A gigaton nuclear weapon, 1000 megatons of tnt, due to the energy constraints on providing enough power to quickly compress much larger successive
stages, would require 3 thermonuclear stages, in total about 1525 kilograms of lithium deuteride fusion fuel coming in at a total of 4860 gallons or
18.4 meters^3. Although, less lithium deuteride would be needed since for a u-238 tamper-pusher, yield would come from fission-fusion-fission.
In order to destroy the earth, we need to arrive at a more satisfactory elaboration. To obliterate the earth, and send all the matter in the earth
outward to infinity using a nuclear weapon placed at its very center, we would need a total of 2.24×10^32 Joules of energy
(
en.wikipedia.org...). This amounts to 5.354x10^16 megatons of TNT, or 53,540,000,000,000,000 megatons of tnt.
We use the formula 10^(n-1) = 5.354*10^16. Where n is the stage, and the right hand side is in megatons. This we get from the fact that each stage can
be 10x the power of the previous stage (rough estimate based on nuclear tests). We get n=17.73 stages. We can round this to roughly 18 stages, which
includes the primary.
Lithium deuteride has a density of about 0.85 g/cm^3 (author=borroso, fisica dos explosivos nucleares - book), and has an explosive yield of 64.0
kilotons/kg (source: nuclearweaponarchive.org). This gives us 8.366x10^17 kg (kilograms). Multiplying by 1cm^3/0.85 grams, gives us the conversion to
volume, which is 9.842*10^20 cm^3, which is .076% the volume of the earth's oceans, and would fill a sphere 38 miles in diameter. For such a nuke,
save the earth's oceans, you would need to mine the atmosphere of a gas giant like jupiter or saturn, which is made up of lots of hydrogen and
lithium, so that lithium deuteride can be extracted. A single primary of the normal size would be powerful enough to "spark" this reaction
however.
A design for this, I envisage, would take the shape of a dome, divided into a series of bars from top to bottom, like so...
===========================================
Pusher | Li6D | Pu-239/DT gas| Li6D |Pusher (u-238)
===========================================
with radiation channels near the walls of the dome.
Truman Show theme with Truman Dome:
www.youtube.com...
[edit on 21-7-2010 by DoYouKnow]
[edit on 21-7-2010 by DoYouKnow]
