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Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mk_6_nuclear_bomb.jpg
Creator: The US government
(image listed under public domain)
Edit: I am having trouble renaming the page.
Edit(2): Thank-you OZ Ouroboros and Decibelles.
Go to + Options and then Rename to change the url from scp-2498 to scp-2948.
Shouldn't its current yield be known, and possibly also the total number of detonations?
Also is this really Safe? Can't the extraneous triggers still detonate it?
Thinking about it now, I honestly don't know why I didn't have it's yield written down before. I'll to try to make a reasonable one.
I struggled a little with how many iteration to make. I have been trying to project a reasonable number of them to demonstrate that the Foundation was able to figure out details about all seven triggers and its growth rate, but not to have it detonate so many times that the foundation seemed incompetent.
The SCiP would be safe if it was placed in an environment where its extraneous triggers couldn't be tripped (which it is).
Edit:Okay, after some research and some basic math I have added:
If the current iteration1 of SCP-2948 were to detonate, it would release approximately 1.09 PJ of energy.
The number isn't too big because it is still dwarfed by the Tsar Bomba (The largest bomb ever 210 PJ). I also added that it underwent 10 iterations. If it is worked backwards (and I didn't screw up multiplying) the first iteration of bomb would have been about 60 TJ (which is about the size of what "Little Boy" was). 10 also seemed reasonable-ish.
I'm not sure if the grammar of my foot note is correct. Would it be "SCP-2948 is currently on iteration 10", or just as "SCP-2948 is currently iteration 10"?
1) TNT equivalents might be more relatable, while technically not SI, and might be appropriate in addition to Joules.
2) How can they be sure that they have identified all the triggers?
3) How can they be sure that this containment fully isolates it from the triggers? Especially in the event of a mid-plate earthquake or onsight explosion.
4) "on the tenth iteration" sounds the most correct to me.
Response(in respective order):
1) I found more nuclear bombs listed in joules. It also is metric, and it sounds more technical and accurate than saying " energy approximately equivalent to 50 megatons if TNT".
2) They can't.
3) Stopping this bomb from exploding is like a doctor treating someone's symptoms. He will offer some measure for each problem. In this case, the Foundation cannot be certain that the bomb will never explode again in its containment, but there really is noting else they can do.
Edit: Containment procedures don't usually list contingencies for freak accidents.
4) Done.
1) Remember that you aren't actually writing a science paper here and the actual audience knows tons of TNT equivalent and not PJ for nukes. I think including both is acceptable here (even the DoD uses TNT equivalents). In this case 260 kt of TNT equivalent is roughly 1.09 PJ.
2) Then how is it Safe?
3) That sounds like Euclid to me…
Then how is it Safe?
The bomb has been in storage for over 50 years. If the bomb was still going off and causing problems, it would be Euclid (maybe even Keter).
Put in a box, someone named Darryl Austin Mgube buys a fancy goldfish for a woman named Octavia Vienna Chung from a mall pet store on a Wednesday at 1415 hours and 15 seconds within 150 km and a 1.09 PJ nuclear explosion occurs.
Doesn't sound like "put in a box and nothing happens".
1) Area-100 doesn't have to be within 150km of population.
2) Depending on where the Area is exactly, the explosion might not even reach 150 km.
3) If the bomb was left in the box as it was for 50+ years, it would probably be classed as safe.
1) The within 150 km was just an arbitrary condition. It could be any event with low but finite probability.
2) Blowing up the area, killing all their personnel and alerting every government in the world with nuclear seismic monitoring is still a containment breach.
3) Because they are assuming they have identified all the triggers? Why?
I think safe is justified. There are plenty of objects in storage that could cause trouble if they started acting in ways we couldn't anticipate, but we by definition can't anticipate those, and if we tried, every such object would be Euclid or Keter. The Foundation has to work at least partially on the assumption that previous patterns hold, otherwise containment wouldn't make sense because any object could possibly do anything at any time.
The difference is that we know this object has a number of triggers that respond to events with reasonably high probabilities, and that therefore likely has other unknown triggers that respond to events with lower probability that haven't occurred yet. This is probably going to explode again, increase in yield, and then repeat the process. That isn't in a box, left alone, and nothing happens.
