Iran rejects Russia's offer

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.

and neither do Iran - and thats the thing , these are 2 pig headed and fanatical countries involved.

Originally posted by Harlequin
binary nerve agents

ouch thats gonna hurt (literally)

Binary nerve agents have been around for a long time. All they are is 2 chemicals which are inert but when mixed together form the nerve agent. This is merel for safety reasons. The US developed them some time ago, such as the Bigeye bomb.

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)

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.

Interesting thing about a gun device is that a reactor doesn't have to be built to produce the fissile component. The Uranium can be enriched without a reactor which is probably why the Iranians are pursuing that technology.

erm , the bigeye bomb is just a carrier for VX gas , and isn`t the sort of `third generation` binary agent im talking about


anyway -The Bigeye Bomb will never see the light of day. That's because most of the facilities built at the Pine Bluff Arsenal for producing chemical weapons ingredients have been dismantled allready.

AFAIK Pine Bluff is now closed.


And russia is still working to destroy its own stockpiles ahead of the April 2007 deadline.


Well at least one `arm` of the NBC trilogy is being eliminated - with the second being done as well - which just leaves nukes

LIke I said, binary nerve agents have been around for decades nothing new there.
As for 3rd generation weapons Highly unlikely, there isn't much point in today's world. What's more there is no evidence except for the word of several generic Russian scientists.

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.

thats not right at all - Uranium can also be used in implosion devices as well.

www.fas.org...

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

chinese a bombs are the uranium implosion type

www.fas.org...

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.

Ok, I misspoke, uranium implosion is still less efficient than plutonium implosion, hence why all major powers use plutonium implosion devices. Meaning that more uranium has to be used than plutonium for an implosion weapon.

Also, modern Chinese warheads would use plutonium implosion. When they first started in teh 60's uranium was an easier option, less technologically challenging.

[edit on 2-1-2006 by mad scientist]

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
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

China would not use uranium in their implosion weapons today, they have enough plutonium. Also, the new advanced lightweight designs demand that plutonium be used as the critical mass is far less. A smaller critical mass means less bulk and far less weight - exactly what you need to miniaturize a weapon for modern missiles.

Critical Masses

U235 = 50 kg

P239 = 10 kg

en.wikipedia.org...(nuclear)

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

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

They would only use uranium for the 3rd stage jacket of a thermonuclear weapon, which roughly doubles the yield of the weapon.

they would also use it in the first stage fission device as well