Each week after an episode of LOST airs, Popular Mechanics publishes an article on its website decoding the various sciences and technologies featured in the episode.
This week's article focuses on the scientific facts behind the episode's "Jughead" hydrogen bomb.
The article reveals a historical basis for the episode's events: "A series of thermonuclear weapon tests that took place on the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific in the 1950s was called "Operation Castle." The first attempt at a dry-fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device, an operation called "Castle Bravo," was successfully detonated on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Because of Castle Bravo's early success, a second type of nuclear weapon, a cryogenic hydrogen bomb, was not tested. That group included a cryogenic h-bomb nicknamed, that's right, "Jughead." "
Nuclear bomb expert Ivan Oelrich, vice president for the strategic security program at the Federation of American Scientists, also elaborates on Faraday's suggestion for handling the bomb:
"As Faraday suggested, burying the disabled bomb underground in a lead or cement housing would contain any radiation the bomb might be emitting now or in the future. Eventually, however, the plutonium could leak into the ground water, and since it will be dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years and concrete might last hundreds, burying the bomb would not be a permanent solution."The complete Popular Mechanics article can be found here.
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