I am very reluctantly downvoting because I disagree with the Safe classification, and I dislike having to convert the yield to a scale that lets me easily compare it to other weapons. Which is unfortunate because otherwise I really like this one a lot.
I liked it. Just one thing: I don't think the Containment Procedures take earthquakes into account. Being not that great with physics I'm not sure how much force 2000N are exactly but a decent Earthquake might exceed that. I think. Maybe put the containment cell on some kind of dampening system to prevent accidental detonations should an earthquake occur. Can't be too safe with this thing.
Still upvoted, this thing is pretty cool.
It's probably reasonable to assume that the foundation would put Area-100 away from earthquakes.
I thought about that too, but theoretically Earthquakes can happen anywhere, however unlikely it may be in some areas. With a thing like this I would not take any chances.
In addition to Site-100 being in a non-quake prone region, it's also likely to house most of its anomalous items underground. In which case, we can probably safely assume construction similar to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, with most of the structures being mounted on bloody massive springs that dampen any movement caused by tectonic activity.
Or, you know, giant thermonuclear explosions outside.
Is this a reference to the oft-repeated "The Foundation would consider a nuclear bomb to be Safe"? Either way, I really like what you've done here. +1.
I was enthused until the second paragraph of the addendum. The writing suddenly gets a lot more casual there, and while I'm normally all about the mad science, in this case it feels like an unnecessary extra tacked onto a simple but interesting idea. I think if you cut that entire paragraph, and instead said something like:
Also recovered were 110 numbered spiral notebooks containing extensive notes, schematics, and essays in handwriting consistent with that of Dr. Maddison. The subject matter alternates between attempts to reverse engineer the anomalous properties of SCP-2948, and multiple drafts of a lengthy manifesto describing the need to ensure world peace by distributing instances of SCP-2948 to all world powers.
it'd get you the same net idea, but with a little more grit and a little less exposition.
This is fantastic. Great job writing something that could easily destroy the world, classifying it "Safe", and making that make perfect sense. Love it.
If there's any reason to like this, it's that old idea that an atomic bomb is considered Safe, as this is. :) It's a pretty neat bit of Cold War-era anomaly in its own right, though.
Notebooks numbered up to notebook #110
Would sound better as "110 sequentially numbered notebooks". Overall, good job.
The third test bomb should have a "C" name. Test A(ble), Test B(aker), test C(?). Renz breaks a pattern that exists to prevent confusion in military communication.
During Operation Cross, there were supposed to be three testes: "Able", "Baker", and "Charlie". "Charlie" was not followed through with.
I honestly wasn't thinking when I picked the name "Renz". In keeping with naming patterns, I could name it "Charlie" and then say that the Foundation used the unexploded bomb as a cover story, or I could pick a name that begins with "D". I think I prefer the new name though, and have renamed the test "Dillan".
Edit: "Dog" was the "D" in the old Able-Baker alphabet.
The Plowshares Program's first detonation was a 3.1 kt bomb (so about 66 times smaller than this one) and the melt chamber was still 60° C after six months. Why doesn't this explode, reform, and then immediately explode 30.1 hours later due to the temperature trigger?
Blackbody temperatures for terrestrial materials after a groundburst are typically between 6,000-7000 K. After 30.1 hours, that's still going to be well above 25° C even with the most optimistically conductive possible soils in the coolest air, I think. I may crunch the numbers later.
I am not sure about seawater cooling, though.
The temperature trigger didn't have to be(and probably wasn't) present during the first detonations. After the trigger was discovered(whenever it started appearing), the Foundation would have begun removing the bomb from where ever it reformed.
How do you remove it from a magma chamber?
What's to say that the bomb would have to reform in the exact site of the previous explosion. The reformation threshold is not established in the article, and subsequently the reformation could be off by enough to not be engulfed by magma.
Also, the recovery would be lead by the Foundation. If recollection of the nuke was possible at all, I'd believe that the Foundation could do it.
