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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
How thick does a concrete shelter need to be to protect from fallout?
That would depend on the anticipated level of fallout, which depends on expected proximity from targets and weather conditions. Use of leaded concrete would reduce the required thickness, as lead attenuates gamma rays stronger than concrete alone..
Where does hydrogen for bomb making come from?
There are 2 isotopes of hydrogen needed to make a hydrogen bomb: deuterium and tritium. Deuterium occurs naturally in small amounts mixed with ordinary hydrogen (just like uranium-235 occurs naturally in small amounts in natural uranium), it is obtained by a heavy water enrichment cascade using ordinary water as the input feed. Tritium does not occur naturally and must be manufactured by irradiating lithium with neutrons. Lithium is mined from the ground. The easiest way to manufacture the tritium for a hydrogen bomb is the in situ processwhere the bomb does it itself. The fuel for such a hydrogen bomb is lithium deuteride, fission generated neutrons irradiate the lithium deuteride, manufacturing tritium which mixes with the deuterium and the bomb is now ready to explode!
Using a mixture of deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen in the fusion bomb makes it practical as this mixture has the lowest ignition temperature.
So to sum up your answer:
- deuterium is taken from water
- tritium is manufactured in the bomb from lithium, which is mined from the ground
The original concept for something like what is now called a "dirty bomb" was proposed at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project before it was certain that an actual atomic bomb could be made to work. When it was clear the atomic bombs would work, the idea was shelved.
As far as I know, nobody has ever actually bothered to build one. Doing so would likely be suicidal for the workers doing the assembly.
Note: another unrelated usage of the term "dirty bomb" simply refers to an ordinary hydrogen bomb. This usage came into fashion about 1958 when the US was fascinated with the idea of building "clean bombs" (i.e. reduced fallout hydrogen bombs), mostly for Project Plowshare - the project to use nuclear explosives for construction, mining, and other peaceful uses - but also to try to make high yield nuclear weapons that would produce less public outcry/opposition/protests. The US perfected "clean bomb" designs having as little as 5% of the fallout of ordinary nuclear explosives of the same yield and the USSR did even better than that. "clean bomb" designs have been generally abandoned.
What was the cost of the first nuclear bomb in 1945?
That cannot be said as it has not yet been declassified. However a reasonable estimate is somewhere between $250,000 and $1,000,000 for each custom hand assembled bomb.
Total cost of the entire Manhattan Project has been declassified. It was about $2,000,000,000 however the vast majority of this was spent on building the industrial infrastructure needed to prepare materials and make bomb components.
Which two Asian countries have conducted nuclear weapons test?
At least four countries in Asia have conducted nuclear weapons tests.
Even excluding Russia as being only partly Asian, that still leaves China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.
Can an atomic bomb destroy a whole state?
In theory, one with high enough yield could destroy whatever one wanted to. However no device has ever existed with enough yield to destroy a whole state in one blast (with the possible exception of Rhode Island, the full yield 100 megaton version of the USSR's Tsar Bomba might have just been able to, but even this was never actually built).
Note: above a yield of a few hundred megatons their use as weapons to destroy things becomes somewhat impractical as the majority of their blast energy is simply wasted in blowing the atmosphere above the detonation off into space.
Did congress establish NASA to develop new types of nuclear weapons?
no
- congress established NACA in the early 1920s to promote and perform research on the airplane and in aviation in general.
- congress changed the name of NACA to NASA in 1958, when it added the civilian space program to their responsibilities.
neither NACA nor NASA ever had direct involvement in any weapons development, nuclear or conventional.
Which country has the most nuclear bombs in the world?
at this this time (2013) russia has the most, closely followed by the US. other countries have no more than 1/10 of what these do.
What are the effect of nuclear explosion to the environment?
That depends mostly on yield and now many are used.
- a few devices similar to the ones used in ww2 (~20 kiloton) has minimal environmental effect outside the immediate blast area.
