“Safe” nuclear bombs?

Nuke or not, today’s wars with modern weapons are always tragic for the health of the surrounding populations, thanks to depleted uranium and all the chemicals released by bombs. Jason Miller now speculates Iran may get the first nuke attack since World War Two, a “safe” nuke designed burrow itself into the ground before exploding.

The Pentagon claims that these “bunker busters” would pose no threat to life outside of the underground targets. However, Dr. Robert Nelson of Princeton University offers a significantly differing opinion:

“No earth-burrowing missile can penetrate deep enough into the earth to contain an explosion with a nuclear yield even as small as 1 percent of the 15 kiloton Hiroshima weapon. The explosion simply blows out a massive crater of radioactive dirt, which rains down on the local region with an especially intense and deadly fallout.”

Safe? Aren’t these the same people who are using white phosphorus fragmentation bombs in the middle of cities in Irak because they are not classified as chemical weapons?

I’m wondering what the earth will look like in the next 100 years. Is war is going to be a big environmental and health problem. Pollution doen’t stay where we make it; it travels everywhere, thanks to the winds.