During a briefing at the White House, United States President Donald Trump reportedly suggested using nuclear bombs on hurricanes to disrupt them before they reached north America.

According to US news website Axios, Trump was having a discussion about hurricanes with top aides when he said: "I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them?"

"They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can't we do that?"

Not a new idea

According to the Axios report, nuking a hurricane is not a new idea, and was originally suggested by a government scientist in the 1950s.

Most scientists today agree that it will not work, explaining that the nuke itself may not even alter the storm, as a huge amount of energy is necessary to modify a hurricane.

According to meteorologist Christopher Landsea, a fully developed hurricane releases heat energy equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes.

The released radioactive fallout from using a nuclear bomb would also quickly move with the tradewinds, affecting land areas and causing devastating environmental problems.

Indeed, according to U.S. publication Mother Jones, the public seems fond of suggesting the use of nuclear bombs for a variety of disasters.

For example, nuclear bombs were suggested to deal with the 2010 BP oil spill, and to stop "killer asteroids" from exterminating life on earth.

Mixed reactions

The White House officially declined to comment on the matter.

"We don't comment on private discussions that the president may or may not have had with his national security team", said a senior administration official.

However, Axios quoted unnamed sources present at the meeting, who gave a behind-the-scenes description of what happened at the briefing.

One official quickly placated the president, and said something to the effect of, "Sir, we'll look into that."

Another official defended Trump's hurricane bombing suggestion, saying that it was no cause for alarm.

"His goal -- to keep a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the mainland -- is not bad," the official said.

"His objective is not bad."

However, a source in the room said that Trump's comments shocked everyone present.

"You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, 'What the f---? What do we do with this?'"

Top image from whitehouse.gov.