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Article #620543Re: 1963--nuclear weapon alarm system
From: Peter Flass
Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2018 23:43
Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2018 23:43
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2667 bytes
<hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote: > In 1963, Western Union, under contract with the US Air Force, installed > a nationwide nuclear weapon detonation detection system. If there > was an attack, the airforce would be immediately notified. > > The system worked by having special sensors that would only be > triggered by the intense light of a nuclear weapon. Other light > (sunlight, lightning, etc) would not affect it. Upon receipt of > the blast light, the sensor would send a off signal before the blast > shock wave (travels slower) and destroyed the sensor and wires. > Areas would have multiple sensors in case one was destroyed. > > The sensors and warning system is described in the WUTR: > http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/technical/western-union-tech-review/17-1/p032.htm > There is a story that there is one radio station in Russia (Moscow) that broadcasts nothing but a continuous tone. Supposedly, if it ever stops broadcasting it will trigger a fail-safe launch on nukes. I read a story about this, but later it turned up in several factual contexts. -- Pete
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