Comments on: Ask a Nuke: Can You Make a Bomb from Depleted Uranium?

By: Nuclear Fission for Dummies: Enriched vs Depleted Uranium

Nuclear Fission for Dummies: Enriched vs Depleted Uranium — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:15:52 +0000

[...] plants is enriched to only 3-5% U-235. This makes the distinction between civilian nuclear fuel and nuclear weapons very simple and easily [...]

By: Jack Gamble

Jack Gamble — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:29:23 +0000

Right on all accounts.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:27:27 +0000

Jack, any nationstate with sufficient will, given enough time, can create a small, albeit unsophisticated, nuclear weapons program. It took North Korea four decades, but they accomplished it. The same cannot be said about independent organizations. They have not the territory for the facilities, access to natural resources, nor the sustained human capital (a pool of the “best and brightest” to pull from) to sustain any effort.

Back on topic, nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are only loosely related. Certainly, there are common knowledge and technologies useful for both: understanding of fission chain reactions and cross sections, uranium enrichment, and plutonium production and extraction. While these are enabling technologies, so is knowledge about fluid dynamics, explosives, and standard metallurgical techniques. Where does one draw the line about what technologies are “good” and “bad” without being arbitrary? I feel you can’t. Ultimately, the solution to nuclear weapons will be political, and not technical.

By: Jack Gamble

Jack Gamble — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:37:46 +0000

Glad we have somthing for everyone, Will.

By: Jack Gamble

Jack Gamble — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:37:15 +0000

Absolutely Brian. Both methods are equally far-fethced for most countries, let alone poorly trained insurgents.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:20:41 +0000

Of course, one could also go the plutonium production route. If anything, this would be harder than enrichment. While you would need less material, you would, however, need to construct a nuclear reactor or, at very least, have some strong source of neutrons such as a particle accelerator or fusion device. You would then need a chemical processing facility to separate out the plutonium, which is very hard to do because of the radioactivity from the plutonium and the fission fragments. And, even if you got enough plutonium, you would still need to machine it into a bomb.

If you are a nation state, this is possible given enough time and investment. Some rogue group of terrorists and criminals do not have the resources required to do this period.

So even with the plutonium production route, having DU in the hands of terrorists is not really viable. As you said, the far bigger threat comes from the former Soviet block states.

By: Jason Morgan

Jason Morgan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:08:55 +0000

This was a really good question and a comforting answer. 18,000 pounds = ridiculous amount of fractured rounds to recover.

By: Will gundabar

Will gundabar — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:10:53 +0000

You lost me after the “today I received my first email…” part. But I liked the photo of the Gatling gun.

By: Greg Molyneux

Greg Molyneux — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:30:36 +0000

Nice to see the Warthog’s 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger up close and personal.