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This book will consider the most important, common, and recurring questions about the development of nuclear weapons and the policies they have generated.
[...]... threat that terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weapons, a threat that has come into stark relief since the events of 9/11 To be sure, the followers of Osama bin Laden have not yet succeeded in initiating a nuclear attack But, according to nuclear analysts, it’s not because they can’t With a small quantity of enriched uranium, a handful of military supplies readily available on the Internet, and... tremendous amount of energy Einstein’s equation is the key to the power of nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors Fission reaction was used in the first atomic bomb and is still used in nuclear reactors, while 4 fusion reaction became important in thermonuclear weapons and in nuclear reactor development Nuclear explosions are also accompanied by radioactive fallout, lasting a few seconds, and remaining dangerous... and a small team of dedicated terrorists, they could potentially assemble a nuclear weapon in a matter of months, and deliver it by air, sea, rail, or road The impact of such an attack in the heart of New York or London is almost unimaginable A second effect of the spread of nuclear weapons will be the proliferation of threats to use them, greatly complicating global security and in many respects harder... fission), headed by Bunsaku Arakatsu, towards the end of 1945 The F-Go programme had begun life at Kyoto in 1942 However, the military commitment wasn’t backed with adequate resources, and the Japanese effort to build an atomic bomb had made little progress by the end of the war Japan’s nuclear efforts were disrupted in April 1945 when a B-29 raid damaged Nishina’s thermal diffusion separation apparatus Some... states and international terrorism’ Add to this stateless terrorist organizations bent on acquiring the means of mass murder and black-market networks of renegade suppliers only too willing to deal in the materials and technical expertise that lead to nuclear weapons, and the picture becomes clearer The ensuing nightmare of responding to the humanitarian, law and order, and logistical challenges of a nuclear. .. quantity of conventional explosives or TNT that would generate the same amount of energy when it 5 What are nuclear weapons? What is the practical significance of a nuclear weapon, then? And how does it differ from what came before? The fundamental difference between a nuclear and conventional weapon is, simply put, that nuclear explosions can be many thousands (or millions) of times more powerful than... reports claim the Japanese subsequently moved their atomic operations to Hungnam, now part of North Korea The Japanese may have used this facility for making small quantities of heavy water The Japanese plant was captured by Soviet troops at war’s end, and some reports claim that the output of the Hungnam plant was collected every other month by Soviet submarines, as part of Moscow’s own nuclear energy... dangerous over an extended period of time, potentially lasting years The release of radiation is, in fact, unique to nuclear explosions Approximately 85% of a nuclear weapon produces air blast (and shock) and thermal energy (heat) The remaining 15% of the energy is released as various types of radiation Of this, 5% constitutes the initial nuclear radiation, defined as that produced within a minute or so... or nuclear reactor to convert natural uranium into plutonium Unlike America’s Manhattan Project, the Nazi nuclear physics programme was never able to produce a critical nuclear reactor, despite the efforts of Heisenberg and Diebner The Nazi attempt to build a reactor, in fact, proved feeble and disorganized, while their effort to build an atomic weapon was non-existent But the Allies did not know that... programme (see Chapter 4) There are indications that Japan had a more sizeable programme than is commonly understood, and that there was close cooperation among the Axis powers, including the secretive exchange of war materiel The Nazi submarine U-234, which surrendered to American forces in May 1945, was found to be carrying 560 kilograms of uranium oxide destined for Japan’s own atomic programme . what hit them. The science of nuclear weapons Atomic energy is the source of power for both nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. This energy derives from. development of nuclear weapons and the policies they have generated. The discussion rests on a single premise: the bomb still matters. Nuclear weapons have