really cool book that describes the entire history of the atomic industry in the United States at a very high level that discusses this. It's called Building the Bombs

Well, firelock_ny, I think you'll find that this guy uses the term that way. So did this person. And, you know, this dictionary. Or this site, or this site, or this page.

But, no, you're totally right, firelock_ny, I'm the only one.

Edit: Also, nice job slipping "primarily" in there, knowing full well nobody said it was primarily anything.

How could there not be a mention of the true classic?

http://www.amazon.com/Thermonuclear-War-Herman-Kahn/dp/141280664X

If you are interested in learning more about its guidance system I suggest reading the book Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance

One of my relatives wrote this book, which they later turned into a movie. It goes into some good detail and includes interviews of some of the soldiers that were exposed to radiation.

yep cia bob and the sbs ,read all about what they were upto in this book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-Heroes-Damien-Lewis/dp/0099481952/ref=sr_1_1?crid=4NPHR1P0I489&keywords=bloody+heroes&qid=1555076490&s=gateway&sprefix=bloody+her%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-1

I'd recommend you check out the book Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (Inside Technology).

You're thinking of MIRVs - multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. ICBMs are "intercontinental ballistic missiles", which is what North Korea is currently working on. MIRVs can be ICBMs, but ICBMs are not always MIRVs.

Speaking of ICBMs, if you're into history, specifically the Cold War arms race, this book is a fantastic read. It's a bit outdated now that a lot of the Russian's side of things is declassified, but still worthwhile IMO.

Edit: /u/Mehowthegreat don't worry, ICBMs scare me too. I'd be more worried about civilians getting hit by ICBMs than by MIRVs though.

I read this that says Israel had a lot of help from the French in developing their program in the 60s and they had help form the South African's in the late 70s test a bomb way off the coast of South Africa.

> How does the DOD generate the vast amount of weapons grade plutonium

Dedicated plutonium production reactors. See: https://www.amazon.com/Megawatts-Megatons-Future-Nuclear-Power/dp/0226284271

Wind and solar create nothing but drag in every industrialized economy in which they exist: https://stopthesethings.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Spains-Photovoltaic-Revolution-Investment-SpringerBriefs/dp/144199436X

https://bravenewclimate.com/2014/08/22/catch-22-of-energy-storage/

There was just the right amount of high yield uranium bearing materials in teh same place that it started a reaction, which eventually burned out. This is why you don't see uranium in very high concentrations in the wild.

Its on Audiobook if TL/DR

Only the greatest story ever told.

Say my name

Thermonuclear Monarchy https://www.amazon.com/Thermonuclear-Monarchy-Choosing-Between-Democracy/dp/0393080080/

Insanity? I'll take the word of a Nuclear scientist who has published his claims over the ad hominem attacks of a nationalist.

Pakistan's "economy" benefited from billions of dollars of handouts given by the US because Pakistan was being rented for use against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Saudis are partial owners/stake-holders in the Pak nuke program. The Libyans were sold a dud by PakMil though.

Currently: The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran

After this I will probably read

The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan

On War

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Rise of the Islamic State

On Grand Strategy

A fellow on the combined defense discord layed out his recommendations for books on nukes, so I'll list them here.

On Thermonuclear War By Herman Kahn

On Limited Nuclear War in the 21st Century by Jeffrey Larsen and Kerry Kartchner

The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, Third Edition by Lawrence Freedman

Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces by Pavel Podvig

Nuclear Statecraft: History and Strategy in America's Atomic Age by Francis J. Gavin

Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb by Feroz Khan

Prevention, Pre-emption and the Nuclear Option: From Bush to Obama by Aiden Warren

Nuclear Deterrence in the 21st Century: Lessons from the Cold War for a New Era of Strategic Piracy by Thérèse Delpech

Analyzing Strategic Nuclear Policy by Charles L. Glaser

Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era: Regional Powers and International Conflict by Vipin Narang

Building the H Bomb: A Personal History By Kenneth W Ford

The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy by Matthew Kroenig

Paper Tigers: china's Nuclear Posture by Jeffery Lewis

Arms and Influence by Thomas Schelling