On 04/04/2011 04:14 PM, Erik de Castro Lopo wrote:
Patrick Shirkey wrote:
So just to make sure I am correct here... All nuclear weapons require an
assisted explosion?
Yes, you need both high heat and high pressure to force the fissile
material into the required chain reaction.
So, just having enough Pu-239 in one location is definitely,
categorically not going to be able to cause a nuclear explosion? Not
even a little one that might cause a rapid escalation?
It's categorically impossible for Plutonium-239 to
become critical without assistance from an explosion of some other fuel
or high energy source?
You don't have super heated Pu-239 actively being created in a semi
critical chain reaction. If it gets unstable there is not enough neutron
flux to make baby go boom.
As explained here:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Criticality_accident
Gotta love wikipedia. Instant truth just add complement set ;-)
there have been a number of criticality accidents, but they always
create so much heat that the fissile material expands and the conditions
cease to be critical.
So far so good, nuclear physics being of course entirely understood and
modelled and no gaps exist is current knowledge of the fundamental
processes involved :-)
--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd.
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