Talk:Operation Castle

The table on this page is generated by database

The table on this page and the contents of any nuclear tests infobox are generated from a database of nuclear testing which I have maintained and researched for a number of years. The table is automatically generated from that database by a Visual Basic script, and then has, periodically, been inserted into the page manually. I began doing this in October of 2013.

Recently a user complained (politely) to me about the practice. It seems to him that it removes control from all editors besides myself over the content. He believes it is tantamount to WP:OWNED of the pages affected. He also points out that there is no public mention of the fact anywhere on wikipedia, and that is true, through my own oversight, until now.

There was no intent that the pages affected should be owned by myself; in fact, one of my reasons for building these pages was to solicit (in the wikipedia way) criticism and corrections to the data, perhaps additional references that I had been unable to locate. I have regenerated the tables twice in the days since they were originally placed. Each time I did so, I performed a diff between the current version and the version that I put up in the previous cycle; all corrections were then either entered into the database or corrected in the programming, as appropriate. As may be guessed, the programming corrections were frequent to start out as suggestions about the table formatting were raised, and most incorporated. I have not made judgements on the "usefulness" of corrections; all have been incorporated, or I have communicated directly with the editor to settle the matter. In fact it was in pursuing such a correction that this matter came up.

I am posting this comment on the Talk page of every page containing content which is so generated. If you would like to comment on this matter, please go to the copy on Talk:List of nuclear tests so the discussion can be kept together. I will also be placing a maintained template on each Talk page (if anyone would like also to be named as a maintainer on one or all pages, you are welcome). I solicit all comments and suggestions.

SkoreKeep (talk) 02:28, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Thermonuclear reactions

"... had speculated that Bravo could 'go big', estimating that the device could produce an explosive yield as much as 20% more than had been originally calculated. The Li-7 component turned out to be an excellent source of tritium [H-3] through a previously unquantified [nuclear] reaction."
After all these years, that nuclear reaction cannot possibly be a secret. If you are going to mention it, you should tell what it is, along with the publically-known reaction for Li-6:
Li-6 + n --> He-4 + H-3 (helium plus tritium).
In addition, the phrase "unquantified reaction" is a piece of gibberish. Please use Plain English, such as one of these: "unknown nuclear reaction", "unstudied nuclear reaction", "unexpected reaction", "heretofore unobserved reaction". Please use the closest simple expression that fits, rather than doubletalk. 47.215.180.7 (talk) 04:45, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Someone with more knowledge of nuclear physics can explain the following with certainty. Here are some hypothetical nuclear reactions that would generate tritium under extreme conditions:

Li-7 + n --> He-4 + H-3 + n

Li-7 + n --> He-3 + H-3 + H-2 + electron

Li-7 + 2n --> He-4 + H-3 + H-2 + electron

Li-7 + 3n --> He-4 + 2H-3 + electron

The usual reaction involving Li-7 is Li-7 + n --> 2He-4 + electron

This is because of the incredible nuclear stability of He-4.

Two similar well-known reactions are Be-9 + n --> 2He-4 + 2n

and Li-7 + p --> 2He-4 (Be-8 is practically unknown.)

He-4 is an extremely common product of such nuclear reactions. Getting H-3 is more difficult.

47.215.180.7 (talk) 05:21, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Low importance article??

Low importance article??
"This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale."
This is a statement of extreme nonsense.
That is because the very large H-bomb test called Castle Bravo was a very important one in American history, scientific history, diplomatic history (because of the innocent Japanese and Micronesians who were irradiated and harmed, and even killed), American military history. The Castle series of tests also proved the validity of the "dry" thermonuclear bomb using Li-6 deuteride.
47.215.180.7 (talk) 06:01, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)

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• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061012160826/http://www.nv.doe.gov/library/publications/historical/DOENV_209_REV15.pdf to http://www.nv.doe.gov/library/publications/historical/DOENV_209_REV15.pdf

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Erroneous information and poor citations

I've removed the claim that the Zombie device was a boosted fission weapon. It's complete nonsense and defies the generally accepted position that the largest fission test was Grapple 2. This was particularly frustrating to confirm as the table citation only talks of weapon yield and not weapon technical details.

I've also removed the 3 stage claim for Zombie. The article on the Mk15 makes it clear that the Mark 15 was not a three stage device and the statement was uncited.Kylesenior (talk) 16:22, 21 June 2021 (UTC)