Atomic Centurion anybody ?

[langy71]

Just found this whilst surfing around the net for inspiration....

A testament to British engineering if I've ever seen one..

This Atomic Tank survived a nuclear test, then went to war

In August of 1953, a British-built Centurion tank drove through the brutal desert terrain of South Australia, its destination a parking spot a few hundred yards from an atomic bomb test. That was just the beginning of this tank's amazing, and perhaps tragic, operational life.

io9.gizmodo.com

 

[Jakko]

A testament to British engineering if I've ever seen one..

Heh … Have you ever read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson? There’s a bit in it where one of the main characters first visits Britain, IIRC in 1943, and ponders on the public telephones he sees.

 

[Graeme C.]

That's quite a tale, sad about the crewmen though.

 

[JR]

What a story, and no one gave any thought by all accounts for the safety of the crew awards. Sad as Graeme says.

 

[langy71]

I suppose at that 'early' stage of atomic research they didn't really understand the hidden dangers. makes you wonder at what point did somebody realise, 'good god!....this is highly dangerous'.

 

[GerryW]

I suppose at that 'early' stage of atomic research they didn't really understand the hidden dangers. makes you wonder at what point did somebody realise, 'good god!....this is highly dangerous'.

Being a 'classical' science fiction reader, think that the realisation came very slowly, and it wasn't until the late '50s that authors were actually putting in place heavy shielding in their 'space ships' - some of those authors actually worked on the Manhattan Project, so should have known about the dangers.

 

[Si Benson]

I stumbled across this story a while back over on YouTube. This guy has loads of really interesting story’s that are not often heard about and fast became one of my favourite youtube go to....

 

[Tim Marlow]

Interesting story....though I think at least some of the dangers were known about by then. MarieCurie died pre war and even her cookbooks are kept in lead lined boxes.....
After all, the tank was decontaminated and stored away from the rest of the camp, but only after being transported out. That was probably why the site was thought of as too remote....couldn’t get the techies and decon kit to the site easily....the issue was probably. Very poor pre briefing and lack of understanding at the sharp end.......

 

[Jakko]

I suppose at that 'early' stage of atomic research they didn't really understand the hidden dangers. makes you wonder at what point did somebody realise, 'good god!....this is highly dangerous'.

There was very likely also an element of deliberately making unsuspecting people into guinea pigs.