- an all out nuclear war with thousands of multi-megaton devices will ignite worldwide forest fires, causing a nuclear winter that could exterminate well over 90% of life on the surface of earth from a combination of cold and lack of food.
What is the world's weakest nuclear weapon?
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were firecrackers compared to a standard warhead today. The Hiroshima bomb was about 20 kilotons - the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT. Subsequently thermo-nuclear devices were perfected, and yields of 50 MEGAtons are attained. Big enough to annihilate everything for a fifty to one hundred mile radius from the blast. So big in fact that its pointless to develop anything stronger, as existing weapons will have a blast radius extending beyond the atmosphere of the planet, and any additional power would be largely vented into space. In the 1950s US Army doctrine called for preparing for a "nuclear" battlefield. As part of that nuclear artillery pieces were developed, to fire out limited-yield tactical nuclear shells about ten miles, with a small enough blast that the gun crew could survive. Similar nuclear ammunition was developed by the Navy to be fired from the main battery of battleships. Today such limited-yield tactical nuclear weapons are mounted on short range missiles. There's also the neutron bomb, which emits mostly radiation to kill all living creatures without the messy blast and fire, leaving infrastructure intact for the benefit of ground forces moving in afterward.
How does a nuclear disaster form?
Detonation of a nuclear device, discharge of radioactive materials (whether accidental or deliberate), spillage or distribution of radioactive materials.
How many types of nuclear weapon are there in the world?
There are essentially three different basic types of nuclear weapons:
- Gun Type Uranium Fission: Weapon consists of two subcritical pieces of U-235 fired at each other at a specific speed to product the supercritical reaction and often time a yield of 10-15 Kt based on amount of fissile material used, and level of design. (Hiroshima Type Design)
- Plutonium Implosion Design: Weapon consists of normally a sphere of subcritical P-239 that is surrounded by explosives. Upon carefully timed detonation of these explosives surrounding the Plutonium sphere, the Plutonium compresses to a supercritical state and the full yield nuclear detonation occurs. (Nagasaki Type Design)
- Multi-Stage Thermonuclear Weapon: This design uses the Teller-Ulam design principle. All modern nuclear weapons in the United States Arsenal consist of this design. This weapon utilizes a Fission weapon to detonate a secondary Fusion stage. (Operation Castle Shot Bravo Test Weapon)
This is a basic overview of the three different primary weapons, there are many variations and offshoots of these designs.
Specific details on all of these weapons designs are still highly classified.
What are the types of radiation protection used by the military?
The military are very aware of the risks of radiation both from nuclear explosions and also from "dirty bombs" that spread radioactive material. The NBC suit is the military's primary line of protection.
What are the pros and cons of a nuclear weapon?
Nuclear weapons are extremely dangerous but there are pros and cons to the use of these weapons. The pros are that it can be the answer to terrorism as these can wipe out entire cities or countries. The cons are that these weapons are highly immoral and dangerous and the effects can last for decades.
Where can someone find and download pictures about nukes?
There are several websites that one can go to find and download pictures of nukes. These websites include GoogleImages, YahooImages, MenzelPhoto, and Gizmodo.
Why don't we nuke North Korea?
Why would we want to:
1- Waste a multi-million dollar weapon on a country that doesn't represent a threat to the US?
2- Have a cloud of radioactive debris contaminate the world?
3- Have to explain to the other countries why we killed millions of mostly poor, malnourished people?
Basically, there's nothing to be gained by doing so.
What does the company Dot Net Nuke offer?
Dot Net Duke offers web content management. They will host the content so that the owner of the site is free to manage their business knowing the maintenance and upkeep of their date is sorted.
Which department oversees nuclear weapons?
- right after World War 2 it was still the Manhattan Project
- when the Atomic Energy Commision was established in 1947 this responsibility was transferred to the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project
- in 1958 this responsibility was transferred to the Defense Atomic Support Agency
- in 1971 this responsibility was transferred to the Defense Nuclear Agency
- in 1996 this responsibility was transferred to the Defense Special Weapons Agency
- in 1998 this responsibility was transferred to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency
