However, Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay (Hiroshima bomb) died in the age of 92. While the pilots do not suffer imminent injuries from radiation, this may increase the chance to get cancer. Unfortunately, almost every molecule of the human body contains hydrogen, especially the DNA. The metal the aircraft is made of is (nearly) not affected by neutrons. That's why plastic is a good shielding material, but nitrogen and oxygen in the air are already too heavy atoms, so air is a bad shielding material. If the hydrogen atom is bound in a molecule, it may be separated from it during this process. When hit by the neutron, a hydrogen atom is punched back and absorbs a large fraction of the neutrons energy, causing it to slow down. Hydrogen on the other side is a atom as light as the neutron, hence it's like resting ping pong balls. The next hit(s) with other basketballs may put the ping pong ball into its original direction, still with the same speed. The basketball will not notice when it's hit by the ping pong ball, while the ping pong ball flies ahead with the same velocity, but different direction. The reason is that neutrons are like ping pong balls, and lead atoms like basketballs. They like to travel through heavy materials like lead, but are easily stopped by plastic or water (one reason for that large swimming pools in nuclear power plants, though swimming usually is prohibited). While alphas and electrons are absorbed on a short range because their charge interacts with the strong fields inside the atoms they are traveling through, neutrons are neutral (really!), which makes them very special. Even if they could, they would be stuck in the hull and not do any damage. In general, there is a high electric field inside atoms, and the charged particles.įinally, these two particle types will never reach the aircraft throwing the bomb. Also, the distances depend on the density of the air, so they travel farther in hot air / at high altitude. The exact range depends on the energy of the particles, but these are the maximum ranges for nuclear reactions. In air (ground, room temperature), alpha particles can travel not more than 10cm, and electrons not more than 10m. You may know you can stop alpha particles by a piece of paper and beta particles by a 3mm sheet of aluminium. The nuke just spills more particles than the probe, but does not give them more speed. They will escape with the same speed from a nuclear reactor or from tiny probes in a lab. The particles indeed escape with a large fraction of the speed of light, but this has nothing to do with the nuke. There is also some more stuff like positrons, protons or heavier fragments of the nuclei, but they behave similarly. Nuclear radiation consists of gamma rays, which are some sort of EM waves and particles like helium nuclei (alpha), electrons (beta) and neutrons (without Greek letter.).
Detailed Analysis:Īs you emphasize the speed of light of radiation from nuclear reactions, I would like to write something about radiation and how it could influence the aircraft. While the effects may be great at the target, they spread out as the circle grows. All effects of the explosion can be multiplied by the fraction: 1 / r, where r is the distance between the bomb and the bomber at donation (because circumference is directly proportional to radius). The aircraft is traveling at a sufficient speed to be very, very far away from the bomb before it detonates.
The number one factor protecting the aircraft from the effects of the explosion is distance.