China turns to weather control to save it from nuclear war
Military scientists in China are testing weather manipulating technology in a bid to save its citizens from nuclear war.
China’s counting on the weather to save its citizens from nuclear war. Or, specifically, controlling it.
Chinese military scientists are testing weather manipulating technology as part of a plan to reduce the impact of radioactive fallout.
According to the Communist Party-controlled South China Morning Post, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) Joint Logistic Support Force University of Engineering and the Rocket Force Research Institute have been simulating “dirty bomb” attacks.
All nuclear weapons generate radioactive fallout. Some more so than others.
Another scenario feared the world over is a conventional explosive packed with radioactive waste such as plutonium and caesium. This would blast clouds of contamination over a wide area.
The result could render entire city centres uninhabitable for months on end. And every centimetre would have to be scoured clean before the threat of fallout was removed.
Beijing’s approach is to expedite the process.
It has turned to decades worth of weather-control research for an answer.
The idea of pumping chemicals into the sky to induce atmospheric effects is not new. Cloud seeding, for example, is a well-tested concept.
Now the PLA is considering the value of highly mobile, rapid-deployment weather-control units to suppress the spread of radioactive clouds.
‘Rain’ of terror
The SCMP reports that researchers simulated an attack where 62kg of conventional TNT explosive blasted one kilogram of weapons-grade plutonium into the sky.
It’s not enough to trigger a nuclear chain reaction, and therefore a thermonuclear explosion.
But the radioactive plutonium itself is deadly, even in tiny quantities.
Nuclear emergency researcher Lin Yuanye told the SCMP that the team chose optimal conditions for their tests.
The weather was a balmy 25C. The overcast sky was being buffeted by calm winds of less than two metres per second. The bomb detonated on a typical concrete pavement.
The simulation found that the resulting debris contaminated a 10-square-kilometre area. This expanse could encompass tens of thousands of people in an urban setting.
The proposed solution is to adapt existing experimental weather control techniques.
Beijing has built rainmaking machines along the Himalayan Tibetan Plateau.
Their job is to seek the sky with chemicals that produce 5km-long storm clouds on demand.
The goal is to precipitate rain in key catchment areas, targeting the rivers and streams that flow into parched districts.
And it’s done something similar before.
Chemical pellets were fired into the skies around Beijing before and during the 2008 Olympics. The goal was to cause the clouds to release their rain before they passed over the games.
Speed is of the essence
Time, the researchers say, is of the essence.
Minimising the spread of radioactive material is the difference between life and death.
“Mobile, rapidly deployable aerial suppression systems currently under development can quickly implement high-altitude, wide-area suppression of explosion-generated smoke clouds immediately after detonation,” the study reads.
In other words, rocket-launched canisters of chemical agents designed to bind with radioactive aerosols must be set off in the sky above the plume within two minutes of the blast.
These coagulants bind the radioactive particles together. These heavier clumps then fall out of the sky faster.
This stops the wind from spreading the radiation downrange.
The results, published in the Chinese Journal of Safety and Environment, recommend civil guard networks of rocket launchers be pre-positioned around major cities, nuclear power plants and key military installations.
They could be activated in the event of an attack, accident or natural disaster to prevent a Chernobyl or Fukushima-style radioactive catastrophe.
The research paper also notes the capability is “of great significance for gaining strategic initiative in battlefield nuclear safety”.
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Originally published as China turns to weather control to save it from nuclear war
