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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
Neither nuclear power nor hydro power produce greenhouse gases during operation. Burning biomass produces CO2, but it can be argued that during the growing of the biomass material it absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, so it is actually neutral.
Who invented the nuclear power and the nuclear bomb?
Leo Szilard in 1933, he patented them the next year in the UK. But he could not build them by himself. It took 12 more years and a huge investment in industrial infrastructure before the US built the first bombs and usable nuclear power had to wait until after the war.
What is the price of a nuclear bomb?
Nuclear bombs are not legally available for sale, as they are highly regulated weapons of mass destruction. The cost to build and maintain a nuclear arsenal is extremely high, with estimates ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars per weapon. The true cost includes research and development, as well as the long-term costs associated with managing and securing the weapons.
Did Albert Einstein help build hydrogen bombs?
No, Einstein was a total pacifist and did not work on either atomic or hydrogen bombs (or any other military or war related projects). The ONLY significant scientific thing he worked on from the late 1930s until his death in 1955 was the equations of his Unified Field Theory, a task in which he never succeeded.
Name the element once enriched can form the core of a nuclear bomb?
Uranium hexafluoride (hex) is a compound of uranium that becomes a gas when heated. In gaseous form, it can be "enriched". Enriched uranium is needed for research reactors, most non-Canadian power reactors, and bombs.
What element is in the core of a nuclear bomb?
Severely over simplifying things:
In a fission bomb ultra isotopicly pure Uranium-235, Uranium-233, and/or Plutonium-239.
In a fusion bomb lithium and deuterium (heavy hydrogen) in the form of solid lithium-deuteride.
How much damage can be caused by a nuclear bomb?
The damage caused by a nuclear bomb depends on various factors such as the size of the bomb and the distance from the epicenter of the explosion. In general, a nuclear bomb can cause devastating destruction, including severe structural damage, fires, and radiation exposure, potentially leading to widespread casualties and long-term health effects. The most powerful nuclear bombs have the potential to level entire cities and cause significant environmental damage.
What is a Nuclear warhead made of?
A nuclear warhead typically consists of a casing made of either steel or uranium, a core of fissile material like plutonium or uranium-235, and high explosives that compress the core to trigger a nuclear chain reaction. Other components may include arming mechanisms, safety features, and delivery systems.
"Nukes" is a colloquial term for nuclear weapons, which are explosive devices that derive their destructive power from nuclear reactions. These weapons can cause devastating damage and are considered weapons of mass destruction.
What can withstand a nuclear bomb?
Structures made of reinforced concrete or steel, underground bunkers, and specially designed military installations are capable of withstanding the impact of a nuclear bomb. Geographic factors like distance from the blast, shielding from hills or mountains, and being underwater can also provide some level of protection.
What are some of the things in nuclear weapons?
The subcritical masses of fissile material are in there, obviously. And there will be the conventional chemical explosives that drive the fissile material together and hold it there for a split second. The triggering mechanism is included with the sensor and control package. Some shielding and reflectors will be in there, and so will some materials that "lock out" the subcritical masses to prevent them "engaging" in the event of an accident. There are a few "security" features within the case of the weapon as well. As security concerns color all aspects of nuclear weapon design and construction, we can only speak to this subject matter in general terms.
If a nuclear bomb hit the Halifax main bank would the building survive?
This is too complicated to answer as written. First what do you mean by "hit"?
The effect wold depend on several variables, some of which are:
- yield
- burst height/depth
- burst slant range
- etc.
For a subsurface burst nearby at medium to large yield, even highly reinforced concrete buildings would collapse. Such bursts were designed to destroy underground missile silos, which are about as blast resistant as possible.
Airbursts, even of very high yield directly above a reinforced concrete building are likely to do little damage.
How does nuclear weapons affects cells?
Nuclear weapons can cause severe damage to cells due to the intense heat, blast force, and radiation they produce. Exposure to radiation can lead to DNA damage, cell death, and increased risk of cancer. The effects can be immediate or long-term, depending on the level of exposure.
Who is the inventor of hydrogen bomb?
there were two contributors in this project there names were Edward teller and Stanislaw ulam who developed it in 1951 for the united states.
What does the hydrogen bomb do?
