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To: Intimidator
"No bag limits I hope and either sex right?"

Right. Just as a nuke itself would not contemplate a "bag limit" or a gender discriminant.

58 posted on 01/22/2003 3:23:13 PM PST by NetValue (Diversity or American Unity - Your Choice.)
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To: the_second_moon
I will take some time to educate your butts.

There are two main types of nuclear bombs: atom bombs and hydrogen bombs. In either type of bomb, a nuclear chain reaction occurs because the nuclear material has reached critical mass. Critical mass occurs when the chain reaction of fissioning or fusing atoms is self-sustaining. There are two ways to have nuclear material reach critical mass: through high density of atoms or through just having large numbers of atoms.

Atom bombs are made from either Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239 which fission spontaneously. Critical mass can be reached by putting enough Uranium-235 in one place so that enough neutrons which are emitted continue the chain reaction, causing more atoms to fission. This type of nuclear weapon is very simple. If you have enough Uranium-235 in one place it will explode with a force of thousands of tons of dynamite.

Inside the bomb are two pieces of Uranium. At the moment of explosion the two pieces are brought together causing there to be enough fissioning uranium atoms to cause an out of control chain reaction. This is the type of bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the bomb released an explosion equivalent to 25,000 pounds of TNT. It killed 140,000 people, while injuring 100,000 more very seriously. Another way to make an atom bomb is to surround a sphere of Plutonium-239 with normal explosives so that they will squeeze the plutonium atoms into a mass of very dense atoms, causing critical mass and a sustained chain reaction that quickly gets out of control. This is the type of bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later. (this was NOT three days after pearl harbor, pearl harbor was attacked in 1941 the bombs were dropped in 1945)

Hydrogen Bombs
Hydrogen bombs use fusion instead of fission to generate their explosions. While uranium and plutonium spontaneously fission to produce energy, hydrogen atoms resist very strongly the urge to fuse. The nuclei of hydrogen atoms is positive. Like charges repel, so it is very difficult to get the nuclei of atoms to fuse.
The only way to do it is to slam the atoms together with enough force to make them fuse. Temperatures of over 50 million degrees are necessary to make this happen. Of course, the sun has no problem maintaining these temperatures in its core, but achieving those high temperatures here on Earth is very difficult.
In order to get the hydrogen atoms to fuse together, a fission type atom bomb must be exploded first, generating the intense heat an pressure necessary to fuse the hydrogen atoms. This is the reason all nuclear power plants use the fission process. Fission happens spontaneously without the need for extreme temperatures and pressures.

What is depleted uranium? Depleted uranium is what is left over when most of the highly radioactive types (isotopes) of uranium are removed for use as nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. Depleted uranium is mostly U238, It cant be used to make a bomb. To make a bomb you need highly enriched uranium U235 or plutonium-239 A common misconception is that radiation is depleted uranium's primary hazard. This is not the case. Depleted uranium is approximately 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium. Depleted uranium emits alpha and beta particles, and gamma rays. Alpha particles, the primary radiation type produced by depleted uranium, are blocked by skin, while beta particles are blocked by the boots and battle dress utility uniform (BDUs) typically worn by service members. While gamma rays are a form of highly-penetrating energy , the amount of gamma radiation emitted by depleted uranium is very low. Thus, depleted uranium does not significantly add to the background radiation that we encounter every day.

When fired, or after "cooking off" in fires or explosions, the exposed depleted uranium rod poses an extremely low radiological threat as long as it remains outside the body. Taken into the body via metal fragments or dust-like particles, depleted uranium may pose a long-term health hazard to personnel if the amount is large. However, the amount which remains in the body depends on a number of factors, including the amount inhaled or ingested, the particle size and the ability of the particles to dissolve in body fluids.

The voluntary Veterans Affairs DU Medical Follow-up Program was begun in 1993-1994 with the medical evaluations of 33 friendly-fire DU-exposed veterans, many with embedded DU fragments. An additional 29 of the friendly-fire victims were later added to the surveillance program in 1999. In 1998, the program was enlarged to assess the wider Gulf War veteran community's exposure to DU through close contact with DU munitions, inhalation of smoke containing DU particulate during a fire at the Doha depot or while entering or salvaging vehicles or bunkers that were hit with DU projectiles. The published results of these medical evaluations conclude that the presence of retained DU fragments is the only scenario predictive of a high urine uranium value, and those with retained DU fragments continue to have elevated urine uranium levels nine years after the incident. It is unlikely that an individual would have an elevated urine uranium result, and consequently any uranium-related health effects, in the absence of retained DU fragments. Those individuals with normal urine uranium levels now are unlikely to develop any uranium-related toxicity in the future, regardless of what their DU exposure may have been in the Gulf War. Those DU-exposed friendly fire individuals with elevated levels of urinary uranium nine years after the Gulf War have not developed kidney abnormalities, leukemia, bone or lung cancer, or any classical uranium-related adverse outcome. The DU Medical Follow-up Program will continue to evaluate these individuals with elevated urine uranium levels to enable early detection of potential untoward health effects in the future due to their continued chronic exposure to DU.

The depleted uranium because of its high density is used in armor-piercing munitions and in enhanced armor protection for some Abrams tanks. Is also used in civilian industry, for stabilizers or counterweights in airplanes, rockets, boats, and radiation sheilding. It is also very cheap for the weapons industry because there arent meny uses for the leftover U238 which is highly regulated by the NRC, nuclear regulatory commission.

What about all the birth defects and other ill-effects that people blame depleted uranium for in iraq and quwait? How about all the chemical weapons dumped all over the place from saddam, all the chemical weapons we (the unitedstates) blew up, the burning oil fields, the millions of gallons of oil dumped into the gulf, The attack in which eight israeli F-16's obliterated saddam's French built Osirak reactor near Baghdad, the radium and asbestos in all the old soviet tanks we blew up.... the list is endless.




59 posted on 04/26/2004 10:05:19 AM PDT by m16m4a3
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