answersLogoWhite

0

Nuclear Weapons

This category is for questions about weapons that use nuclear fission or fusion to gain explosive power.

3,869 Questions

What are problems that occur at nuclear power plants?

Very few these days.

Sometimes a reactor may overheat and begin to meltdown, but there are appropriate measures in place to prevent this.

Occasionally, earthquakes could cause a minor radiation leak, but, generally, modern power plants are incredibly safe. A fire in the containment vaults could prove catastrophic, but this does not happen as flammable material is sparse in these vaults.

How does the camera not disintergrate during nuclear bomb tests?

Cameras used during nuclear bomb tests are typically placed at a safe distance where the blast pressure and heat do not directly impact them. Additionally, the cameras may be shielded with protective casings or placed in lead-lined boxes to minimize the radiation exposure. Special materials and designs are also used to withstand the extreme conditions of a nuclear explosion.

Can there be a winner on a nuclear missile attack?

In a nuclear missile attack, the consequences are catastrophic with widespread destruction and loss of life. There are no winners in a nuclear war as the use of such weapons would have devastating effects on both sides involved. It would result in massive loss of life, environmental destruction, and long-term consequences for the entire planet.

Why is Nuclear Medicine safe?

It is safe if used carefully and everyone involved knows just what they are doing. Perhaps you should divide into uses for tracing and for treatment. Trace use involves very small doses of a particular isotope that can then be traced through the body. Treatment would involve higher doses of radiation, for example to destroy tumours. The doctors and technicians involved need to calculate carefully how much radiation is necessary but not give too much.

What can nuclear weapon do?

The effects of nuclear weapons range widely:

  • Blast
  • Thermal flash
  • Light flash (including UV)
  • X-rays
  • Gamma rays
  • Neutron rays
  • Firestorm
  • Windblown fallout that can be any mix of strong alpha, beta and/or gamma emitters. Tends to concentrate in areas of rain/snow downwind of blast.
  • etc.

Each of these effects can be influenced by many variables:

  • Design of bomb
  • Height/Depth of burst
  • Overcast conditions if airburst
  • Type of surface at "zero point"
  • Type of material enclosing burst if subsurface burst
  • etc.

All of the above interact in complex ways.

Will a cockroach survive a nuclear explosion?

Cockroaches are known for their resilience and ability to survive extreme conditions, but it is unlikely that they would survive a nuclear explosion due to the intense heat, pressure, and radiation levels produced. The blast would likely be lethal to them.

How much U235 is needed for a nuclear bomb?

  • U-235 18.4Kg (a sphere 12.6cm diameter) will do, probably less.
  • P-239 6.4Kg (a sphere 9.2cm diameter) will do, probably less.

Nucleonics Fundamentals, McGraw Hill 1959, page 313

What is the radioactive material in nukes?

There are several that may or may not be used, depending on the device and design:

  • Uranium
  • Plutonium
  • Tritium
  • Polonium
  • Radium

If used these materials may be used in different places, for different functions, and in different isotopic forms.

What fuels are used for nuclear weapons?

Uranium mainly

Plutonium and Uranium in fission weapons, Lithium deuteride in fusion weapons, occasionally small amounts of Tritium gas to boost fission weapons with fusion.

Is actinium used in bombs?

Actinium itself is not used in bombs. However, it can be a byproduct of nuclear reactions and may potentially be used in the initiation systems of certain types of nuclear weapons.

What nuclear power plant caused a series of explosions?

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan experienced a series of explosions in March 2011 following a powerful earthquake and tsunami. The disaster resulted in a significant release of radioactive material and led to the evacuation of surrounding areas.

Can a nuclear power plant turn into a atomic bomb?

No, a reactor is operated at critical and a bomb at supercritical. Also reactors include safety shutdown systems that quickly make them subcritical stopping the reaction.

However reactors can have steam explosions and hydrogen/oxygen explosions. These are physical and chemical explosions respectively, not nuclear.

How did people react to the atom bomb?

Reactions to the atom bomb varied widely. Some people saw it as a necessary means to end the war and believed it saved lives by hastening Japan's surrender. Others condemned it as a barbaric and inhumane weapon that caused immense suffering and destruction. The bombings also raised concerns about the potential for nuclear proliferation and the long-term consequences of nuclear warfare on humanity.

Why is a nuclear power plant dangerous?

Nuclear power plants are considered dangerous because they have the potential for catastrophic accidents, such as meltdowns or radiation leaks, which can have long-term environmental and health consequences. The radioactive materials used in nuclear reactors can be harmful if they are released into the environment, posing a risk to both humans and ecosystems. Additionally, nuclear waste produced by these plants remains radioactive for thousands of years and requires secure storage to prevent contamination.

What is the use of plutonium 238?

Plutonium-238 is used as a power source in radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) for spacecraft and deep-space missions because of its high energy density and long half-life. It provides a reliable and long-lasting source of energy for missions where solar power is not feasible, such as for spacecraft exploring the outer solar system.

What three states have nuclear power plants?

There are many more than three states in the US with nuclear plants. Go to www.nrc.gov for a complete list

What radiation is emitted during a nuclear detonation and from fallout?

Drinking from and un-pure water source, Nuka-Cola, Food(Rat Roach meat, Junk-Food etc.) increases Radiation but Radiation Suits, Advanced Radiation Suits, Super Radiation Suit, Rad-X, Rad-Away and Doctors can take away Rads or lessen the amount received The effects are usually death...

Additional Note: In real life, the effects of radiation are very diverse. Most of the time, it will cause ailments to your well being, sickness, and possible mutations. However, the causes of radiation would be air-born, water-bound, and people transmittable. Seeing how this is such a dangerous thing, you are best off avoiding all humans after a nuclear war.

What does nuclear power and nuclear weapons have in common?

They both utilise nuclear fission, in which nuclei of U-235 or Pu-239 are split apart which releases enormous energy. In nuclear power this is done at a comparatively slow controllable rate, in a weapon you want a very rapid reaction to create a huge blast of energy.

What happened at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl Russia in 1986?

  1. The reactor was to be shutdown for maintenance and refueling.
  2. Management decided this was a good time to do a safety test that had been deferred to meet construction schedule: can left over steam keep turbines turning in an emergency until diesel generators start to keep plant powered?
  3. In order to facilitate repeating the test if needed, management ordered emergency water pumps turned off, emergency water supply valves turned off and padlocked, and several other emergency systems inhibited (including the automatic SCRAM).
  4. Original planning was for the test to happen in the latter part of day shift and these operators were instructed on procedures and began test setup.
  5. Shortly before the test could start, the Kiev power grid controller called requesting more power temporarily. The test was put on hold.
  6. The hold lasted about 10 hours before Kiev released them. By this time the reactor had built up a large excess of xenon (a fission product and neutron poison). It was also graveyard shift, with operators who had had no instruction on the test.
  7. When they began shutting down the reactor, after a while the xenon poisoning caused a more rapid decline in reactivity than planned and control rods needed to be removed to counteract this (instead of inserted as in normal shutdown).
  8. Before they knew it they had removed more control rods than design safety limits given in the operators manual allowed, yet reactivity kept dropping due to the xenon poisoning. So more controls rods were removed!
  9. Finally enough xenon decayed to allow some increase in reactivity and the reactor was temporally stabilized but at a power level too low to start the test and one that was so unstable the operators manual required shutdown.
  10. Management ordered a power increase to the level to start the test at. The graveyard shift operators refused. Management told them to do as ordered or they would be replaced with operators that would!
  11. More control rods were removed to do this, suddenly an alarm triggered indicating a sudden unsafe rise in reactivity (which would normally have triggered the automatic SCRAM and emergency cooling water). The operators checked instruments and agreed, one of them slapped the manual SCRAM button. All withdrawn control rods began inserting at once.
  12. Note: the control rods on an RBMK reactor have a very odd construction, a 3 foot graphite (moderator) tip before the actual control rod began.
  13. As the graphite tips of all these control rods reentered the reactor they caused a brief but dramatic rise in reactivity. The heat released caused flash vaporization of the cooling water first causing loud knocking noises in the steam separator tanks, followed by a large steam explosion blowing the top off the reactor building and destroying the reactor core.
  14. The hot graphite in the shattered core, now exposed to air ignited, giving a large graphite fire.

