DBWI: What if Nuclear Weapons had been feasible?

In 1945 the first nuclear test took place, called Trinity took place. It was estimated that a nuclear test similar to it would produce an explosion that would dwarf any explosion mankind had ever seen.

As we all know though that test failed, along with all other nuclear tests. Proving that the concept isn't feasible.

Still Im wondering, what if Trinity had exploded and it was proven that nuclear bombs were possible in 1945.

What impact would this have on humanity, how deadly would these weapons had made World War Three and Four if they had existed or would those conflicts have been butterflied away?
 
OOC: This is ASB. For nuclear weapons not to work, you would have to suspend natural laws. POD's concerning that, divine intervention, and magic go there. I would ask the mods to move it.
 
It's all a conspiracy man.

Nuclear bombs are feasible the government just don't want you to know that they didn't have the guts to bomb Japan.

Several million less people would have starved during the blockade of Japan at the end of the war if the Bomb was used.

No one has the guts to use these bombs but they all have them and they all know the others have them too.

Ooc crazy conspiracy theorist not so crazy.
 

CECBC

Banned
OOC: This is ASB. For nuclear weapons not to work, you would have to suspend natural laws. POD's concerning that, divine intervention, and magic go there. I would ask the mods to move it.
OOC: Could be that the scientists were just all too stupid to figure it out ITTL.

We would have probably all killed ourselves with them. Imagine WWII with nukes. Crap, the Nazis would have put the entire world in a grave if they had them and if the allies had them Japan and Germany would be apocalyptic wastelands of death to this day. Who knows what they'd do to the environment with all the radiation that stuff gives off. Might end the world.
 
OOC: Could be that the scientists were just all too stupid to figure it out ITTL.

We would have probably all killed ourselves with them. Imagine WWII with nukes. Crap, the Nazis would have put the entire world in a grave if they had them and if the allies had them Japan and Germany would be apocalyptic wastelands of death to this day. Who knows what they'd do to the environment with all the radiation that stuff gives off. Might end the world.

OOC: No it couldn't. We know it couldn't because they DID figure it out.

The theoretical basis for nuclear weaponry is pretty simple as far as these things go. The hard part is producing them. The idea that every physicist from Albert Einstein on down has an eternal brain fart that prevents them from figuring out nukes just doesn't hold water.
 
OOC: I've actually run across a conspiracy theory holding that nuclear weapons are in fact physically impossible and that the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki never happened. I can't remember if it also held that nuclear power plants are also impossible.
 
OOC: Come to think of it, if this world really existed you could well get countries claiming that nuclear power works and that they have nuclear weapons.
 
OOC: I've actually run across a conspiracy theory holding that nuclear weapons are in fact physically impossible and that the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki never happened. I can't remember if it also held that nuclear power plants are also impossible.

OOC: And it's actually just Jewish grandfather's peeling potatos?
 
I'd recommend folks go to the used book store and find a copy of the late 1960s novel 'The Jesus Factor'. The premise is the world of 1969 thinks nuclear weapons actually work & there are thousands of them. The novels reallity is they work only under controlled laboratory conditions. Just a few leaders & physicists understand this.

The inspiration for the novel may have been a oddity from survivors of both Hiroshima & Nagasaki, that they saw hundreds or thousands of bombers. Not a majority, or even a large number, but enough to confuse the post war researchers & provide grist for psychologists trying to understand why people are firmly convinced they saw what they expected to see and not what was actually in view.
 
It's not that Nuclear Weapons aren't feasible, it's just that following the initial failure of the Manhattan Project, the scientists went back the drawing board and the conflict ended before they could produce something useful. Nuclear weapons were succesfully tested later, but deemed to dangerous and their developement and deployment was declared to be a crime against humanity. That's why nobody makes them anymore.
 
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