Tactical Nuke Exploding in Baghdad

October 21, 2006 11:19 PM

On October 11, 2006, a Tactical Nuclear Device appears to have exploded when fire broke out in an ammunition dump at Camp Falcon inside Iraq. Video from live nightly newscast in Baghdad caught the detonation - miles away - (3:58 marker) with its characteristic ENORMOUS blinding white flash, a rising core of fire then a small mushroom cloud!
posted by augustweed (21 comments total)

I rather doubt that was a nuclear anything.
posted by unmake at 11:27 PM on October 21, 2006

A big explosion. So what? ANY large explosion forms a mushroom cloud, regardless of what's blowing up.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 11:28 PM on October 21, 2006

Probably not. To properly dentonate a nuke, the explosion needs to be very controlled (in order to reach criticality), A motar attack (or whatever) would just create a dirt bomb. Probably what happened was a larger converntional explosion, but the camera was in night-mode, so the explosion overwhelhmed its sensors.
posted by MikeKD at 11:28 PM on October 21, 2006

All explosions make mushroom clouds, as previously stated. Nuclear bombs just make giant, dramatic ones.

This was very unlikley to be nuclear, again as previously stated.
posted by SansPoint at 11:30 PM on October 21, 2006

Don't believe everything you read.
posted by elephantday at 11:31 PM on October 21, 2006

Those posts and structures in the foreground are still standing after a tactical nuke? Not likely.
posted by Krrrlson at 11:35 PM on October 21, 2006

The running commentary on the videos in the first link is priceless, nuke or not.

"This shit is great, get me another tape!"

"Jesus, we have that many munitions??"
posted by greatgefilte at 11:37 PM on October 21, 2006

Christ. A fire in an ammunition dump isn't going to set off a nuclear bomb.

Here: Go. Read. Learn.

Then post.
posted by Ryvar at 11:38 PM on October 21, 2006

I would hope the US govt wouldn't actually have any nukes in Iraq. That would seem... unwise.
posted by Joh at 11:39 PM on October 21, 2006

If a nuke had gone off while it was sitting on the ground, the world would know. The air would be positively full of radioactive shit, and radioactive shit isn't hard to detect. One easy way is everyone downwind gets fucked up eight ways from Sunday with radiation sicknesses.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:39 PM on October 21, 2006

Plus, great link to the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion in the sidebar!
posted by greatgefilte at 11:40 PM on October 21, 2006

im in yr dumps nukin' yr ammo rational behavior and reporting skills.
posted by loquacious at 11:40 PM on October 21, 2006

Wait'll the MSM gets ahold of this!
posted by paulsc at 11:41 PM on October 21, 2006

You know, if we let this thread run long enough we just might have something to top the mushroom thread.
posted by loquacious at 11:42 PM on October 21, 2006

Well, my daughter (6 year old) said: "It looks like fireworks!"
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:43 PM on October 21, 2006

Yeah, because we keep tactical nukes lying around in ammo dumps alongside conventional munitions. And people looking directly at nuclear explosions at night from a few thousand yards away don't have any visual (let alone medical) problems afterward.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:45 PM on October 21, 2006

This this is my first post on metafilter in years!
posted by yertledaturtle at 11:46 PM on October 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

Boy, are you retahded?

First of all, conventional explosions cannot cause nuclear explosions unless they cause the detonator to go off perfectly. In a plutonium bomb, you'd just have the detonator just explode and that would be that. A uranium gun-type bomb would be even less likely to fire properly.
posted by delmoi at 11:50 PM on October 21, 2006

What's That? Sadly, the education of the youth of amerika is declining in more than one way. The other day I was at the community blog and the poster was unable to identify a nuclear mushroom cloud. And no, they weren't new...and to make matters worse the poster next to them didn't know either.
posted by cytherea at 11:50 PM on October 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

hmm, this seems to be a video shot by some americans, soldures or contractors. Much closer, and cooler. Plus English narration. :P
posted by delmoi at 11:55 PM on October 21, 2006

I prefer the guy who wanted to melt down the artillery shell for scrap metal and ended up blowing himself and another man to bits and put seven other people in the hospital.

Blowing stuff up is cool. Nuking stuff is bad. Go San Dimas High Football!
posted by fenriq at 11:55 PM on October 21, 2006