[fourdeuce82d]

Anybody have any hard information on how long nukes stay "fresh"? for example, how long does the neutron initiator remain funcitonal without maintenance? If they're tritium boosted, how long does it take for the tritium to decay to the point where it doesn't boost the yield?

Anybody?

[Poohbah]

If they're tritium boosted, how long does it take for the tritium to decay to the point where it doesn't boost the yield?

Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years, and decays to ³He₄. ³He₄ tends to poison the chain reaction and will cause a "fizzle" yield in relatively small quantities. At a minimum, almost 50% of the tritium has decayed in these nukes; assuming they were actually manufactured instead of being "paper" warheads to make the factory manager look good, these things probably won't achieve a nuclear yield.