Nuclear Weapons And The Development Of Nuclear Warfare

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Nuclear weapons are the most powerful and destructive technology ever created. From the first notion that nuclear technology could be harnessed to create a bomb, massive amounts of time and energy (as well as government funding) have been invested in further increasing the destructive yield of nuclear weapons. The process of development was carried out independently by governments worldwide. Despite the segregation of groups of scientists and secrecy surrounding their discoveries, design strategies and problems remained basically the same in all development projects with similar solutions being realized more or less concurrently. The first and most basic fission bomb quickly evolved to produce higher and higher yields. Through discoveries and modifications, nuclear technology evolved to eventually produce fission-fusion weapons, which are what compose most of the nuclear arsenal today. Further development, ironic as it may seem, is highly unnecessary and unlikely (except, perhaps, to increase efficiency) due to the ridiculous power wielded in every modern thermonuclear weapon. The popular modern threat of nuclear weapons is the possibility of terrorist groups acquiring the materials to produce bombs. 'Lo-tech' nuclear weapons are feasible and would seem highly desirable for such groups to possess. The home enthusiast might even flirt with the idea of creating his or her own nuclear arsenal. Assuming one could obtain 10-20kg of highly enriched fissionable material, this may not be such a romantic idea after all. There are a number of things anyone must know about nuclear weapons, however, before declaring themselves a nuclear power.

Fission Weapons (Atomic Bombs)

Fission weapons, or "Atomic Bombs", are based on nuclear fission. Nuclear fission occurs when the nuclei of certain isotopes of heavy elements (such as uranium or plutonium) capture neutrons. The result is that the nuclei become unstable and break apart into two smaller nuclei. This process converts some of the mass into energy and releases varying numbers of neutrons that go on to collide with other nuclei causing them to break apart and so on and so on. In nature this process is irrelevant due to the low natural occurrence and densities of radioactive isotopes. During weapons construction, however, isotopes are refined and concentrated to ultra-pure forms so that fission can occur at the ...

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...can be added on. The fusion reaction can go on to start another fusion reaction and so on with unlimited yield. The most powerful weapon ever conceived was of a similar design. The Russian "Tsar Bomba" (King of Bombs) was a fission-fusion-fusion weapon with an additional fission jacket surrounding the third stage that would have produced a yield of at least 100 megatons if it were ever exploded. Without the additional fission jacket it still produced the largest nuclear explosion ever at 50 megatons.

Works Cited

Brown, Richard K. "Nuclear Weapons Diagrams" href="http://www.enviroweb.org/issues/nuketesting/hew/Library/Brown/index.html">http://www.enviroweb.org/issues/nuketesting/hew/Library/Brown/index.html

"Nuclear Explosive Devices" href="http://www.accutek.com/~moistner/homepg1.htm">http://www.accutek.com/~moistner/homepg1.htm

Sublette, Carey "The High Energy Weapons Archive: A Guide to Nuclear Weapons" <a href="http://www.enviroweb.org/issues/nuketesting/hew/">http://www.enviroweb.org/issues/nuketesting/hew/

"The Atomic Bomb" <a href="http://www.geocities.com/athens/agora/4526/index1.html">http://www.geocities.com/athens/agora/4526/index1.html

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