Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: wrf@mab.ecse.rpi.edu (Wm Randolph Franklin) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Question about Nuclear Weapons (i.e. under water) Keywords: MRVs Message-ID: <1990Oct25.151733.2069@cbnews.att.com> Date: 25 Oct 90 15:17:33 GMT References: <1990Oct24.144505.13492@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY Lines: 36 Approved: military@att.att.com From: wrf@mab.ecse.rpi.edu (Wm Randolph Franklin) About the nuclear bomb in the movie "The Abyss": it would seem unlikely that it could explode far under water. 1. If the uranium (or whatever) is to be compressed very quickly, it's certainly not being compressed in a liquid, and no air or vacuum chamber would survive those depths. The problem is that as the pieces of U get closer together, the chain reaction doubling time gets smaller. All the U has to get into one small region before the chain reaction gets too big or there's a misfire. Depending on the type of fissile material, a neutron source (initiator) helps start the reaction, but still everything has to come together at a high speed in the proper sequence. In fact the easiest way to stop a booby trapped big A- or H-bomb would probably be to detonate a large explosion near it. It would spread fissile material around but couldn't detonate it. 2. You have to assume the underwater bomb would be waterlogged being so far below its design depth. So any batteries would probably be discharged and if not no high voltage circuit would operate. Related to this: what's the status of all the conventional WW2 explosives on the bottom, like the Bismark's munitions? Do they get more and more unstable until one day they go off when a sinking beer can hits the ship, or is there a gentle degradation path to more stable chemicals? -- Wm. Randolph Franklin Internet: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (or @cs.rpi.edu) Bitnet: Wrfrankl@Rpitsmts Telephone: (518) 276-6077; Telex: 6716050 RPI TROU; Fax: (518) 276-6261 Paper: ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180