Pakistan develops smallest nuclear weapon the size of a tennis ball.

reply to post by SimonPeter


There's still an explosion with a neutron device. It's just not a massive mushroom cloud, blow everything to hell type explosion that you get with a conventional nuclear weapon.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Thanks for that! That leads me to the answers I was looking for. MS

I believe this is quite possible with the use of some very rare transuranic elements. The one that comes to mind is Americium.

From Wikipedia:

The isotope 242m1Am (half-life 141 years) has the largest cross sections for absorption of thermal neutrons (5,700 barns),[85] that results in a small critical mass for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass for a bare 242m1Am sphere is about 9–14 kg (the uncertainty results from insufficient knowledge of its material properties). It can be lowered to 3–5 kg with a metal reflector and should become even smaller with a water reflector.

Americium

Didn't the USA look into this way back when and decide Small personal Nuke's were a bad Idea because the fall out would pretty much kill the guy who launched or threw it?

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
I'd picked up on this too...and I HAD read about projects on the drawing boards in the 50's and 60's for...no kidding.. nuclear hand grenades. I never gave it much thought though, as the drawing boards were stuffed with stupid and bad ideas for nuclear technology those days.

Perhaps someone with more experience than reading a few books like me can chime in here??

Just what CAN actually be fit into a physics package this size?? The SADM or man portable atomic demolition charges the US made were man portable alright ..but MEN portable would be a better term, as it took two men to transport and assemble a charge that had the yield to erase a dam or similar strategic location...but a tennis ball??

I mean, seriously? Is it even possible to make an EMP that size? I'm thinking of effects that would carry beyond the range the tiny size suggests to make it worthwhile. This cannot possibly be an ACTUAL nuclear yield type detonation ....can it? Nothing THAT small could make a blast worth using it for ..and NOT kill the people using it..could it?

edit on 23-7-2013 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

The yield doesn't need to be very large. Put one of these in a backpack, enter a bank on Wall Street and head to the bathroom. Put the backpack down somewhere and walk away with a timer set for 10 minutes (or cell phone detonator I suppose. Get outside the blast radius and trigger it. All you need is the release of lethal radiation, any explosive damage is a secondary benefit. If that happened just one time, it would make the economic consequences and civil rights violations that stemmed from 9/11 pale in comparison.

Alternatively, put one of these on a local water source and detonate it. These things are far more scary than ICBM's.

Originally posted by bekod

 

with out getting in to the "how to", a size of this could reach a 20 kt bomb, add that to a missile or mortar round, this also brings a new meaning to a Suicide bomber, not just a few 100 but a few 100,000.

To be honest, it sounds like a simple leveling of the playing field.

Since the end of WW2, the US government and vassal states have somehow spread the idea that it's morally superior for a super power to squash and subjugate small countries. They compounded this atrocity by somehow switching off critical thinking of our electorate.

If this tech is real, the continuing looting and pillaging of the world by the US and allies could be an exceptionally expensive folly.

By using a neutron reflector, only about 11 pounds (5 kilograms) of nearly pure or weapon's grade plutonium 239 or about 33 pounds (15 kilograms) uranium 235 is needed to achieve critical mass. That mass of Plutonium would be slightly larger than a baseball. Of course, it must be in several less-than-critical mass sizes before being imploded. It's the big shielding, imploding, and other parts that rule out hand grenade sized nuclear bombs. So ---No, they don't have such a weapon.

Originally posted by skuly
Only those in the military will think this is a good idea the rest of us on the other
hand might think handy pocket size nukes is a bad one.

Over the past few years, Pakistan’s strategic forces, responsible for the country’s primary deterrence program, have been doing extensive research into the design and development of smart weapons i.e. nuclear weapons that have a dynamic and compact form, and which can easily be transported from one location to another.

Although a variety of warheads already exist, especially in northern Pakistan, these enhanced productions are considered a landmark in strategic deterrence, owing to their size and power. Sources for Terminal X revealed that Pakistan has taken the term ‘ special degree ’ one step ahead by developing what they call, “ the world’s smallest nuclear weapons ”. Reportedly, these special weapons are about the size of a tennis ball (which can easily be hand-picked).

Officials familiar with the development said that Pakistan’s Strategic Forces Command made it clear it has not signed any treaty preventing it from taking an aggressive reaction (in defence, when provoked or attacked by a hostile enemy). It was said that if any mistake was made to initiate force aggression against Pakistan, then these ball-sized nuclear weapons will also be distributed across the Muslim world’s armed forces.

And the pakistan military is in to sharing its toys with its friends.

TX has received information that a clandestine transfer protocol has been put into place for the past few years after discussions with a few allies, according to which, if in case Pakistan is attacked in the near future, threats of which are in increasing abundance, then the country’s strategic forces will initiate a plan-of-action by which the aforementioned smart weapons will be distributed among friendly armed forces in Africa, the Arab world and South Asia. Of interesting note in this regard is the claim that this entire process of “ emergency transfer and armed protocol ” can be completed from start to finish within 8 hours

Cryptome.pdf

Just one word needed for this....

STUPID

---

THE LAWS OF PHYSICS apply here!

As per the above rebuttal, he says 5 kilos of plutonium for criticality
with a GOOD neutron reflector BUT I SAY Pakistan would have to use
a different setup which means THEIR SMALLEST reaction mass ABLE
to create a TRUE FISSION/FUSION event is ABOUT 12 kilos of "Supergrade"
(i.e. > 95% enriched) Plutonium 239 and that WILL NOT get down to a
tennis ball size now matter HOW HARD THEY TRY!

