Ian
April 2nd 04, 03:18 PM
"Armageddon Watch" > wrote in message
]...
> Chicken bomb was true, Britain insists
>
>
>
> Associated Press
>
> London -- A claim that Britain considered using live chickens in a
> nuclear weapon aroused skepticism Thursday, but officials insisted that
> it was not an April Fool's hoax.
>
> "It's a genuine story," said Robert Smith, head of press and publicity
> at The National Archives.
>
> The archives released a secret 1957 Ministry of Defence report showing
> that scientists contemplated putting chickens in the casing of a
> plutonium landmine.
>
> The chickens' body heat was considered a possible means of preventing
> the mine's mechanism from freezing.
>
> Listing ways of extending the armed life of the landmine, the
> declassified document proposed "incorporating some form of heating
> independent of power supplies under the weapon hull in the emplacement.
> Chickens, with a heat output of the order of 1,000 BTU (British Thermal
> Units) per bird per day are a possibility."
>
> The seven-tonne device, code named Blue Peacock, would have been
> detonated from a distance or by timer in the event of a retreat from
> invading Soviet troops, to prevent them from occupying the area.
>
> Andy Oppenheimer, co-editor of Jane's World Armies, said he found the
> idea of using chickens hard to believe.
>
> "I have a feeling that it's an April Fool," he said in a phone
> interview. He said wrapping the device in fibreglass to keep it warm
> would have been a better option.
>
> Some newspapers also expressed skepticism.
>
> "Is today the day to reveal the chicken-powered nuke?" The Times of
> London wrote, referring to the April 1 date. Nonetheless, The Times put
> it on page one.
>
> Tom O'Leary, head of education and interpretation at the National
> Archives, said he had no doubt that the document was authentic.
>
> "None whatsoever," he said in a telephone interview with the Associated
> Press. "It's not the kind of thing the civil service does, to set up an
> April Fool's joke."
>
> Mr. O'Leary said the idea is mentioned briefly in a long document.
>
> "It's purely a suggestion in an official document that that is a
> possibility that was proposed," he said, and there was no indication
> that the feasibility was ever tested.
>
> The Blue Peacock project began in 1954 and was aimed at preventing
> enemy occupation of territory due to nuclear contamination. Designs
> were based on Britain's Blue Danube free-fall bomb, which consisted of
> a plutonium core surrounded by a sphere of high explosive with
> detonators spread across the surface.
>
> Officials decided in 1957 to acquire 10 Blue Peacock landmines, each
> weighing 7,250 kilograms, and to station them with the British Army of
> the Rhine in Germany. In 1958, however, the Ministry of Defence Weapons
> Policy Committee decided that work on Blue Peacock should stop because
> of reservations about the fallout hazard.
>
> A prototype survives in the historical collection of the Atomic Weapons
> Establishment, a government agency which has its headquarters at
> Aldermaston west of London.
>
> "The whole operational scenario appeared somewhat theatrical," an
> article in the AWE's magazine said in January. It did not mention
> chickens but did deal with the problem of maintaining the right
> temperature.
>
> "The nuclear warhead had to be kept within a specific temperature
> range, but environmental trials suggested it might not have survived
> the rigours of a mid-European winter," the article said.
>
> Details of the chicken proposal feature in an April 2-Oct. 30
> exhibition titled The Secret State at the National Archives in Kew,
> west London.
>
>
>
>
>
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040401.wbomb0401/BNStory/I
nternational/
>
>
There were plans for a PGB way back in WWII! Only thing is the P didin't
mean Precision - it meant Pidgeon!
]...
> Chicken bomb was true, Britain insists
>
>
>
> Associated Press
>
> London -- A claim that Britain considered using live chickens in a
> nuclear weapon aroused skepticism Thursday, but officials insisted that
> it was not an April Fool's hoax.
>
> "It's a genuine story," said Robert Smith, head of press and publicity
> at The National Archives.
>
> The archives released a secret 1957 Ministry of Defence report showing
> that scientists contemplated putting chickens in the casing of a
> plutonium landmine.
>
> The chickens' body heat was considered a possible means of preventing
> the mine's mechanism from freezing.
>
> Listing ways of extending the armed life of the landmine, the
> declassified document proposed "incorporating some form of heating
> independent of power supplies under the weapon hull in the emplacement.
> Chickens, with a heat output of the order of 1,000 BTU (British Thermal
> Units) per bird per day are a possibility."
>
> The seven-tonne device, code named Blue Peacock, would have been
> detonated from a distance or by timer in the event of a retreat from
> invading Soviet troops, to prevent them from occupying the area.
>
> Andy Oppenheimer, co-editor of Jane's World Armies, said he found the
> idea of using chickens hard to believe.
>
> "I have a feeling that it's an April Fool," he said in a phone
> interview. He said wrapping the device in fibreglass to keep it warm
> would have been a better option.
>
> Some newspapers also expressed skepticism.
>
> "Is today the day to reveal the chicken-powered nuke?" The Times of
> London wrote, referring to the April 1 date. Nonetheless, The Times put
> it on page one.
>
> Tom O'Leary, head of education and interpretation at the National
> Archives, said he had no doubt that the document was authentic.
>
> "None whatsoever," he said in a telephone interview with the Associated
> Press. "It's not the kind of thing the civil service does, to set up an
> April Fool's joke."
>
> Mr. O'Leary said the idea is mentioned briefly in a long document.
>
> "It's purely a suggestion in an official document that that is a
> possibility that was proposed," he said, and there was no indication
> that the feasibility was ever tested.
>
> The Blue Peacock project began in 1954 and was aimed at preventing
> enemy occupation of territory due to nuclear contamination. Designs
> were based on Britain's Blue Danube free-fall bomb, which consisted of
> a plutonium core surrounded by a sphere of high explosive with
> detonators spread across the surface.
>
> Officials decided in 1957 to acquire 10 Blue Peacock landmines, each
> weighing 7,250 kilograms, and to station them with the British Army of
> the Rhine in Germany. In 1958, however, the Ministry of Defence Weapons
> Policy Committee decided that work on Blue Peacock should stop because
> of reservations about the fallout hazard.
>
> A prototype survives in the historical collection of the Atomic Weapons
> Establishment, a government agency which has its headquarters at
> Aldermaston west of London.
>
> "The whole operational scenario appeared somewhat theatrical," an
> article in the AWE's magazine said in January. It did not mention
> chickens but did deal with the problem of maintaining the right
> temperature.
>
> "The nuclear warhead had to be kept within a specific temperature
> range, but environmental trials suggested it might not have survived
> the rigours of a mid-European winter," the article said.
>
> Details of the chicken proposal feature in an April 2-Oct. 30
> exhibition titled The Secret State at the National Archives in Kew,
> west London.
>
>
>
>
>
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040401.wbomb0401/BNStory/I
nternational/
>
>
There were plans for a PGB way back in WWII! Only thing is the P didin't
mean Precision - it meant Pidgeon!