It took a seriously long time to produce enough bomb grade enriched uranium 235 to make the Hiroshima bomb.
Using an enormous diffusion plant, centrifuges and calutrons, they just about had enough to make it go pop by August 45.
I have a feeling in my water that you'd get an extremely large fizzle if you just dropped the one onto the other.
The original weapon was a gun device in order to get the two lumps together fast enough that it wouldn't fizzle, but would go pop properly.
The reason that you can achieve criticallity with so much less plutonium is that you have to use spherical compression or the thing will fizzle anyway.
And you need an urchin or similar to start it all off.
Using an enormous diffusion plant, centrifuges and calutrons, they just about had enough to make it go pop by August 45.
I have a feeling in my water that you'd get an extremely large fizzle if you just dropped the one onto the other.
The original weapon was a gun device in order to get the two lumps together fast enough that it wouldn't fizzle, but would go pop properly.
The reason that you can achieve criticallity with so much less plutonium is that you have to use spherical compression or the thing will fizzle anyway.
And you need an urchin or similar to start it all off.
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