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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
to kill millions so the people warring against us would back off.
How much uranium tons does a nuclear missile have?
A nuclear missile does not have that much weight, maybe only a few hundred pounds with not all of that being Uranium.
The force or energy of the bomb's explosion is measured in kilotons or megatons of TNT explosive energy.
One critical mass of Uranium-235 is ~100 pounds, one critical mass of Plutonium-239 is ~10 pounds. This varies significantly with configuration and type of reflector used. Bombs also typically contain ~100 pounds to over 1000 pounds of Uranium-238 as Tamper(s) and in fusion bomb radiation channel walls to guide x-rays between stages.
I cannot give exact figures as there are so many different warhead designs and details like that are classified Top Secret-Q.
Is the US still building nuclear weapons?
no, but we are refurbishing old ones periodically: replacing aged and worn out components. Most of the current arsenal of nuclear weapons are now refurbished. Its much cheaper than building new.
Edit: It should also be added that the majority of refurbishing is do to ensuring safe storage until time of deactivation and not maintaining arms.
At current disarming rates the US will have less nukes per capita than France by 2020. Although will not go much further than those levels.
The largest obstacle faced by US disarmament is the lack of qualified individuals who can safely dismantle a 80 year old bomb.
What is the largest nuclear weapon?
The largest KNOWN nuclear weapon was made by the Soviet Union (Russia) and was called the "Tsar Bomba" (King of Bombs). It had a yield of ~50MT.
What was the concern the Rand Corporation had about nuclear attacks?
A looming concern was that neither the long-distance telephone plant, nor the basic military command and control network would survive a nuclear attack.
How did the build up of nuclear weapons discourage their use?
Eventually there were so many nuclear weapons, total destruction of the Earth was possible. The term "Mutually assured destruction (MAD)" was used to describe the resulting holocaust.
Who dropped the nuclear bomb at hiroshima?
The US dropped the first atomic weapon on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, during World War II. The B-29 that dropped it had the name "Enola Gay" and was piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, US Army Air Force.
What damage does a nuclear bomb to a regular bomb?
first off, of course, a nuclear bomb is thousands of times stronger than a normal bomb. a nuclear bomb also carries radiation, energy that causes poisoning and cancer, while most normal bombs cant do that.
Could Ukraine still have hidden nuclear weapons?
Yes, if its hidden, its a well guarded secret. Noone will ever know. It is a possibilty.
When was the hydrogen bomb invented?
The original invention of the hydrogen bomb was very early in the Manhattan Project, but no significant work on designing one was done until right after the end of World War 2, when Edward Teller completed his "Classical Super" design (simulation of this design on ENIAC showed by the end of January 1946 that this design would not work).
The invention of what became the Teller-Ulam staged radiation implosion hydrogen bomb came in 1950 from work on improved atomic bomb designs. A design team at Los Alamos came up with the idea of using one atomic bomb to implode another much faster than chemical explosives can, resulting in a device having higher yield while using less fissionable material. One member of this team, the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam decided to consult with Edward Teller on issues of x-ray radiation transport, etc. and how to perform the necessary mathematical analyses to model this on a computer. However Edward Teller quickly realized this was the missing "ingredient" needed to make his hydrogen bomb designs practical and while supporting continuing work on the idea with Stanislaw Ulam he discouraged using the concept for improving atomic bombs with this idea as being "inefficient" compared to making hydrogen bombs.
The US built and tested its first hydrogen bomb using staged radiation implosion in 1952 (designed by Richard Garwin, with suggestions by Edward Teller) in shot Ivy Mike a massive 82 ton cryogenic assembly requiring a separate liquid hydrogen plant to keep its deuterium-tritium fusion fuel mixture cold. This was obviously not a practical bomb for an aircraft to deliver.
The USSR built and tested a limited yield, but deliverable weapon they called a "type of hydrogen bomb" in 1953, causing a brief panic in the US. This device did not use a staged radiation implosion, instead its core consisted of alternating layers of enriched uranium and lithium deuteride, making it more of a "dry boosted fission bomb" than a hydrogen bomb.
The US built and tested several different deliverable hydrogen bombs using staged radiation implosion in 1954 in operation Castle. The device tested in shot Castle Romeo was selected to become the first US hydrogen bomb and was fielded later that year as the EC-17 and could only be carried by the B-36 bomber. "EC" meant Emergency Capability: any bomber delivering one was on a suicide mission as there was no way the airplane could avoid being destroyed by the blastwave from the explosion.
In 1955 the US added a retarding parachute to this bomb which gave time for the bomber to escape undamaged, and changed its name to the MK-17. At about the same time the USSR tested and fielded their first deliverable staged radiation implosion hydrogen bomb.
Why did Russia put missiles in Cuba?
Russia sent missiles to Cuba because Cuba was already in a conflict where the U.S had attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro. Russia took advantage of Fidel's anger and sent the missiles to Cuba in which Cuba threatened to use them against the U.S
Where did United States test nuclear bombs?
The united states dropped 2 atom bombs on 2 cities in Japan in 1945. The cities were, Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, Japan
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- Trinity site, NM
- Hiroshima (in combat)
- Nagasaki (in combat)
- Bikini Atoll
- Eniwetok Atoll
- Nevada Test Site (north of Las Vegas, NV)
- in space
- Johnston Island
- Christmas Island (in conjunction with British tests)
- South of San Diego, CA (underwater)
- Colorado (underground)
- Near Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM (underground)
- Aleutian Islands, AK
In 1998 what nation tested nuclear weapons for the first time?
Pakistan, though apparently they gained the ability to make nuclear explosions in 1987.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/
Over the millennia, just about anything that can kill and many that only injure. If you can think of anything that meets this definition, its probably been used sometime.
