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Re: Nuclear Weapons Material
> > > the atomic weapon that sets off the fusion reaction.)
> >
> > I don't understand your point. The earliest devices used a pie shape
> > with a wedge cut out. The actual geometry is rather unimportant to
> > getting a fission reaction - but it *is* important if you want to
> > maximize your yield.
> > --
>
> Wrong. If you are using a uranium fuelled bomb, then you are
> right. As long as you thump together two barely sub-critical masses, it
> will go boom. However, if you try this with plutonium, it will fizzle.
> In the time that it takes for a standard gun type triggering mechanism
> to operate, the plutonium will become critical, and then release most of
> it's energy harmlessly, instead of going super-critical. This is the
> reason for using fast-triggering bomb geometries.
Wrong. If you will notice, I said "the earliest devices". They didn't
use plutonium for nuclear devices until much later.
--
Ed Carp, N7EKG [email protected], [email protected]
Finger [email protected] for PGP 2.5 public key [email protected]
If you want magic, let go of your armor. Magic is so much stronger than
steel! -- Richard Bach, "The Bridge Across Forever"