Materials: Uranium and Plutonium

 Bombs
o Fission and Fusion
 Explosion effects

Structure of the atom

 Nucleus: Protons (positive charge) and Neutrons (neutral
charge)
Isotopes
 Same number of protons, different number of neutrons
Fission: atoms breaking apart
Fusion: atoms binding together

Radioactivity
 Decay of the nucleus by emitting particles and energy
o Many things are naturally radioactive (the sun, grand
central station, and you)
 Half-life: the time it takes half the substance to decay
 Types of energy produced naturally:
o Alpha and beta (generally less harmful, unless you eat
them)
o Gamma: more dangerous, more powerful
Uranium
 Atomic element 92, occurs in naure commonly
o Large amounts in Canada and the US. Former USSR,
Africa as Uranium oxide
o U-228 most common
 “Fissile” version, the type suited for nuclear power and
weapons, is U-235 (more easily splittable); Uranium ore is
turned to gas and the U-235 extracted
 Uranium is “enriched” by separating out the U- 235: many
ways to do this
o LEU is less than 20% U-235; Power plants only need 3-
5%
o HEU is more than 20%: bombs need <89%m and the
lower enrichment, the more needed (perhaps 15kg at
minimum, although the cruder the device, the more
needed)
o Hiroshima bomb: 60+ kg U-235

Plutonium
 Needs to be synthesized from Uranium -238
 Mani isotopes, but fissile isotope used for weapons is Pu-239:
 o Pu-240 is considered contamination, and so Pu-239 s
classified by percentage of Pu-240 in it:
 Super-grade: less than 3% Pu-240
 Weapon-grade: Less than 7%
 Reactor-grade: more than 18%
 Much more powerful in smalle amounts
o Easier to fission

Chain reaction (fission)

 Atomic decay, with neutrons hitting other atoms, breaking
those nuclei apart
 Energy, including heat, is released
 “nuclear power” is, in effect, using radioactive “fuel” to induce
a controlled chain reaction to heat water to steam to turn
turbines

Why does this stuff explode?

 Fission produces heat and energy: A “critical mass” of
material produces a self-sustaining fission chain
 But an exponential, uncontrolled fission of “super-
critical” mass will induce the greatest number of splitting
atoms
o Each fission of an atom produces more fissions
exponentially, uncontrolled
o Amount needed for a critical mass can vary by
conditions
o Wont happen on its own: normally materials would
decay; a “sub-critical” mass could produce a great deal
of heat, but wont explode.

Fission bomb design (not the recommended design of a nuclear bomb,

chemical bomb blowing uranium into more uranium)
 Need to hold together enough U-235 or Pu-239 long enough
to go critical and explode, but the chain reaction is fast, so?
 Gun type: shoot one mass into another (not recommended,
but it works, and only with uranium)
 Implosion device complicated, but more efficient, and can
only use plutonium)
* the more neutrons around the more atoms fall apart.

Fusion, or Thermonuclear, Bomb

 A fission trigger
 “staged” exploion (in a very tiny amount of time)
  Fission induces fusion, which releases heat and neutrons, and
more fission, and so on
 Theoretically, almost no limit to how big a bang
o Soviet bomb, 1961, 50 megatons (unimaginably large--
-clou 40 miles high, shock wave went around the world
three times: on a city build have had a blast radious of
30 miles and a fireball 110 miles across)

What happens in a nuclear explosion?

 Light
 Radiation, including X-rays (and gamma radiation that
created “EMP”)
 Intense heat
 Shock wave
 Mushroom cloud
o Created by so much air displaced so fast that a vacuum
is created, then reversed as debris is sucked back
upward
o Conventional explosive can create them as well

The effects of attack: New York

 A creater 1000 feet wide and 200 deep at Ground Zero
 Nothing recognizable for over a half mile
 98 percent dead for over two miles
 nothing standing for approximately 5 miles
 air burst would cause much wider, but somewhat less evere,
damage
 (Japanese attack of 1945 are not good guides)

