Atomic bomb destructiveness

The rapid fission of a mass of or another heavy nucleus is the principle of the atomic bomb, the energy liberated being the destructive power. For useful energy the reaction has to be moderated this is done in a reactor where moderators such as water, heavy water, graphite, beryllium, etc., reduce the number of neutrons and slow those present to the most useful energies. The heat produced in a reactor is removed by normal heat-exchange methods. The neutrons in a reactor may be used for the formation of new isotopes, e.g. the transuranic elements, further fissile materials ( °Pu from or of the... 

A nuclear fission explosion. Such a dramatic and destructive release of energy had never been seen before the development of the "atomic bomb" during World War II. 

Self-Test 17.8B A nuclear reaction that can cause great destruction is one of many that take place in the 2,5U atomic bomb ... 

Chemical and biological weapons (CBW) have long been called the poor man s atomic bomb, but they are actually weapons of mass destruction that once could be afforded only by a few powerful and industrialized nations however, during the twenty-first century, a proliferation of technology has now made them readily available to second and third rate powers, as well as terrorists and one man or woman acting alone... 

A heavy nucleus can split into lighter nuclei by undergoing nuclear fission. Nuclear power plants use controlled nuclear fission to provide energy. Uncontrolled nuclear fission is responsible for the massive destructiveness of an atomic bomb. 

The specter of chemical death persists. Like atom bombs, chemical weapons have been classified as weapons of mass destruction. But were they, and are they Nerve agents such as VX and sarin can certainly kill swiftly. But so can hundreds of familiar drugs and poisons. The real question is whether anyone within the limits of current technology can, in fact, use them effectively as lethal weapons on the battlefield. 

Atomic (or Nuclear) Bomb. A weapon invented during WWII and developed in the United States as a joint effort with the British and Canadian governments. It utilizes for its destructive effect the energy of an Atomic or Nuclear Explosion (qv). Since atomic explosions are of two types, fission and fusion, atomic bombs are of. corresponding types. However, it has been necessary to first initiate an atomic explosion with a nuclear fission reaction in order to bring about the conditions under which a nuclear fusion(thermonuclear) reaction can occur. 

In 1988 the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani, described chemical weapons as the poor man s atomic bomb. 2 This phrase is as accurate as it is alarming. While many would argue that nuclear weapons represent the zenith of mass destruction, their construction requires advanced industrial capabilities as well as access to rare, tightly controlled materials. Chemical weapons, on the other hand, are comparatively cheap and easy to build using equipment and chemicals that are used extensively for a host of civilian purposes. With... 

The object that struck the Moon is estimated to have been about 328 yd (300 m) across and the estimated energy released from impact would have been the equivalent of approximately that observed from the detonation of one-half megaton of TNT (more than 30 times more energetically destructive than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima). 

These first nuclear weapons were atomic bombs or A-bombs. They depended on the energy produced by nuclear fission for their destructive power. However, scientists like U.S. physicist Edward Teller (1908-) knew even before the first atomic bomb exploded that the fission weapons... 

Atomic bomb— An explosive weapon which uses uranium-235 or plutonium as fuel. Its tremendous destructive power is produced by energy released from the "splitting of atoms" or nuclear fission. Also called A-bomb, atom bomb, or fission bomb. 

Hydrogen bomb—An nuclear explosive weapon which uses hydrogen isotopes as fuel and an atom bomb as a detonator. More powerful than an atom bomb, the Hydrogen bomb derives its destructive power from energy released when nuclei of hydrogen are forced together to form helium nuclei in a process called nuclear fusion. Also called H-bomb or Thermonuclear bomb. 

Uranium is one of the most important eiements in the worid. Why One of its isotopes undergoes nuciear fission. Nuciear fission occurs when neutrons coiiide with the nucieus of a uranium atom. When that happens, the uranium nucieus spiits apart. Enormous amounts of energy are reieased. That energy can be used for mass destruction in the form of atomic bombs, or used for peacefui energy production in nuciear power piants. 

Radiological terrorism is the use of radioactive material to cause human casualties, environmental destruction and maximum disruption, panic and fear (1) in the general population for political purposes. Since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, with 150,000 casualties and 75,000 fatalities (2), people have feared nuclear explosives more than any other weapons of mass destruction, because of the ability of these weapons to cause immediate devastation and trauma, and because radiation, undetected by human senses, can cause ongoing morbidity and mortality, including cancer, years after exposure (3). 

July 1945 The first test of the atom bomb performed in New Mexico displays its unbelievable release of energy. It prompted many involved to sign petitions urging the United States not to use this weapon because of the destruction it can cause. 

In the spring and summer of 1945, with the bomb almost ready to wreak its fearsome destruction, Franck held Compton to his promise. He had breakfast with Secretary of Commerce (later Vice President) Henry A. Wallace in Washington. And together with several other scientists from the atom bomb project, Franck authored a report that urged the government not to use its new weapon. That document, called the Franck Report, became the manifesto of a new movement. 

For obvious reasons, an atomic bomb is never assembled with the critical mass already present. Instead, the critical mass is formed by using a conventional explosive, such as TNT, to force the fissionable sections together, as shown in Figure 23.9. Neutrons from a source at the center of the device trigger the nuclear chain reaction. Uranium-235 was the fissionable material in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. Plutonium-239 was used in the bomb exploded over Nagasaki three days later. The fission reactions generated were similar in these two cases, as was the extent of the destruction. 

The idea of bringing a country to its knees by inducing wholesale starvation was not original. The British, for example, had used a naval blockade against the Germans in the First World War with just such an intention. But, as the authors of the post-war paper pointed out, here was a weapon which would be more speedy than blockade and less repugnant than the atomic bomb . They also foresaw ... their possible use for the purposes of internal security within the Empire, e.g. for the destruction of food supplies of dissident tribes in order to control an area. ., 67... 

Leo Szilard determined that the formation of neutrons occurs during the fission of uranium. This is crucial to sustaining a chain reaction necessary to build an atomic bomb, the first of which he helped to construct in 1942. Shortly thereafter, realizing the destructive power of the atom bomb, Szilard argued for an end to nuclear weapons research. 

Shock waves occur in nature in the air surrounding explosions (the shock wave causes much of the destruction of buildings, etc., in an atomic bomb blast) and in the sudden closing of a valve in a duct with high-velocity flow. Sonic booms are shock waves. Shock waves can be produced in the laboratory in a duct or nozzle with supersonic flow. In such cases the shock wave will stand still in one place while the fluid flows through it. The latter is the easier to analyze mathematically, so we use it as a basis for calculations. The nomenclature for a shock wave is shown in Fig 8.13. 

Tens of thousands of atomic and hydrogen bombs were built during and immediately after World War II, and 6,000 are now in existence, each having 20 times the destructive force of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. South Africa removed its nuclear weapons as part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Pact (NPT). Today, forty nations throughout the world have the ability to produce nuclear weapons. The world barely escaped catastrophe in October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. There were 1,700 nuclear weapons in Cuba at that time. If the US. had invaded Cuba, it is too horrible to contemplate what might have been the consequences. 

The term weapons of mass destruction was defined in 1948 by the Commission on Conventional Armaments as atomic explosive weapons, radioactive material weapons, lethal chemical and biological weapons, and any weapons developed in the future which have characteristics comparable in destructive effect to those of the atomic bomb or other weapons mentioned above (Resolution of the Commission for Conventional Armaments, August 12, 1948). This commission was established by the Security Council in 1947 (Resolution 18) to consider the regulation and reduction of conventional armaments and armed forces. 

---