by Dimitri A. Khalezov
October 2009
from Nuclear-Demolition Website
This article describes a general concept of nuclear demolition of skyscrapers - particularly in connection with known thermo-nuclear demolition schemes of the World Trade Center in New York and that of the Sears Tower in Chicago.
Though, the current article does not deal with any exact details of implementation of this concept in regard to these particular structures, but provides rather general knowledge on this subject.
Besides, this article does not consider any conspiracy behind nuclear demolition of the WTC on 9/11, neither does it consider any moral aspect of this issue - such as ground zero clean-up works and so on - it aims to explain its purely technical aspect.
South Tower begins to collapse.
However, there are other articles available in the Internet that describe the WTC nuclear demolition scheme in more or less exact detail, as well as articles that describe particular conspiracy in regard to the actual WTC demolition - links to these articles are available at the end of the current description.
Nuclear demolition of skyscrapers was patented by "Controlled Demolition Inc." (alternative site) - the most renowned demolition company that deals with controlled demolition of buildings, and especially with controlled demolition of skyscrapers.
The same company was a primary designer of nuclear demolition projects of the World Trade Center in New York and of the Sears Tower in Chicago.
The author of this article - Dimitri A. Khalezov - is a former officer the Soviet nuclear intelligence, officially known as the Special Control Service of the 12th Chief Directorate of the Defense Ministry.
Part 1. Brief history. Atomic demolition
Initial idea to use nuclear devices in demolishing various constructions was born almost simultaneously with an appearance of actual nuclear weapons in the beginning of 50s.
At first nuclear munitions were not called "nuclear", but "atomic", so a concept of demolition using these munitions was called accordingly - "atomic demolition". These words managed to survive and despite renaming former atomic weapons into "nuclear weapons", words "atomic demolition" could still be encountered today in names of special engineering devices - SADM and MADM.
The first one stands for "Special Atomic Demolition Munitions", the second - for "Medium Atomic Demolition Munitions", while many people mistakenly believe that SADM means "Small Atomic Demolition Munitions", rather than "Special".
In fact, there would not be a big mistake to call them "small" instead of "special", because SADM are indeed "small" - their nuclear explosive yields usually does not exceed 1 kiloton in TNT equivalent. Considering that all modern SADM have variable yields that could be set at as low as 0.1 kiloton, and sometimes even at 0.01 kiloton (equivalents to 100 and 10 metric tons of TNT respectively), they deserve to be called "small" munitions.
Other popular names for these Small Atomic Demolition Munitions are "mini-nuke" and "suite-case nuke", though the second one is probably not logically correct.
In reality most of SADM resemble big pots weighing between 50 to 70 kilograms that could be carried as back-packs - so it is very unlikely that they could fit into any suite-case.
However, there are also modern "mini-nukes" made of Plutonium-239, rather than of Uranium-235, and due to a much lower critical mass of Plutonium, their size could be significantly decreased - some latest Plutonium-based "mini-nukes" could indeed fit into an attaché-case.
Medium Atomic Demolition Munitions (MADM) are bigger in both - their size and their TNT yield. They could be up to 15 kiloton in TNT yield, weigh up to 200 kg and be as big as a typical large gas-cylinder for home use.
Either of abovementioned atomic demolition munitions could be successfully used in demolishing large objects that could not be demolished by any reasonable amount of conventional explosives - especially in times of emergency, when there is neither time, nor a possibility to prepare their "normal" demolition by conventional means.
For example, it could be bridges, dams, tunnels, some reinforced underground structures, large reinforced buildings, etc. However, an efficiency factor for such nuclear demolitions using SADM or MADM is not too high.
As it is probably known, the main aim of controlled demolition of buildings by implosion method is not to actually eliminate these buildings by blowing them up and sending their parts flying around, but to bring them down neatly with the least possible damage to surroundings.
For this reason engineers who prepare controlled demolitions have to first figure out exact points on buildings bearing structures and attach charges of conventional explosives to the right spots - in order to break these bearing structures.
In almost all cases there would be more than one spot to attach explosives, since it is unlikely that any of such structures would have only a single supporting girder or a single supporting column that it is to be broken; at best case there would be a few of them, if not many. In case with nuclear demolition using abovementioned atomic demolition munitions it is not the case.
People who suppose to use atomic munitions in case of emergency would have neither time, nor enough education to make such precise calculations as in case of a conventional controlled demolition. Maximum of what these people could have - is some basic field-engineering knowledge and some basic knowledge in regard to nuclear weapons usage.
Thus, usage of atomic demolition munitions in such case is to bring down a targeted structure not "neatly", but just anyhow and at any cost. That is why an explosive yield of atomic munitions used to demolish such structure in case of emergency in any case would be excessive, with major part of their entire explosive energy spent in vain - as in case with any other nuclear explosion.
So, the major part of energy, released by a nuclear explosion of such an atomic demolition device would be spent on creating well-known factors of atomic blast:
- thermal radiation
- air-blast wave
- ionizing radiation
- electro-magnetic pulse,
...that have nothing to do with the actual demolition task and could unlikely contribute to it.
However, all these destructive factors of an atomic explosion would greatly contribute to damaging of the surroundings - and this damage could be rather extreme, definitely exceeding in its cost a cost of the actual demolition.
It could be said that a nuclear demolition in the abovementioned sense would have much lower performance index compare to a precisely calculated conventional controlled demolition, since the latter one directs almost entire energy of explosives used on breaking bearing structures, rather than on creating an air-blast wave or a thermal radiation.
Besides of this, an atomic demolition device itself is quite a costly thing too. At minimum, a Uranium-based "mini-nuke" costs a couple of million US dollars, if not more (a Plutonium-based one costs much more than that). Apparently, a thousand tons of TNT would cost cheaper than a 1 kiloton atomic munitions.
However, it is possible to demolish quite a few buildings using 1000 tons of TNT, while it is possible to demolish only one single building (but to damage many other buildings around) using a "mini-nuke". Considering all of this, it could be concluded that it is not an option - to use any atomic demolition munitions, either small, or medium, for demolishing any civil infrastructure in times of peace when there is enough time to prepare demolishing any of such objects nicely by conventional means.
And in any case a conventional controlled demolition would be cheaper than a nuclear demolition. Mini-nukes could only be used for demolition job in case of real emergency.
More information about nuclear weapons in general and about "suite-case nukes" and "mini-nukes" in particular could be found here:
Link: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_uranium26.htm