Brian Ross wrote on Jul 4
th, 2019 at 8:40pm:
Bobby. wrote on Jul 4
th, 2019 at 6:40pm:
Brian Ross wrote on Jul 4
th, 2019 at 6:31pm:
Bobby, Bobby, even I could design a working Atomic bomb. It isn't rocket science. Of course, it would be a simplistic "gun type" bomb, not a you beaut implosion kind. That would take a little longer, I am willing to admit.
Now, if you want a Hydrogen bomb, that might take a lot longer and a bit more research but I think I could build one without too many difficulties.
Of course I'd need to experiment a few times to make sure I've got the details right...
No one would use a gun type bomb.
It requires a huge amount of U235.
Look at North Korea - their first bombs were all fizzers - hardly any yield.
That's because it's not simple to design
even for top nuclear scientists.
Where did I suggest it would be cheap, Bobby? We could build a gun type bomb. It doesn't need a huge amount of U235, it just needs a large amount, preferably highly enriched Uranium. The South Africans were going to manage a series of small bombs using only a hundred or so kilograms.
The reason why the DPRK's first few bombs were fizzers was because they were trying with a handful of Plutonium and an implosion device. The first implosion device, the "Fat Man" bomb was comparatively huge that was partly because the Fat Man lacked miniaturised electronics. Nowadays, if you know what you're doing you can make it the size of a large suitcase.
Were you aware that the Pakistanis' first bombs were also fizzers? That was because they used a (deliberately) defective Chinese design. It seems the Chinese are more inscrutable than we believed...
With a P239 bomb you only need 7 Kgs of material.
With a U235 bomb you need 10 times that amount
about 70 Kgs.
That's why they use P239 that can be easily made in a Uranium reactor.
The fizzing problem is not simple at all with P239.
You have to reflect neutrons back in but if you reflect too many it will fizz out.
It also requires an initiator at the center of a hollow sphere or pit.
How can they stop that from causing criticality too soon?
There are precise amounts of material in many different shells
and the timing has to be perfect or it will be a fizzer
with almost no yield.
I am actually very surprised that the first P239 Trinity test worked at all.
It shows you how smart they were.
They did it in only 3 years.
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