Hydrogen Bombs, Commonly reffered to as H-Bomb's are Thermonuclear bombs. Thermo because it requires very intense heat to cause a reaction in which the bomb explodes violently. These bombs are stronger than the one used on Hiroshima. Basically a hydrogen bomb is mean't to cause a lot of damage. It would completely ibliterate anything within 1 mile, Within 2 minutes heavy particles of radiation would be falling to the ground with 1 - 2 miles. Within 10 miles you would have 30 minutes to prepare for the radiation by going into basements and taping up windows with duct tape and any other holes in the house. Fallout shelters are designed for scenarios like this. Anyways, Hope I helped.
What are the chemicals used in a atomic bomb?
- Special Nuclear Materials (Uranium and/or Plutonium)
- Protective Coating for Special Nuclear Materials to prevent oxidation (Nickel)
- Fusion Fuels (Deuterium and/or Tritium or Lithium-Deuteride)
- Conventional Explosives (PBX, TATB, IMX, etc.)
- Exploding Wire Detonators (Metal Wire and fast Conventional Explosive)
- Dense Tamper (Depleted Uranium, Lead, Tungsten, etc.)
- Pusher (Aluminum)
- Fillers (Felt, Styrofoam, Honeycomb-Cardboard, etc.)
- Neutron Reflector (Beryllium)
- Electronics (Copper wire, Teflon insulation, Silicon chips, Fiberglass-Epoxy boards, Gold, Aluminum, Ceramics, etc.)
- Electronic High-Voltage Ion Accelerator Neutron Source (Tritium, Metal, and Glass)
- Casing (Steel, Duralumin, Aluminum, etc.)
- etc., etc.
How much does it cost to build a nuclear bomb?
Probably on the order of $100,000 and most are likely less. The majority of the cost is the high purity nuclear materials.
There are several major costs in building a nuclear bomb, which can be categorized as such:
Weapon Design: the scientific and engineering effort required to fully understand how a nuclear weapon works and make a functional design. This includes a significant amount of computer hardware to do simulation, a moderate number of highly-trained physicists, and a larger number of engineers and technicians to build and test various components. A conservative estimate to design a very basic, reliable "gun-type" Uranium bomb would be many tens of million dollars. A plutonium implosion bomb likely would require several hundreds of millions, with a "boosted" advanced atomic bomb design being slightly more expensive. A reliable hydrogen bomb design would almost certainly costs tens of billions of dollars, as they are incredible complex devices.
Fuel Costs: acquiring the atomic fuel (weapons-grade u-235 or pu-239) is astronomically difficult. Theoretically, it might be purchasable on the black market, for $10-50 million PER BOMB, but that's assuming you can find it (and don't get caught by one of the big country's spy networks). Making it costs tens of billions, as obtaining the raw materials isn't simple; you would need 100x the bomb fuel's weight in reactor fuel, or 10,000x the amount in raw uranium ore to start with, and the purifying plant is a huge complex filled with expensive equipment, and requires an enormous amount of electricity to run. Tritium/deuterium production is slightly less expensive, but not that much cheaper.
Bomb construction: making the actual bomb from a solid design is modestly expensive, as you need high-quality machine tools able to produce the parts to a very high level of tolerance. Overall, through, it should not be that expensive, perhaps a few million dollars to buy the machine tools and parts.
Thus, if you want to make multiple nuclear bombs, and have a reliable design that will work 99% of the time, then you probably need to spend $50 billion or so to make a simple A-bomb, $60 billion for an advanced A-bomb, and $200 billion or more for a H-bomb. After that, each bomb should run several million dollars each to make, regardless of type.
"Terrorist"-level bomb-making:
If all you want to do is build a crude, gun-type Uranium-fueled atomic weapon, that has a reasonable chance of working, then, assuming you have enough weapons-grade uranium on-hand, you can probably build one for a few tens of thousands of dollars, provided you can order certain machined parts from suppliers, make the rest yourself at a local quality tool-and-die shop, and have access to a few dozen cheap PC computers. I'd say you could easily build one for $100,000 or less. I'd give your bomb less than a 50% chance of working properly, though.
There is no ability to "home-make" anything other than a crude gun-type Uranium bomb. The design and construction requirements for an implosion devices require the resources of a large-sized company, at the very least, and such weapons will not work unless there is significant effort put into the design (you can't cut corners on the design or components of an implosion device, unlike a gun-type device). That is, even if I gave you 30 pounds of weapons-grade Plutonium, you'd still need 10-20 million dollars to produce an implosion device that might work (and, I'd give it a low-probability of functioning properly).
