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Oh okay, I see. Do you think my friends are right then, and that more people can invent nuclear weapons that you think, and I'm just being naive about it?
You're incredibly naive.
Did you read my post? I basically did everything except design and build a weapon for you, and for the record, a gun-type implosion device is so simple even a monkey could do it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ironpony
Cause it seems like if a lot of people could invent them, they would have by now, and seems like a very difficult thing for almost all mankind to do.
There isn't one single country on Earth that couldn't produce a single or double-gun system in 6 months or less.
None. Not even one.
They can all do it...they simply choose not to do it, primarily because they are signatories to an international treaty, namely the Non-proliferation Treaty, which expressly bars them from developing nuclear weapons.
And, stop saying "invent." A thing is invented once and only once. Fission weapons were invented 70 years ago, and fission-fusion shortly after that, and then fission-fusion-fission (which is no longer used).
All you need is Uranium ore. Uranium ore is primarily U-238 with a small percentage -- 0.5% to 8.0% -- U-235, depending on where on Earth you get the Uranium ore.
You separate the U-235 from the U-238 and you can do that using gaseous diffusion, or centrifuges, and a few other methods, until you get a concentration of 90% U-235 and 10% U-238.
You can use something like an autoclave to create a large sphere of U-235 and a small sphere of U-235.
Then, you take the small sphere of U-235 and ram it into the large sphere of U-235 and Boom!
There you go.
That's how freaking simple it really is and that is exactly how a gun design works.
You use PBX to propel a small sphere of U-235 into a larger sphere of U-235 to obtain critical mass, which is any mass sufficient to sustain a cascading fission chain reaction.
You can also use a double-gun design. That is just two small spheres of Uranium-235 being propelled from opposite sides into a larger sphere of U-235.
Why would you want to do that?
Because a single-gun design is going to be 36"-40" in length, and using a double-gun design cuts that down to 24" in length.
There were, in fact, nuclear weapons that small: 8"in diameter and 24" in length. There were literally hundreds of those, about 976 of them actually.
It would also help to have a neutron generator, or a source of neutrons, like Polonium, because it increases efficiency, resulting in an higher yield.
Or, you can use emeralds. Most people use emeralds for jewelry, but if you bombard it with gamma rays it sheds neutrons (emerald is also known as beryllium). All US nuclear weapons after 1972 contain emeralds.
The thing about single- and double-gun designs is you don't have to test them.
Only one country in the world has ever test-detonated a single- or double-gun design and that was Pakistan, and the only reason they did was to let the world know they have nuclear weapons.
And, no, you can't use Plutonium for a single- or double-gun design.
Plutonium has a very high rate of spontaneous fission. For that reason, it can only be stored as 1 cm pellets. For anything large than 1 cm, the spontaneous fission will initiate the cascading chain reaction, and while it will not explode, it will generate a lot of heat and radiation, so it cannot be used in gun designs.
I don't think so, there's a reason NK is opening up to America, maybe they're sitting on vast amounts of rare earth minerals that they know China will exploit for a pittance compared to what the west would provide.
Oh okay, I see. Do you think my friends are right then, and that more people can invent nuclear weapons that you think, and I'm just being naive about it? Cause it seems like if a lot of people could invent them, they would have by now, and seems like a very difficult thing for almost all mankind to do.
Instead of using the word 'invent', try 'develop'. It makes more sense. We, the US of A, 'invented' the atomic bomb. North Korea, with help from their friends, have been able to develop nuclear weapons according to already established procedures.
North Korea does have nuclear weapons. North Korea has admitted that, and we have data on their test-shots.
Not only has North Korea successfully tested a fission device, they have tested a fission-fusion device, but the success of that test is debatable. I maintain it was a small yield fission-fusion that was successful, but others disagree.
When your only fuel is Uranium-235, and that is the case for Pakistan and would be the case for Iran, you're limited to a maximum yield of 60 kt.
However, there is no means of delivering such a device, because it's size and weight are too great for any existing missile system. The only aircraft that could carry it is the US B-52G/H. The US B-2 could not carry it, and I seriously doubt a B-1 could carry it either, not because of the weight, but because of the way their bomb-bays are designed.
Pakistan used to have B-57Gs, but they took them out of service in the 1980s. Pakistan has French-made Mirage that could carry a 20 kt warhead. Their US F-16s could not, because those are export models, and they don't have the hard-point or conduit system necessary.
Pakistan has maybe four or five 20 kt gravity bomb warheads, and the rest are 0.01 kt to 2 kt warheads primarily for tube artillery -- maximum range about 35-37 miles, and short-range missiles -- maximum range about 80-120 miles -- and that's it.
Using Plutonium as a fuel, and Pakistan and Iran don't have Plutonium, the maximum yield is 200 kt, but such a device cannot be delivered.