What is EMP?
 Electro Magnetic Pulse
 Gamma radiation in the atmosphere creates electromagnetic
energy
 Causes voltage and current surges in any unprotected
electrical systems (including microchips)
 Can travel great distances: “starfish prime” test (1.4mt,
1962) blew out lights and other system in Hawaii….800miles
away
 Concerns that 2009 Iranian satellite launch was really a test
for an EMP attack; debate continues

Fallout
 Nuclear blast produces radioactive debris
  Debris and residual bomb particles are sucked into the
atmosphere, where they linger, and then “fall out” back to
earth
 Amounts would depend onn weather and other factors
 Air bursts would cause smaller amounts of fallout

Delivery Systems

 The basic means of delivering nuclear weapons over large

distances
 Bombers
 Long Range Missiles (ICBMs)
 Submarines
 Possible unconventional methods in the future

Three terms to understand

1) “Strategic” weapon
o From one country to and over long distances, as in from
Russia to the U.S.
o Target of major value, including:
 Enemy strategic weapons of similar type.
 WSI *War Supporting Industries)
 Communications
 Cities and leadership
o Mean to affect the outcome of the entire war.

2) “theater” weapon
o User in a large-area where war is underway
 Within Europe only, for example
o Meant to affect the course of the war in a particular
theater of conflict
 Targets could include regional command centers,
air bases, supply areas
o This class of nuclear weapons was removed fro Europe
by treaty in 1987

3) “tactical” weapon
o Used on the battlefield where war is underway
o Mean to affect the course of the war in a particular
battle
 Targets might include tank formations, bridges,
large troop concentrations.
  Most likely to be delivered by aircraft or artillery
shell

Missiles
 Guided
o Flies under its own power and guidance
 Ballistic
o Powered at takeoff
o “Boost”
o “Midourse”
o “Terminal”
 “throws” the warhead
 warhead free falls back

Cruise Missiles
 Fly like a small jet aircraft
 Can be
o Ground launched (GLCM)
o Air Launched (ALCM)
o Submarine Launched (SLCM)

ICBM:
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
o Strategig weapon, meant to travel long distances with
high accuracy
o Advantages
 Fast
 Highly accurate
 Unstoppable
 Hard to destroy in a first-strike at “hardened”
silos
 Multiple targets can be hit at once
o Disadvantages
 Cannot be recalled
 Hair-trigger can lead to accidental launch
 Inherently an offensive weapon and therefore
destabilizing during a crisis.
o ICBM payload
 Single or multiple warheads (technical term:
“reentry vehicles”
 Warhead has a “bus” that drops multiple
warheads
  Bombers
o Advantages
 Flexible
 Recallable
 Accuate
 Show of force
o Disdvantages
 Vulnerable
 “Soft” pre-launch target
 At target, could be shot down
 Human error
o Cuba 1962
 Slow
 More than any other syste, a legacy of the
Cold War.

Submarines
o Can launch cruise missiles or ICBMs
o Advantages
 Almost impossible to track until launch
 Can get very close t targets near shore
 Destroy Washington in less than 7
minutes.
 Can fire and resubmerge
 Disadvantages
 Communications and control
 Accuracy

Test until 5th.

Why does this matter?

 Current nuclear system and plans are legacies f the cold war.
 To understand in strategy in the 21st century, need to
understand what came before
 Important to understand the experiences that shaped current
leaders, including their fears
 Nuclear war is still possible (and some think, even more
likely)

The fundamental question:

 What do these things actually do?
o Are they useful for fighting wars?
o Are they only to be used for deterrence?
 o Do they have military meaning, or o they represent “the
end of strategy?”
o A big question: would anyone ever use these hellish
tings?

The creation of the bomb

 First bomb
 Code name “trinity”
 Germany had already surrendered in May
 Japan in the crosshairs

Massive Soviet conventional superiority in Europe

 NATO formed in 1949
 China goes communist, 1950
 Warsaw Pact in 1955
 Nukes didn’t prevent or stop the Korean war, 1950-53

1957: Sputnik “a worse defeat than pearl harbor”

The bomber and missile Gaps

Gaither Report, 1957.

1960 election
“Sanctimonious, Hypocritical Bastards”