It took a long time and many many loyal firefighter's lives before the graphite fire was out. Then additional effort to seal the damaged reactor. Now it will take much monitoring and work at periodic resealing it.

How much heat would a nuclear bomb produce?

The amount of heat produced by a nuclear bomb varies depending on the size of the bomb. A typical nuclear bomb can release millions to billions of degrees of heat within milliseconds, resulting in temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun at the point of detonation.

How far do the radioctivity of failed nuclear power plant can travel?

There are two primary forms of radioactive hazard that are associated with nuclear bombs and nuclear reactors:

1. Direct nuclear radiation from a radiation producing source. Sources might include the exposed core of a nuclear reactor, or a nuclear bomb exploding close to you. The fission process releases direct radiation that travels through space and does not linger. If you're not there when it passes by, it won't affect you and the area is safe to return to.

2. Radioactive fallout. The problem with the above is that human beings seldom encounter fission radiation in empty space. That is, there is material around you like dirt, water vapor (steam, fog), liquid water, plants, etc. All of these physical materials may stop and trap radioactive atoms, making that material radioactive.

Fallout is mainly a hazard of bombs, which kick up a lot of dust and pulverized rock from the ground. Such dust is radioactive and winds may spread it for a long distance. The good news is that the radioactive decay dropoff for fallout is very quick. While very high in the first few hours after creation, the danger of fallout is almost none after 48 hours from the time of the fallout's creation. Anything in a sealed container will not be poisoned by fallout. Canned food and bottled water, for example, are perfectly safe. Exposed water such as in a river or lake, however, should not be used. Contaminated water, however, can be filtered by particular methods (one of which involves nothing more than clay soil and pebbles) and made safe.

If the explosion is sufficiently large, a cloud of fallout may travel thousands of miles away from where it was created. The Chernobyl incident in 1986 resulted in an enormous steam explosion that destroyed the reactor containment and created a huge cloud of radioactive material that traveled into many countries to the northwest. In fact, that was how the Western world found out something had happened -- other countries started detecting the radiation. The USSR did not announce or admit that anything had happened for quite some time.

JAPAN: Since the Fukushima nuclear plant has suffered explosions in at least 3 of its 6 reactors, it is likely that a cloud of radioactive material was created in each case. The extent of the radioactivity at the site is currently uncertain and may never be known, since the radiation detectors at the plant were damaged by the earthquake and are not operating. All we can measure is the levels farther away.

The distance that a fallout cloud can travel will, of course, vary with altitude and wind conditions. Even if the fallout travels a long distance, the threat it poses depends largely on how much radioactive contaminated material is present. In the case of the Fukushima reactor, current information suggests that only areas within a few hundred miles of the site are at any significant risk.

Do fusion bombs leave a trail of nuclear radiation like a fission bomb after they explode?

Great question, nicely worded except I'm not sure what you mean be "trail".

If by "trail" you mean windblown fallout plume, then yes and usually much bigger because their yield is bigger.

Even though a fusion bomb is called a fusion bomb, the standard design generates about 90% of its yield from fission because the high energy fusion neutrons make the depleted uranium tamper fission, which also generates most of the bomb's fallout. In the 1956 Redwing series in the pacific, the US tested the world's first "clean" fusion bombs at Bikini atoll; 2 devices, 1 of which had as little as 5% of its yield from fission most of which was believed to be due to the fission trigger and the rest the fission "sparkplug". This reduced fallout dramatically, though the yield was also reduced and more lithium-deutride fuel was needed making the "clean" bomb more expensive than a standard one.

How fast can nuclear radiation travel?

Nuclear radiation travels at the speed of light, which is approximately 670 million mph in a vacuum. Once emitted, it propagates through space or matter at this constant velocity. However, the particles emitted during nuclear decay, such as alpha and beta particles, can travel at slower speeds depending on their energy level and the medium through which they are moving.

Why do we still use nuclear power if it is so dangerous?

People fear that when they stop using or destroy a power plant that it might explode and then dangerous materials will be released into the sky causing so many deaths, you couldn't imagine how many!

If your worried about global warming I would say to use solar power, unplug chargers,t.v's e.t.c (This also reduces fires) and also switching off lights...