End of Surplus?

[Joe R.]

At 02:31 AM 4/27/05 -0400, you wrote:
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Joe R." <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com>
>To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
><cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 9:08 PM
>Subject: Re: End of Surplus?
>
>
>>
>>    Sorry but that won't work. After the first couple of generations of the
>> chain reaction it simply blows itself apart and the chain reaction dies.
>> That's why A bombs have POWERFUL chemical explosives to FORCE the nuclear
>> material together. Getting the bomb to stay together long enough to work
>> (ie, use up most of the available nuclear material) was probably THE
>> biggest problem in the building of the A bomb. Ultimately two approaches
>> were used, one was to fire to hemispheres of nuclear materail together by
>> means of a modified 16 inch navel gun (Tall-boy) and the other was to
>> implode a hollow sphere of material by explosives that completely
>> surrounded it (Fat-man).  Go read 'Building of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard
>> Rhodes. It has a lot of detail on the subject.  That book and "Building of
>> the Nuclear Bomb" are both very interesting reading.
>>
>>     Joe
>>
>>
>
>The major problem with the Fatman method was having the explosives
>surrounding the uranium explode at the exact same time with 1940's era
>electrical technology. Getting a uniform explosion to compress a ball off
>enriched uranium so that a large chain reaction takes place is probably
>still a pain to do for most countries wanting to build a bomb. A fraction of
>a second off and you have a fizzle.

   Dealing with the explosives is no piece of cake either. They actually
had to use layers of two different explosives to create a "lens" effect in
order to focus the explosive force of each explosive panel onto the sphere.
Simply surrounding the sphere with explosives didn't focus the force
sufficiently.  The electrical triggers that you mention are still a
critical item and are a very precise and special part. Don't ask how I know
but I do!!

   Joe


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