Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The nuclear test that vaporized an entire island.
[00:00:04] 72 years ago, the island of Elujelab in the Pacific Ocean instantly vanished after a 6 meter 20 ton hydrogen bomb unleashed a 10.4 megaton explosion.
[00:00:16] On November 1, 1952, the United States detonated its first hydrogen bomb, nicknamed Mike, as part of the nuclear tests known as Operation Ivy. According to interesting engineering this this was the first full scale test of a breakthrough design by Hungarian American physicist Edward Teller and Polish mathematician Stanisaw Ulam. The bomb was placed on the uninhabited island of Elugelab, part of the Enewetak Atoll, which consists of 40 small islands and coral atolls spread across the South Pacific. Mike quickly released its immense power. The once solid island of Elujalab evaporated in an instant, leaving behind a massive crater 1.9 kilometers wide and 50 meters deep. The explosion generated a 6 meter high tsunami that wiped out vegetation on surrounding islands. Gordon Dean, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, summarized the test results to President Dwight D. Eisenhower with the words Alugelab island is gone. The explosion produced a fireball with a 5 kilometer diameter. Within 90 seconds, the mushroom cloud rose to a height of 17 kilometers, reaching 33 kilometers a minute later. Eventually, the cloud stabilized at an altitude of 41 kilometers, with the mushroom's cap spanning 161 kilometers and its base 32 kilometers wide. The explosion's measured force was unprecedented, reaching 10.4 megatons. A military report quoted witnesses aboard several ships stating that the explosion was indescribable, accompanied by blinding light. The heat from the blast could be felt immediately at a distance of 48-56 km.
[00:02:02] The massive fireball on the horizon appeared like a rising sun, expanding rapidly. After hovering for a brief moment, Mike was a symbol of extraordinary technical achievement, standing 6 meters tall and weighing 20 tons. Though not practical as a conventional weapon, its importance lay in being the first nuclear device to generate explosive force from a thermonuclear fusion reaction. And as opposed to the fission process used in earlier bombs, the bomb's function relied on using a fission reaction to trigger fusion inside liquid deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen. Mike's appearance resembled an industrial complex. More than a traditional weapon, the bomb was encased in a wrinkled aluminum structure, accompanied by a signal tower over 30 meters high to communicate with the control room on the USS Estes. Due to the use of liquid deuterium fuel, a large refrigeration plant was required to keep the deuterium near absolute zero.
[00:03:04] The power for this complex setup came from a 3,000 kilowatt electric plant. The Ivy Mike test also led to the discovery of two new elements.
[00:03:13] Shortly after the detonation, a fleet of U.S. air Force planes flew through the mushroom cloud equipped with modified fuel tanks designed to collect and filter debris from the air. The filters on board were sealed in lead containers and sent to Los Alamos, New Mexico, for for analysis. Nuclear scientist Albert Giorso at the University of California, Berkeley, was among those intrigued by the scientific potential of the filters. Giorso speculated that the filters might contain atoms that had transformed into elements 99 and 100, which had been predicted but not yet observed through radioactive decay. Giorso, along with chemist Stanley Gerald Thompson and Glenn Seaborg, obtained half a filter paper from the Ivy Mike test.
[00:04:00] On it, they discovered the existence of elements 99 and 100 in 1955. These new elements were named einsteinium and fermium, in honor of Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi. Nuclear testing on Eniwetak atoll ended in 1958.
[00:04:17] In 1977 and 2000, the US military carried out decontamination efforts on Eniwetak and surrounding islands.
[00:04:26] Scientists predict that the island may be suitable for human habitation by 2026-2027.
