posted on Feb, 26 2003 @ 08:37 PM
These aren't plans, it's just a description of the components of a bomb, no different from a hundred other books and publications. Tom Clancy gives
a more thorough description in his fictional book ' The Sum of all Fears '.
There are more than a few discrepancies in this atricle though :
Depending on the refining process(es) used when purifying the U-235 for
use, along with the design of the warhead mechanism and the altitude at which
it detonates, the explosive force of the A-bomb can range anywhere from 1
kiloton (which equals 1,000 tons of TNT) to 20 megatons (which equals 20
million tons of TNT -- which, by the way, is the smallest strategic nuclear
warhead we possess today.
The maximum yield for a fission bomb is around 500kt not 20Mt. Read about Operation Ivy King for more information.
And the US doesn't posess anything near the size of a 20 Mt warhead.
Supercritical mass for Plutonium is defined as 35.2 lbs (16 kgs). This
amount needed for a supercritical mass can be reduced to a smaller quantity of
22 lbs (10 kgs) by surrounding the Plutonium with a U-238 casing.
Plutonium pits can weigh as little as 3kg using an implosion trigger.
I would like to see someone try and build a bomb using these 'plans'. The article is basically just a history of the early nuclear weapons.
Now if it had information as to the shape of the 'pit' or the proper arrangement and shape of the explosive lenses then it could be called a
plan.
OPERATION IVY KING - largest fission bomb detonated
[Edited on 27-2-2003 by mad scientist]