REALLY Heavy metal work

Richard · 2012-02-24T04:08:54+00:00

Like most of us (baby boomers) I grew up in a world that already hadnuclear weapons. We did "Duck and Cover" drills in school, and Ithought I had a fair notion about how these things worked.But this photo (second one on this page) of the PU core of the"Fat Man" implosion device - it's so small...fit's in your hand. majority of the energy release is nearly instantaneous, the mean time from neutron release to fission can be of the order of 10 nanoseconds, and the chain reaction builds exponentially. The result is that greater than 99% of the very considerable energy released in an atomic explosion is generated in the last few (typically 4-5) generations of fission -- less than a tenth of a microsecond.*This tremendous energy release in a small space over fantastically short periods of time creates some unusual phenomena -- physical conditions that have no equal on earth, no matter how much TNT is stacked up.A fascinating collection of high speed photos... the "rope tricks"...

Feb 24, 2012 42 Replies

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jk 14 years ago

Really?

How much room for shielding is there in an itty bitty (relatively speaking) bomb? How good is this hypothetical terrorist, or "rogue nation" going to be at building the shielding?

Enough to reduce the values below that in space? which while not a "high radiation environment" still seems to require radiation hardened electronics, especially for longer term use or reliability.

Or do you think that being in close proximity to fissile material that hasn't (yet) gone critical isn't "high radiation", just because it hasn't gone critical?

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Richard 14 years ago

For Pete sake... They don't have to build a Bomb (capitol "Bomb") at all.

All they need is a conventional explosive and enough 239PU to render an area uninhabitable for years. Dirty bombs are the perfect terror weapons. And they can be set off with a Bic lighter!

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