[Orangedog]

How much was in the Hiroshima bomb?

About 140 pounds, but that was back when the equipment and methods were pretty crude. Today 37 pounds is enough.

Here's the real question. Where was it made and how much more has already been produced and delivered from that facility?

[No Blue States]

"Here's the real question. Where was it made and how much more has already been produced and delivered from that facility?"

Thats a little too scary for me to comtemplate, any ideas?

[lelio]

How much was in the Hiroshima bomb?
About 140 pounds, but that was back when the equipment and methods were pretty crude.

According to this page it was 140# of HEU but only 1.38% of the uranium fissioned.

The 140# is split up into 85 "target" and 55 "projectile" pounds. Anyone know what that means?

[Prime Choice]

About 140 pounds, but that was back when the equipment and methods were pretty crude. Today 37 pounds is enough.

Only if using neutron-rich exciters. Uranium-style bombs typically require 110 pounds of highly-refined Uranium-235 for critical mass. That's why today's arsenal is almost entirely comprised of Plutonium (Pu-239) which is derived from "baking" the more abundant (and non-fissionable) Uranium-238.

[Cate]

My best guess of where it came from and who it originally belongs to. I think the title should read that the US TEAM TOOK THIS FROM THE RUSSIAN TEAM. My money is that the Russians own it and got caught, and we, thru a backdoor negotiation, are saying that a US/Russian team found it. And then Putin will speak up next week and agree to drop the Iraqi debt. Wow- how was that for a conspiracy theory?

[Lael]

About 140 pounds, but that was back when the equipment and methods were pretty crude. Today 37 pounds is enough.

In "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", it was mentioned that Little Boy needed about 2.5 "Critical Masses" to overcome the distortion of the 'target' U-235 by the so-called "gun".

The Nagasaki Fat Man required that there be less than a critical mass, which quickly became critical by implosive compression, and set off by the still classified "Initiator".

Today's nukes are more efficient by far, as consulting a photograph of a Reentry Warhead published as recently as the 1970's will show.

What must be clearly understood is that Nuclear Weapons are an almost 60 year old technology, and almost any nation could build one.

Slide Rules were the most advanced "computer" available, and indeed the dictionary definition of a "computer" was a Human Being skilled at Numerical Computations.

Nerve agents are even older, being pioneered as offshoots from Organophospate insecticide research in the 1920's.

And Anthrax??? It was developed, AND weaponized by Great Britain for possible use on the City of Dresden in WWII.