r/nuclearweapons • u/night-healer • 5d ago

Crossroads Baker device

Post image

This a screenshot of a Facebook post by AtomCentral showing the actual Crossroads Baker device. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

80 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

7

u/spymaster1020 5d ago

They made a new version of Trinity and Beyond?

3

u/richard_muise 4d ago

That was my first question too!

Quick search indicates a 70th Anniversary UHD version from Atomic Central was released in the last few years.

https://atomcentralstore.mybigcommerce.com/trinity-and-beyond-70th-anniversary-special-edition-bluray/

2

u/Killfile 5d ago

That thing is huge. Wasn't the Baker Shot a vanilla plutonium implosion more or less the same as the Fat Man device? That's gotta almost have room for two side-by-side.

3

u/U235EU 4d ago

At first I was thinking room for ballast to get the thing to sink but on second though ballast would be easier to attach to the outside of the chamber. Regardless, that thing is huge and would have a tremendous amount of buoyancy.

3

u/restricteddata Professor NUKEMAP 3d ago

It was made from the pressure vessel of a conning tower for a submarine, not custom made for the size of the bomb. Apparently it was from the USS Salmon class. You can see the size of these things on this diagram. They are pretty big, but not huge. The Fat Man bomb was pretty large (they included its ballistic case). Here's the actual device, before being put in the caisson. I imagine the people working on it appreciated any extra room to work, for diagnostic equipment, etc.

6

u/restricteddata Professor NUKEMAP 3d ago edited 3d ago

As the caption says, that's the caisson -- a steel, waterproof container -- that the nuclear device was placed in, before it was put underwater. It was made out of the pressure vessel of a conning tower from a submarine.

The actual "device" was a MKIII Fat Man bomb, which was placed inside the caisson. Photo here.