[judicial meanz]

Ok Milk....let me give it a shot:


Uranium and Plutonium are the major components of a nuclear weapon. Both have extremely long half lifes.


Plutonium has a half life of 24,360 years. It wont decay for a long time, and remains pretty much stable. it would not have lost any effectiveness since about 1988.

The half life of uranium of 713,000 years ( give or take some, I am doing this from memory)

The base elements of a nuclear weapon are the Uranium and the Plutonium. You need these to have fission. To enhance fission you need other elements like Lithium 6 and Tritium to boost fission, but if you dont have them, it will still go boom.

Basically you take the Plutonium and place it in the center. Then you clad it with Uranium and wrap the whole thing with conventional explosives designed in geometric angles, so they will compress the Uranium mass onto the Plutonium and start the fission process.

That is a basic implosion type device. ( very basic explanation)

Then there is a gun-type device. ( basic explanation)

The gun type device simply takes a mass of plutonium and drives a mass of Uranium into it using high explosives. This causes fission.

Honestly, if you have the materials, you can build a nuke in your bath tub with hardware store materials, but it may not detonate "high order". The additives like lithium and tritium are enhancers, but are not need to make a bomb.


Hope that helps

[milkncookies]

Thanks jm, now, if you would indulge me, please read post #1372 and tell me your thoughts.

Thanks

[Domestic Church]

" you can build a nuke in your bath tub"

ROFLOL...take a humor break and try to picture this being done...pythonesque!

[Cindy]

building a nuke in a bath tub...I don't know why that strikes me as funny.
It's not. I know...maybe I need a vacation.