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Originally posted by deltaboy
Originally posted by Harlequin
and i think they have a bomb or 6 allready , but if i was israel i wouldn`t want to find out.
If you were Israeli, you probably really do want to find out. Israelis dont ignore threats to their homeland.
Originally posted by Harlequin
binary nerve agents
ouch thats gonna hurt (literally)
Originally posted by Harlequin
no , thats not what i meant - i meant the tests for the explosives need to correctly deform the uranium
those kind of tests (and other similar staged tests)
Originally posted by mad scientist
Uranium is only used for a gun-type device like Little Boy. The Uranium is in 2 pieces and fired at high speed, one end towards the other using explosives to form a critical mass.
A Plutonium implosion device is what you're referring to.
Implosion systems can be built using either Pu-239 or U-235 but the gun assembly only works for uranium. Implosion weapons are more difficult to build than gun weapons, but they are also more efficient, requiring less SNM and producing larger yields. Iraq attempted to build an implosion bomb using U-235. In contrast, North Korea chose to use 239 Pu produced in a nuclear reactor
When China decided in 1955 to develop atomic bombs it faced a number of technological choices as to the most appropriate route to follow. At that time China could only work on one path, and had to choose between producing Pu239 from a reactor, or developing the method of producing U235 through isotope separation. The uranium path offered two alternatives, either system, either chemical separation or physical separation. Chemical separation of Pu235 from the mixed system of U235 and U238 would have been easier than physical separation, but the separation of plutonium and uranium was difficult due to the high radioactivity of the Pu-U system, and the severe toxicity of plutonium. Therefore, the chosen path was the physical separation of U235 and U238 isotopes. The implosion method of detonating an atomic bomb was considered more technically advanced, though there were questions as to whether China was capable of producing a uranium bomb detonated by the implosion method.
Originally posted by Harlequin
moot point - only 9 countries have the bomb (or 10 if you include Iran)
china is the only 1 to use uranium in there weapons (exclusivley) but NK and iran and pakistan only use fission bombs which would use uranium
Originally posted by Harlequin
yes that might be true - but they still use uranium in the hydrogen bombs - so they must either have ALOT of the stuff or ALOT of the stuff