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Nuclear Weapons |
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 Picture courtesy of www.historyoftheuniverse.com Nuclear weapons were invented in 1945, although the bombs made during WWII were far smaller than anything in the United States current arsenal. A crude nuclear bomb is really a very simple weapon to manufacture. It consists of several pieces of fissionable material, usually high-grade plutonium or uranium, which are sufficient to create a chain reaction. The uranium or plutonium is placed in the center of the bomb, with barriers dividing the material and consequently, preventing a premature detonation. Surrounding the barriers is explosive devices designed to destroy the barriers. When the pieces come together and form a critical mass, the nuclear bomb detonates with devastating effect. When a one-megaton bomb is detonated, 2.5km above the ground, the effects of it are described below. The first thing that happens is a brilliant flash, which depending on weather conditions, would blind everyone that looked at it for about 95 km around ground zero, and all people, within 15 km, would have all their exposed flesh burned severely. There is also an intense pulse of X-rays, sufficient to be lethal at a distance of 3 km. Immediately after the flash, a fireball would form in the air and rise for several seconds, which would be blindingly bright and radiating much heat. Starting at the same moment, but traveling much slower, is an enormously powerful blast wave. It would destroy all houses within a 8-12 km radius. Within 3km, everyone would be killed and within 10 km almost 50% of the people would be killed by the blast wave. Immediately following the blast wave would be hurricane force winds, first outwards from the explosion and then inwards to replace the air that went out. Within 5km, the wind would be about 700km/h, sufficient to drive straw through a telephone pole and glass particles through a person. People in the open would be picked up and hurled into any object strong enough to still be standing. The initial flash would start many fires, burst fuel tanks, gas mains, and collapsed buildings would provide more fuel, and it is likely that confluent fuels would cause a firestorm. A nuclear explosion, as well as giving off a great pulse of radiation at the time, leaves everything in the vicinity radioactive. If the bomb was indeed detonated above ground or in an “air-burst” the radioactive products would be gaseous, or completely vaporized, and would rise with the fireball and come down slowly, if at all. There would be a possibility that there would be a radioactive rainstorm, as there was in Hiroshima; and the rubble within a 3km radius of ground zero would be radioactive. The current United States nuclear weapons are delivered in one of 3 ways: First, by an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile or ICBM. ICBMs are usually stored in silos and carry a several megaton warhead; the ICBM itself is a three-stage rocket with the warhead on top. After launch, the first and second stages fall off after burning their fuel, but the third stage is the stage that starts the warhead accelerating towards its target. The second way to deliver a warhead is via submarine, with a SLBM or Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile. A SLBM is like a cruise missile and does not have (usually) more than one stage. The third way is by air in an ALBM or Air Launched Ballistic Missile. An ALBM is simply a cruise missile with a nuclear warhead launched from (typically) a B-52, B-1, or B-2 bomber. |