The French did have a 140 kt Plutonium gravity bomb to be delivered by the Entendard and Super Entendard bombers, but those were taken out of service in the 1970s. Neither the US, Britain or Russia ever designed Plutonium weapons that large.
India has about two dozen 20 kt to 40 kt warheads that can be delivered by aircraft or intermediate range missiles, and smaller yield warheads for short range missiles and tube artillery. India did attempt a test of a fission-fusion device, but failed and never pursued it further.
In a nuclear war between Pakistan and India, it's highly unlikely Pakistan's aircraft would penetrate Indian air defenses, while India could level Pakistan easily.
Which brings us to North Korea.
North Korea has Plutonium, and quite a bit, and fission devices would certainly be for defense, but North Korea is pursuing high yield offensive warheads.
In the debate over North Korea's fission-fusion test, I believe North Korea was testing a design and not an actual deployable weapons system.
Once you know your design works, you can use it for weapons with yields of 100 kt, 400 kt, 750 kt, 1 megaton or 5 megatons.
It doesn't matter.
And, contrary to what you believe, North Korea would survive a nuclear attack, while the US would not.
When North Korea launches, most of their government will be in a secure facility impervious to nuclear attack, and a large part of their population will be moving to safe places.
Best case scenario, maybe you kill 1 Million North Koreans and relegate the country from 3rd World Status to 4th World Status.
But, you, you would not survive.
Three well-placed 450 kt warheads detonated at 85 miles above the Earth's surface would generate an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy your electrical grid for a century or more, render most of your micro-chip electronics useless, and result in the death of 250 Million Americans within 90 days and another 50 Million over the next 90 days.
Not one American will die from blast or heat effect, or radiation or fallout (there wouldn't be any fallout).
They'll die of starvation, dehydration, malnutrition, disease, illness, violence and by their own hand.
No one can help you.
The entire world working together don't have enough cargo aircraft to feed you.
Best case scenario, you might be able to feed 3 Million to 10 Million people for a short period.
What about the other 300 Million? They die.
Once a cargo aircraft lands in the US, it can never leave, because you have no way to refuel it. Even if you rigged a siphon system to get aviation fuel out of the tanks, you can't get it to the aircraft. You might be able to taxi a cargo aircraft to a fuel tank, but you could only refuel one at a time, it would take a very long time, and you risk damage to the aircraft landing gear or wings.
You can imagine if starving people knew food was being delivered to JFK, or La Guardia or Newark, there'd be swarms of people. You'd need troops to protect the aircraft, the pilots, and ensure food and medical supplies were delivered in an orderly fashion, and that means you need aircraft to support the troops, which means fewer aircraft delivering food.
As soon as the tanks are dry, game over. No more food. Aircraft could deliver food for 3-5 days before you ran out of fuel.
Ships won't work, either. All of your ports are already filled with ships, so there's no place to dock. Even if a few slips were available, it doesn't matter, because the cranes aren't working and you have no way to off-load the cargo from the ships.
None of that matters, because ships run on diesel oil, and there's no way to refuel a ported ship.
An attack in October would be devastating. Crops have been harvested, so you can't raid fields for food. Grocery stores will have been totally looted in the first 3-5 days, and after that it's Starvation Time.
Some nutters think they're going to hunt. Yeah, right, 1,000 hunters in 1 square mile hunting a single deer.
If 10 hunters walk away alive, it'll be a good day.
It'll be a long Winter. People who don't starve to death will freeze to death. It's kind of hard to pick fire-wood when you've only eaten twice in the last 3 weeks.
There's always cannibalism.
So, there is a threat, it's very real, and you should be afraid.
Oh okay. It's just you never heard about anyone developing nuclear weapons. You think there would be people in the country who would want to develop them, but no one does. You never hear of any domestic extremists using any on cities, and the I've never heard of the police or FBI finding nuclear weapons when searching suspects' residences.
If it's not so difficult and people could develop them, than why don't we ever hear of it, or why hasn't any ever been built or and detonated, even by a private citizen?
Not sure if this was the right forum to post this on... My friends talk about how they are scared of North Korea, in conversations here and there, and how they were scared of the missile threat in Hawaii, last year when it happened.
But I find it hard to believe that North Korea, would even be able to invent nuclear weapons, and if they did, they may use them as a defense, but I certainly cannot see them wanting to draw first blood with them, because they wouldn't win, so what would be the point?
It just seems to me, that people have nothing to fear from them and my friends are just being paranoid. Unless I am wrong, and perhaps I am the naive one?
No. I'm more worried about how China is spying on the US, and been spreading their empire from Africa to the Caribbean, claiming to be helping out the poor nations, but it's hard to trust a country that claims they want to help build the infrastructures of poor nations when they themselves have human rights concerns for their own citizens. They have claimed to back North Korea, and have actually rammed barges into American navy ships a few times now. So yeah, they worry me more than NK at the moment. But, I could see them using NK as a patsy when they finally decide to strike the US.
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you should write a screenplay
