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I posted a question to a friend of mine about What is a safe distance from a Nuclear Explosion in or out of a Silo? (Excluding Fallout) Here is the answer.

Offered by Jon.

I have a copy of Glasstone's book but it didn't have the whizwheel with it. I have several other books on nuclear weapons testing and one of them goes into great detail about several of the tests. In answer to your questions the best distance to be from a nuclear explosion, whether it be above or underground would be 30 or more miles. At work the guy's I work with sometimes ask the same question, what’s the safest distance to be from a nuclear explosion and I usually answer with, the next upwind state.

I never had the chance to work on missiles while I was in the Air Force but my dad did and I learned a lot from him. My dad was a missile mechanic with the 69th Pilotless Bomber Squadron (later changed to Tactical Missile Squadron) at Hahn AB in Germany and after that was the mechanic on a Titan-1 launch crew with the 451st SMW at Lowry AFB (1960-1965). When the Titan-1 phased out he went to Grand Forks AFB and worked on the Minuteman II. I've been in several minuteman training silos and also have a photo with a missile in one. The Minuteman I and II had a single warhead that ranged from 1 to 1.5 MT and the Minuteman III had 3 MIRV's that ranged from 335-350kt and weighed 800lbs.

I have a lot here on missiles and nuclear weapons and have been to the following types of missile sites: Titan-1 and II Minuteman I, II, II Peacekeeper (MX), Atlas-D, E, F Matador, Mace, Bomarc, Thor, Nike Ajax and Hercules, the ABM complex in North Dakota (Sprint, Spartin), Vandenberg AFB and Cape Canaveral. If I can help with anything else please let me know.

Fred

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