I guess this thread is designed to inform us less knowledgable FReepers about the ins and outs of nuclear weapons technology.

Oldvike, if we tell you , we will have to kill you.

Do you really want to know?

Oldvike, if we tell you , we will have to kill you. Do you really want to know?

Well, no. Just make something up, okay? Misinformation. LOL

Thanks, I honestly want to learn about this. I'm sick of being fed B.S. by the media. I grew up in a time when all my highschool teachers told me I was gonna be killed because of Ronald Reagan. I WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH!

If you're interested in a reasonably detailed description of nuclear technology for non-scientists, you might want to check out a book called The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes.

It's a history of the development of contemporary nuclear weaponry and a wonderful layman's treatment of the science involved. It also happens to be a rip-snorting page-turner.

However, it is also around 700 pages long...

They hydrogen bomb is not the same as a neutron bomb, and the hydrogen bomb is not a tactical nuke.

The neutron bomb is designed to put out a lot of neutrons. These are like itsy bitsy bullets or shrapnel, if you will. They give you a nice dose of radiation sickness -- knock your DNA and other cellular mechanism all to heck.

Once slowed down by collisions, they can disrupt normal nuclei, and hence can induce radioactivity in materials. So they aren't so clean as the idea that they "kill people but leave buildings standing." The buldings will pick up some radioactivity. Free neutrons themselve only have a half-life of about 8 minutes, so they're mostly gone in an hour or so after the nuke.

Tactical, a couple of kilotons. ICBMs (Peacekeeper, Minuteman, Trident) loaded with warheads on the order of a few hundred kilotons. Older Titan ICBM had megaton class warheads. Certainly we have many gravity bombs and air launched cruise missiles with megaton blast power. Contamination for very long time (many years).

Thanks guys.

We got a lot of stuff that releases a lot of energy...without control. I believe the original problem was producing the "fuel", the engineering of the plants to produce the fuel for the first bombs was innovative. I'm not sure how long the process takes, but maybe that moron Hazel O'Leary knows.

H Bomb = Big tactical and strategic nukes. Yield 100 kilotons - 25 megatons

Nuclear artillery shells = dial a yield from 1-50(?) kilotons (very nice)
Neutron bomb - nuclear weapons that uses enhances neutron radiation to kill all the people within a set distance 300-1000 meters and leave most things standing.

Salted nukes - enhanced radiation that will leave extensive fallout over bombed territory. Salted means that it is jacketed with gold (days), zinc or tantalum (months) or cobalt (pretty much forever, half-life 5+ years) and has the lower yield of an atomic (not fusion) bomb.

Here's a couple of really good links for you

FAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS FAQ

Nuclear weapons facts

Thanks, I have those links saved to my "favorites" files and will be checking them out in the days to come.

I heard the Poles were working on an atomic grenade.

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3959a2037ce1.htm

Damn! I shoulda paid more attention in 2nd semester physics in college. LOL

Thanks for the info.

Perfect. Here's that link for any FReepers who are reading this thread....

Taking the Pulse: Nuclear Warheads

The Poles are still working on blowing up vehicles... it seems they keep burning their lips on the tailpipes.