• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Electrical Engineering News and Products

Electronics Engineering Resources, Articles, Forums, Tear Down Videos and Technical Electronics How-To's

  • Products / Components
    • Analog ICs
    • Battery Power
    • Connectors
    • Microcontrollers
    • Power Electronics
    • Sensors
    • Test and Measurement
    • Wire / Cable
  • Applications
    • 5G
    • Automotive/Transportation
    • EV Engineering
    • Industrial
    • IoT
    • Medical
    • Telecommunications
    • Wearables
    • Wireless
  • Learn
    • eBooks / Handbooks
    • EE Training Days
    • Tutorials
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Webinars & Digital Events
  • Resources
    • White Papers
    • Educational Assets
    • Design Guide Library
    • Digital Issues
    • Engineering Diversity & Inclusion
    • LEAP Awards
    • Podcasts
    • DesignFast
  • Videos
    • EE Videos and Interviews
    • Teardown Videos
  • EE Forums
    • EDABoard.com
    • Electro-Tech-Online.com
  • Bill’s Blogs
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Nuclear weapons’ surprising contribution to climate science

July 13, 2012 By EurekAlert

 Los Angeles (July 13 2012). Nuclear weapons testing may at first glance appear to have little connection with climate change research. But key Cold War research laboratories and the science used to track radioactivity and model nuclear bomb blasts have today been repurposed by climate scientists. The full story appears in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE.

 In his article for the July-August issue of the Bulletin, “Entangled histories: Climate science and nuclear weapons research,” University of Michigan historian Paul Edwards notes that climate science and nuclear weapons testing have a long and surprisingly intimate relationship. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, for example, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization tracked the radioactive plume emanating from damaged Japanese nuclear reactors via a global network of monitoring stations designed to measure airborne radionuclides. That network is a direct descendant of systems and computer models created to trace the fallout from weapons tests, Edwards explains.

 But ways of tracking radiation as it moves through the atmosphere have applications that extend far beyond the nuclear industry. Tracing radioactive carbon as it cycles through the atmosphere, the oceans, and the biosphere has been crucial to understanding anthropogenic climate change.

 Mathematical models with nuclear science roots have also found a place in the environmental scientists’ toolboxes. The earliest global climate models relied on numerical methods, very similar to those developed by nuclear weapons designers, for solving the fluid dynamics equations needed to analyze shock waves produced in nuclear explosions.

 The impacts of nuclear war on the climate represent another major historical intersection between climate science and nuclear affairs. Without the work done by nuclear weapons designers and testers, scientists would know much less than they do now about the atmosphere. In particular, this research has contributed enormously to knowledge about both carbon dioxide, which raises Earth’s temperature, and aerosols, which lower it. Without climate models, scientists and political leaders would not have understood the full extent of nuclear weapons’ power to annihilate not only human beings, but other species as well.

 Facilities built during the Cold War, including US national laboratories constructed to create weapons, now use their powerful supercomputers, expertise in modeling, and skills in managing large data sets to address the threat of catastrophic climate change. This has benefitted the labs themselves — without a new direction, the argument to continue funding these laboratories would have been less compelling — and the science and scientists who are studying climate change.

 “Today, the laboratories built to create the most fearsome arsenal in history are doing what they can to prevent another catastrophe – this one caused not by behemoth governments at war, but by billions of ordinary people living ordinary lives within an energy economy that we must now reinvent,” Edwards says.

 “Entangled histories: Climate science and nuclear weapons research” by Paul N. Edwards published July 13 2012 in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

 The article will be free to access for a limited time here: https://bos.sagepub.com/

 SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. https://www.sagepublications.com

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists informs the public about threats to the survival and development of humanity from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences. The Bulletin was established in 1945 by scientists, engineers, and other experts who had created the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project.

Source:https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/sp-nws071312.php

You Might Also Like

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

EE Engineering Training Days

engineering

Featured Contributions

Integrating MEMS technology into next-gen vehicle safety features

Five challenges for developing next-generation ADAS and autonomous vehicles

Robust design for Variable Frequency Drives and starters

Meeting demand for hidden wearables via Schottky rectifiers

GaN reliability milestones break through the silicon ceiling

More Featured Contributions

EE Tech Toolbox

“ee
Tech Toolbox: 5G Technology
This Tech Toolbox covers the basics of 5G technology plus a story about how engineers designed and built a prototype DSL router mostly from old cellphone parts. Download this first 5G/wired/wireless communications Tech Toolbox to learn more!

EE Learning Center

EE Learning Center
“ee
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for EE professionals.
“bills
contribute

R&D World Podcasts

R&D 100 Episode 10
See More >

Sponsored Content

Designing for Serviceability: The Role of Interconnects in HVAC Maintenance

From Control Boards to Comfort: How Signal Integrity Drives HVAC Innovation

Built to Withstand: Sealing and Thermal Protection in HVAC Sub-Systems

Revolutionizing Manufacturing with Smart Factories

Smarter HVAC Starts at the Sub-System Level

Empowering aerospace E/E design and innovation through Siemens Xcelerator and Capital in the Cloud

More Sponsored Content >>

RSS Current EDABoard.com discussions

  • connector model question
  • Sendust vs Ferrite for SMPS
  • sim7090g
  • Innovus Scan Reorder deletes Scan In Pad
  • The GaN revolution must now happen?

RSS Current Electro-Tech-Online.com Discussions

  • It's Amazing What A Buck And A Quarter....
  • Microinverters and storeage batteries?
  • ac current limiting
  • More fun with ws2812 this time XC8 and CLC
  • Impact of Tariffs on PCB Fab
Search Millions of Parts from Thousands of Suppliers.

Search Now!
design fast globle

Footer

EE World Online

EE WORLD ONLINE NETWORK

  • 5G Technology World
  • Analog IC Tips
  • Battery Power Tips
  • Connector Tips
  • DesignFast
  • EDABoard Forums
  • Electro-Tech-Online Forums
  • Engineer's Garage
  • EV Engineering
  • Microcontroller Tips
  • Power Electronic Tips
  • Sensor Tips
  • Test and Measurement Tips

EE WORLD ONLINE

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Teardown Videos
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
  • About Us

Copyright © 2025 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy