Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Iris7
Doesn't work like that. The plutonium core of a nuclear weapon, I read, is not even warm to the touch.
Having never personally handled one, and having seen where nuclear HLW (High Level Waste e.g. Uranium reactor fuel) materal can produce heat at the rate of 2kW/m3 I'll have to have a second opinion on this ...

Reference: www.uic.com.au/nip51.htm

183 posted on 09/24/2006 3:12:37 PM PDT by _Jim (Highly recommended book on the Kennedy assassination - Posner: "Case Closed")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 180 | View Replies ]


To: _Jim
I'll have to have a second opinion on this.

OK, 2nd Opinion: I've haven't "handled" the core, but I certainly have "handled" the stuff around it. They ain't hot (temperature wise).

Remember, radioactive decay (and associated heat) can be many things other than neutron emission. But alpha and beta particles are not going to set off a chain reaction.

187 posted on 09/24/2006 3:28:56 PM PDT by EternalHope (Boycott everything French forever. Including their vassal nations.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 183 | View Replies ]

To: _Jim

What you say about high level nuclear reactor waste is of course true. One recollects the Russian processing accidents.

Nuclear weapons use carefully separated isotopes.


188 posted on 09/24/2006 3:31:30 PM PDT by Iris7 (Dare to be pigheaded! Stubborn! "Tolerance" is not a virtue!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 183 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson