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Nuclear Weapons
This category is for questions about weapons that use nuclear fission or fusion to gain explosive power.
3,869 Questions
Why did enola gay take off from Tinian?
The Enola Gay flew eight practice missions from Tinian, then two conventional bombing missions over Japan prior to taking off carrying the 'Little Boy' atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.
Name of plane that dropped hydrogen bomb in world war 2?
The hydrogen bomb was not invented until the 1950's. The planes that dropped the first fission-type atomic bombs in World War II are the Enola Gay and Bockscar.
Which was worse Hiroshima or Chernobyl?
Well, it's a matter of opinion really. Chernobyl let out 100 times more radiation out than Hiroshima and the radiation traveled all over Europe, contaminating many water supplies and has been reported to have been the cause of over 3 million children getting sick, however it has only killed about 4000 people. Hiroshima had less radiation and was less dangerous yet killed more people because it was dropped in such a densely populated area.
What is the smallest nuclear bomb?
The physically smallest I've ever seen was either a 6 inch artillery shell or the warheads of the Peacemaker missile, both had yields in the 10KTon to 400KTon range.
The lowest yield I've ever seen was the 12 inch Davy Crockett warhead which could be selected for a minimum yield of 10Tons (yes only 20,000 pounds!). There have been bigger conventional explosions.
When was the last nuclear power plant built?
New Nuclear plants continue to be built across the the world all the time. Here in the United States, it has become a political propaganda tool by some political groups who care nothing for what their stated goals are, but only for the leverage the subject can give them as a political power issue. This, along with safety concerns after the Three Mile Island accident, has led to a virtual halt to new nuclear plant construction here in the U.S., and an increase in coal and oil fired power plants that add to greenhouse gases and global warming. The rest of the world isn't quite as ignorant though.
Japan is a good example of a country that gets most of its electricity from Nuclear Power. The only country where nuclear weapons have been used offensively, Japan uses Nuclear Power as their primary source of electricity. Japan is the 2nd largest user of Nuclear Power in the world. Though some incidents there have led to some construction slowdowns, new plants are still a priority for them.
What was a goal of President Truman in ordering research of the hydrogen bomb?
The goal was to discourage the Soviet Union from attacking free nations.
Why did Einstein urge the president to authorize the Manhattan project?
He wanted the United States to develop an atomic bomb before the Germans did.
Where in the marshall islands was the the first h-bomb test?
The first true H-bomb device tested was Ivy Mike on the island of Eugelab in Eniwetok Atoll in 1952. Mike was a steel can 80 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter containing 3 nested steel thermos bottles to hold the liquid deuterium-tritium mixture. When it went off the island of Eugelab ceased to exist.
What was the nuclear weapon used by the us to force japan to surrender during ww2?
Two nuclear weapons were used -- the Little Boy, a gun-type uranium-fueled nuclear weapon that was deployed against Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945.
The second was the Fat Man, an implosion-type plutonium-fueled nuclear weapon deployed against Nagasaki on Thursday, August 9, 1945.
Always being on the edge of nuclear war is called?
I believe this is called Mutually Assured Destruction.
Did the Nazis develop nuclear weapons?
Fortunately no.
They began a project lead by Werner Heisenberg to build atomic bombs. However they made some mistakes (e.g. not realizing that commercial graphite is contaminated with boron [which captures neutrons] they chose the much more expensive heavy water instead as the moderator for their reactors, an incorrect calculation of the critical mass of uranium-235 by more than an order of magnitude too high suggested that if they did build an atomic bomb it would be too heavy for any bomber that could be built during the war to carry) that caused the project to be scaled back to just research on reactors that might be scaled up after the Nazis won the war to build nuclear power plants. It also appears they may have been unaware of plutonium.
If nuclear weapons had not been used approximately how much longer would the war have lasted?
no because japan were already loosing
What are the political environmental economic social consequences of nuclear weapons?
Political
Disputes between countries and wars may be started because of nuclear weapon use.
Environmental
Rivers and lakes may be contaminated by nuclear fallout. Animals may be killed, affecting ecosystems in the detonation area.
Economic
Nuclear Weapons cost a lot, so there must be a lot of money to fund a nuclear war or testing program.
Social
Many will die, affecting families worldwide. Protests may be started against the governments of the nuclear war.
What do people in polar regions eat?
Native people in polar regions traditionally eat caribou meat, moose meat, bison meat, fish, seal meat, and whale meat. People who live in the city or towns can work as bush pilots who fly supplies and food into the villages.
When did the US come to the Marshall Islands?
The United States Marines arrived on the Marshall Islands in February of 1944 towards the end of WW 2. They kept these islands for nuclear testing and later to establish the Ronald Reagan Missile Defense Test Site which today is the leading missile testing facility of the United States. This base, located in Kwajalein Atoll, is the subject of great controversy in the relationship between the Marshall Islands and the United States, as the US wishes to keep it for another 75 years without a fair and honest payment for its use. People of the Marshall Islands are suspicious of the American intentions because, as a result of the nuclear tests, many of the islands are contaminated FOREVER, and people who were exposed do not get the medical attention the United States promised. Because of the close relationship between the countries, Marshallese can enter the United States as if they were citizens and vice versa, and Marshallese youngsters fight in Iraq and Afghanistan to this day, adding a REMARKABLE twist in the unique bond of friendship between the Marshall Islands and the United States.
How did the use of atomic bombs affect the events of world war2?
it forced japan to surrender to the united staes
In Bull Durham why does crash Davis call nuke 'meat'?
A pitcher who throws "fat" or easily hit pitches is referred to as "meat" in baseball.