Hydrogen bomb design and manufacturing is impossible for anything outside a major government-level effort.
What is the biggest nuclear weapon?
The biggest nuclear weapon ever tested was the Tsar Bomba, a hydrogen bomb detonated by the Soviet Union in 1961. It had a yield of 50 megatons, making it the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.
How do you protect your self from nuclear bombs?
If there is a nuclear bomb that explodes you will not be able to protect yourself. It will destroy and contaminate all of the surroundings for a long distance depending on the size of the bomb. Even several years of Iwo Jima and Hiroshima that are still people affected by the bombs.
Does India have Nuclear Weapons?
India is not a Party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India tested what it called a "peaceful nuclear explosive" in 1974 (which became known as "Smiling Buddha"). The test was the first test developed after the creation of the NPT, and created new questions about how civilian nuclear technology could be diverted secretly to weapons purposes (dual-use technology).
Though India maintained that its nuclear capability was primarily "peaceful", it apparently weaponized two dozen nuclear weapons for delivery by air between 1988 and 1990. But it was not until 1998 that India tested weaponized nuclear warheads ("Operation Shakti"), including a thermonuclear device.
And it is estimated that India has 80-100 nuclear warheads (might not be active).
How do nuclear weapons explode?
fission or fusion? oh well lets do both...
fission:
- electronic fusing system sends timed electrical pulses to detonators
- detonators trigger conventional explosive lenses
- explosive lenses focus detonation wave into spherical implosion wave
- spherical implosion wave hits depleted uranium tamper compressing it
- spherical implosion wave hits fissile core compressing it
- when fissile core reaches optimal supercritical state, electronic fusing system sends timed electrical pulse to accelerator fusion neutron generator to spray core with neutrons starting fission
- within 1 microsecond fission completes, core and tamper have vaporized
- inertia of the tamper vapor holds back the core vapor for a couple more microseconds, building up pressure
- the bomb explodes
fusion:
- fission bomb trigger explodes
- x-rays from fission bomb are channeled around fusion stage
- x-rays ablate depleted uranium tamper of fusion stage compressing fusion stage
- compression of fusion stage compresses plutonium "sparkplug" rod down center of fusion stage
- neutrons from fission bomb trigger initiate fission in "sparkplug"
- neutrons from "sparkplug" convert lithium in lithium deutride to tritium
- deuterium-tritium mixture is compressed and heated between imploding depleted uranium tamper and exploding plutonium "sparkplug" until fusion burn begins
- high energy fusion neutrons trigger fission of depleted uranium tamper (providing about 90% of yield and most of fallout)
- the bomb explodes
You can add as many fusion stages as you need to get the yield you want.
Richard Rhodes: "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" & "Dark Sun"
How long would a nuclear bomb take to kill you?
8 seconds. Exactly.
Actually it varies quite a lot, some examples:
At typical LD50 (350 to 400 REM) doses 50% of the exposed will die in a month or two (with medical treatment), the rest will survive.
At doses about twice that typical fatalities are in 90% range and it takes 2 to 3 weeks to die (with medical treatment).
At doses above about 10,000 REM anyone exposed is basically neurologically dead instantly, but it may take several minutes to an hour or so for the body to shut down.
However in an actual bombing physical causes (e.g. blast, flying debris, falling debris, fire) of death, as in conventional weapons are the most common. These will vary even more wildly in time to death than radiation issues, mostly depending on severity.
Nuclear tests involve the detonation of nuclear weapons to assess their power, efficiency, and other characteristics. These tests can be conducted underground, in the atmosphere, or underwater. They have significant environmental and health implications due to the release of radioactivity into the surrounding areas.
When will the nuclear bomb blow up?
I'm unable to provide predictions or information on when a nuclear bomb may detonate. Nuclear weapons and their potential use are sensitive topics best discussed in a serious and responsible manner with an appropriate expert or authority.
How does the nuclear bomb works?
A nuclear bomb works by triggering a nuclear chain reaction, causing atoms to split and release a massive amount of energy. This energy release produces a powerful explosion that can create widespread destruction.
