Re: Nuclear Weapons Material

[sdw@lig.net (Stephen D. Williams)]

> 
> In message <paBMkOwscIgG070yn@io.org> Mark Terka writes:
> > Not to mention the fact that without tritium, the "trigger" for nuclear
> > weapons (and extremely expensive and rare at $ 100m a gram) all you have
> > is a radioactive paperweight.
> 
> To the best of my knowledge, tritium is not used in nuclear weapons
> (meaning A-bombs), only in thermonuclear weapons (H-bombs).  One of
> my teachers was involved in the Manhattan project; he never mentioned
> any need for tritium.
> --
> Jim Dixon

I agree.  Fission bombs I thought just needed shaped metal with a
conventional charge to force compression and make it go critical.

Fusion bombs I thought used tritium as fuel and needed a Plutonium
trigger or something.  They are supposedly set off with some kind of
inner mirrored ball with high powered lasers.  Fission then fusion I
believe.


sdw
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