The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has reiterated explanations to quash suggestions of nuking hurricanes. This is because no less than the incumbent president of the United States has been reported to have been contemplating on the idea.
According to news website Axios, Trump has been asking about the nuking idea not just once but several times in the past. Well if the POTUS, who does not believe in the adverse effects of climate change had the good sense to check out the NOAA website, he would have found out for himself why nuking hurricanes is a bad move.
The NOAA has in fact dedicated a specific web page to provide the answers to that particular subject; because even if the idea is absurd, not a few and not just Trump.seem to believe that the “nuke-a-hurricane” suggestion is feasible.
According to reports, every year, concerned citizens have been sending messages to government agencies, proposing the use of nuclear weapons as a means of averting disasters caused by hurricanes. Since news reports have come out that even the U.S. president is also broaching the idea, there is very little chance the myth about nuclear vs. hurricanes, will go away.
The NOAA Reiterates Answers to Why the “Nuke-a-Hurricane” Proposal is Not Sensible
First off, the United State is one of the countries that signed and ratified the international law called “Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty.” This is a pact signed in 1990 by leaders of countries from all over the globe, limiting the use of nuclear weapons for non-military purposes to up to 150 kilotons.
Now the NOAA explains that the main reason why using nuclear explosives to destroy hurricanes is not workable, is because it is impossible to move the huge amount of energy needed to make such actions effective. A hurricane is said to release heat that is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear exploding every 20 minutes.
Based on NOAA’s calculation, it would require an application of around half a ton of air on every square yard at the center of the hurricane in order to weaken a Category 5 hurricane down to a Category 2. A hurricane eye measuring 25 miles in diameter, for one, will require about half a billion (500,000,000) tons.
The NOAA finds it difficult to imagine a plausible way of moving that much air around, for whatever intents and purposes.
Most important of all is that nuking a hurricane will only lead to devastating results, if ever such an action would work at all. Radioactive fallout will likely spread quickly as this will be blown away by the tradewinds, causing greater harm and devastations to the environment and everything in it. .