Where does the U.S. make nuclear weapons?
The "making" or manufacturing of nuclear weapons as such (or, rather, the program for production of new weapons) has been shut down for a long time - since the early 1990's. What we now have is two nuclear weapons laboratories that face the daunting task of "updating" the U.S. nuclear arsenal. All this is done under the administration of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Let's look at the two places where the "big boom" work continues, and some "connected" spots, as well as other aspects that impinge on budgeting and expectations as regards nuclear weapons.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at Los Alamos, New Mexico has long been at the point of nuclear weapons development. Back in the day when the U.S. first build the bomb (the Mathattan Project), Oak Ridge (Tennessee) enriched the uranium, Hanford (Washington State) ran three production reactors (to make plutonium), and LANL put the thing together and tested it. Oppenheimer and the gang worked out of the latter location developing the design, engineering it up and making it go Boom! Today, LANL has a staff of Ph.D. folks whose work is top hush and is worth millions on the black market. Is there a university-level course at your local community college in nuclear weapons design? No? Don't be surprised. The knowledge is dear, and we all know of some of the incidents associated with "spies" and "leaks" and other espionage and security activities that are designed to pry loose information or seal shut "cracks" in the wall shutting in knowledge of the work.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California is a "spin off" from LANL that Robert Oppenheimer helped set up. It provided a second place to design and development nuclear weapons. There were early links to the University of California Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley because Edward Teller and Nobel Lauriate Ernest O. Lawrence, director of the UC Berkeley lab, are regarded as the co-founders of Livermore Laboratory. (After all, it's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, isn't it? Mmhmm.) The early work at Lawrence Livermore resulted in a number of "duds" when test time came. But they finally got a working weapon out and became "official" as far as credible weapons designers.
Let's get serious. When it comes to nucs, it's all about the size and shape of the nuclear material and what we decide to do as regards 1) the way we set it off 2) the box we put it in and 3) the safety features we incorporate so a broken arrow won't vaporize a little town like, say, Palomares, Spain. The United States built some 70,000 nuclear weapons over the years since they were first made. Today we have maybe 5,000 nucs. Lots of nucs have been torn down and their fissile material carted off and stored in various locations where secure nuclear holding areas exist. Who took them apart? And who tends the Operational and Active Stockpile weapons?
Pantex, the only "maintenance" site for the nuclear arsenal, is near Amarillo, Texas. They are the sole facility green-lighted to assemble and disassemble nuclear weapons. It is there that all the maintenance is pulled on the nucs. Things are tight there. Lots of people with automatic weapons who shoot first and ask questions later. Operational weapons and Active Stockpile units are cycled through the facility regularly. There are a number of weapons that are carried on the inactive Reserve Schedule that Pantex never sees. These nucs are stashed in various secure locations around the country. Some Active Stockpile weapons are actually located overseas, but the U.S. (usually) neither confirms or denies their presence in any location. And we're increasingly pulling them and returning them home for disposition.
But what abut the future of the U.S. nuclear arsenal? We can "run what we got" here. Heck, we're doing that. But we're still consolidating across the board as regards a leaner, more advanced and increasingly effective military. New, "joint agency" weapons and such. New nuclear designs, too, but why? No new nucs have been tested for decades. There are test bans in place (like the NPT). And no one wants to field an untested weapon. Designs without testing are just "tinkering" with the weapons. But we'd like a "newer, bigger, better, faster blaster" (actually smaller, safer, more secure and less expensive weapon) which we can use to support diplomacy. A new nuclear weapon design - the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). Where's it going to come from? LANL or LLNL will design it - or it will probably be a joint project. They're already working on it. Then we'll have to figure out how to test it. The program to do this is tagged Complex Transformation. And it's complex all right. It gets thorny. The show stopper is the test ban. Why revamp and rebuild facilities (which Department of Energy administrators are requesting financing for) and go to the trouble of designing and building a new nuclear weapon if there is currently no foreseeable way to test it?
We're not making nucs anymore, per se. We're tuning the old ones up to keep them functional, and tinkering with new ideas. Congress has mandated that the new President (whoever it may be) take a long, hard look at the state of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. And then figure out what marching orders to give the National Nuclear Security Administration as regards which way to go with America's nuclear weapons.
Did the answer nuc this question? Overkill it? Perhaps. But in the best tradition of WikiAnswers, we're hooking you up with some links. They're to related Wikipedia articles. Thanks for stopping by.
[No "secrets" were revealed by providing any information posted by the original contributor. Nothing here is classified but all of it is found freely thoughout the public domain.]
Can a reentering nuclear warhead be stopped by a missile?
Possibly. A version of the Nike missile in the 1960s and some other systems later were designed with the intention of doing this. However it is a problem analogous to trying to shoot down a bullet shot from a gun to prevent it from hitting its target, however the reentry velocities are much higher than bullet velocities.
The most promising idea considered for this (avoiding a nuclear warhead to intercept the nuclear warhead and destroy it) uses a method called kinetic kill where the missile carried a precision guided solid metal rod 20 to 30 feet long that collides directly into the target nuclear warhead. This requires a high velocity missile and highly miniaturized computers and thrusters on the metal rod. Only preliminary tests under somewhat unrealistic conditions have been tried (e.g. the target is carrying a RADAR transponder to help guide the metal rod to collision).
How many times have nuclear weapons been used?
Nuclear weapons were used twice in combat against the Japanese Empire in 1945. In order to decisively end the Pacific War Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the only cities (in so far) to witness a nuclear holocaust. Many nuclear tests have been conducted since, with hydrogen and neutron types also detonated. The last suspected nuclear tests were by North Korea in February 2013.
