Today's Topics:
Nuclear Bombs
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From: Seth.Redmore@cs.cmu.edu
Subject: Nuclear Bombs
Message-Id: <MbjnfF600j_i8689kq@cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 18 Feb 91 02:24:17 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
There are a couple of _big_ problems in building a nuclear weapon.
1)Detonator Design -- Explosive "lenses" need to be used in the implosion
bomb. Placement is critical, like, it won't blow
up if the placement is wrong. How do you assure
simultanious detonation? Symmetrical Detonation?
In the "Gun" bomb, the small chunk has to be fired
fast enough to hit the other piece before fission
occurs and makes it fizzle. The gun type has the
simplest design, but there are still a bunch of
effeciency problems. The Nagasaki "Little Boy" bomb
only actually had a small amount ( <1% ) actually
convert to energy. This was out of a large amount
of Plutonium.
2)Weapons Grade Material -- This, you can steal. I believe that there is
quite a bit that is not accounted for. If you
do choose to make it, good luck. There are
a couple different ways to do it. High Speed
Centerfuges (thousands) can separate the heavier
material. Gas Diffusion ( a really, really
really large plant, involving thousands of miles
of tubing, and membranes, costing billions of
dollars). And I believe that there is another
method involving lasers. (ANybody know more?).
The basic theory is _easy_. A nuclear weapon is most definatly an engineering
process. It is low efficiency that kills most potential weapons. Sure, if
you do force a critical mass, you will create lots of nice gamma rays, and
other particles, and maybe kill people nearby (this happened to one of the
scientists in Los Alamos, a pile of uranium was held apart by a screwdriver,
it slipped, it "fissed", he died 3 days later.) As it has been said many times
in this group, you can look upthe basic design. What you _can't_ look up are
the design parameters (read: numbers). Saddam does have approx. 12 of the
centerfuges, but he does not have a Gas Diffusion plant, or a laser plant.
(The centerfuges are kinda expensive, thats how they know that he has some).
Nuclear Weapons do worry me, because something the size of a 50 gallon drum
could hold one, and getting it across the Mexico-USA border would be childs
play, but I seriously doubt that Hussein has a working weapon.
Seth
"If at first you don't succeed--
Change the rules.."
ps-- no yelling at me, I don't have immediate access to my sources, so there
might be some inaccuracies.
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End of Subgenius Digest
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