The explosive shape-charges MUST be arranged EVENLY around the core,
or in a MULTI-STAGE nuclear device, arranged in an egg-shaped two or three
chambered elliptical cavity used to create an EXPLOSIVE LENSING effect.

Multi-stage devices tended to be VARIABLE YIELD (i.e. 275 kilotons
OR 425 kilotons nominal yield) used for "Flexible Response" nuclear tactics.

WHAT IS close-to tennis ball sized is a DIRTY BOMB which is a Plutonium 241 core
salted with a Strontium-90 OR Cesium-137 shell and surrounded by high-explosive
to cause a FALSE detonation event BUT STILL irradiating the surrounding area
for a few years, decades....or more with some killing radiation!

The minimum size made by highly-expert scientists in England, USA, Israel and
France for a successful device is a SOFTBALL-Sized dirty-bomb-like nuclear device.
For a TRUE kiloton+ nuclear yield you still MUST HAVE 12 kilos of Plutonium and the
secondaries for a nuclear detonation.

What Pakistan has is a Dirty Bomb NOT a kiloton+ yield device!

NOW THE SOVIETS got their devices down to large suitcase sizes
and the USA DID get down to a large artillery shell size but yields
didn't justify the effort.

TODAY'S USA nuclear devices can get down to around basketball size
and STILL give 10+ kilotons of explosive yield in a single-stage device.
The multi-stage/Explosive Lensing devices have NO REAL LIMIT and
can get up into the ranges of 200 MEGATONS+ OF EXPLOSIVE FORCE
when talking about 3 to 7 stage devices. That can be done in a volume
the size of a small cargo-van!

reply to post by skuly


wow...suicide bombers are back in vogue

this is for assymetric/guerilla warfare and...terrorist tactics.

imvho most probably a dirty bomb

x-men on the horizon, baby

reply to post by StargateSG7


---

I should add however that there is some talk of using ISOMERS (i.e. Hafnium) to increase
detonation/deflagration of high explosives which would give a NEAR kiloton size yield.
I'm not sure about the physics behind ISOMER-enhanced explosives but i do KNOW
you could stuff that into a shielded lunchbox and it wouldn't set off the modern
radiation sensors in many of today's buildings or airports!

Even half-a-kiloton is a significant BANG!

Can we expect to see tennis raquets used as the launcher delivery system.

Remind me this scene on Terminator 3.

Originally posted by GLaDOS
Good for them.

Why is it when The west or even Israel develops new weapons it's regarded as a breakthrough in scientific research but when countries like Iran, Pakistan or even China develops new weapons everyone starts worrying and crying rogue state etc?

Hmm....maybe because those of us worrying or crying about Pakistan, China, or Middle Eastern countries developing nukes are here in the US.....lol.


I get what you are saying, but don't overlook the simplicity of it all. Of COURSE we are going to be happy when we develop weapons that will protect us against our enemies. Of COURSE we are going to be worried when countries who don't have the best track record develop weapons of massive destruction.


I'm not saying what is right or wrong, because that is neither here nor there....I'm just saying it makes perfect sense the reactions you are talking about.

The core of the thing may be tennis ball sized, but I'd suspect the rest of a device to make it all work would still be at least 50lbs. To get an idea of the kind of device they may have, look at the W54 the US developed in the early 1950s.

Still it's not something you'd want anyone one to be messing around with indiscriminantly. I'd also think that for a country like Pakistan, the smaller size weapon might be more useful as a range extender for existing rockets than having it as part of a man-portable package.

I hope nobody buys any small porcelain statues from Pakistan around here I could see having a bunch of these sitting in people's livingrooms all over the country.

Originally posted by skuly
Only those in the military will think this is a good idea the rest of us on the other
hand might think handy pocket size nukes is a bad one.

Over the past few years, Pakistan’s strategic forces, responsible for the country’s primary deterrence program, have been doing extensive research into the design and development of smart weapons i.e. nuclear weapons that have a dynamic and compact form, and which can easily be transported from one location to another.

I don't see how this could be physically possible given the requirements to keep a bomb from going critical untill you want it to and the mass requirements for criticality. A dirty bomb - sure. But not an explosive one.

I'm not an expert just an interested lay person. Greater minds can come up with all manner of ideas - but from what I've read over the years there are size limitations in nuclear bombs.

reply to post by skuly


A tennis ball sized atomic weapon would not be possible as it would be below critical mass or would be dangerously unshielded.

What is possible is that it is a dirty bomb with weaponized distribution of poisonous radioactive heavy metals such as plutonium and polonium.

Doom porn huh so the Pakistanis have figured out a way around the laws of physics.......
bogus

all soldiers will now be issued tennis rackets.

reply to post by chr0naut

That. Not only but i think they are talking about the size of the pit in the weapon, not the weapon itself.

The bomb that devastated Nagasaki had a grapefruit sized "pit". The weapon itself weighed 5 tons.


Photo Gallery

And a modern H Bomb core:

Photo Gallery

The cost of producing a nuclear weapon prohibits making weapons smaller and smaller beyond a certain point. That point being the dividing line of "How much bang for the buck".

A Nuclear weapons burst is designed to destroy large areas or really, really hard targets. Anything that can be destroyed with a hand grenade doesn't require fission. Detonation of conventional high explosives will suffice.

Heres a pic of the Davey Crockett: