Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: jmasly@mainz-emh2.army.mil (John Masly) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Thermonuclear Trigger Message-ID: <1990Nov29.003846.20519@cbnews.att.com> Date: 29 Nov 90 00:38:46 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 70 Approved: military@att.att.com From: John Masly RE: Nuclear vs. Thermonuclear FROM: prm@ecn.purdue.edu >...Inside the fuel capsule is an Oralloy "sparkplug"... FROM: henry@zoo.toronto.edu >...modern U.S. thermonuclear weapons no longer need "sparkplugs' >to ignite the fusion reaction... Lets face it...we're not talking about your normal IC engine. :-) The following is not classified..just ask your local nuclear physicist about it. I'm no physicist, but let me say what I think I know. (Feel free to correct part, or all of what follows) There are two nuclear reactions that result in a blinding flash and a deafening roar: fission and fusion. In fission weapons, you take a lump of naturally radioactive material, and entice it to speed up its natural decay process. Fission occurs when a 'splitter' particle (neutron) strikes the nucleus of a atom, causing it to split into two daughter products, and releasing energy as well as one or more additional 'splitter' particles. The usual (?) practice for a fission device has been to take a quantity of a heavy fissile material (U-235 or Plutonium) just below the material's critical mass, and compress it to the point that it becomes critical. At this point more 'splitter' particles would be causing fission events in the material, than would be lost to the outside environment. Since each fission event produces, on the average, more than one additional 'splitter' particle, the number of fission events taking place in the material rapidly increases. Pretty soon the energy generated by all the fission events 'warms' the environment sufficiently to cause everything in the immediate area to take on a 'certain glow'. (BOOM!) :-) Fusion, on the other hand, is just the opposite. You start with two atoms of some light element (hydrogen), and cause them to collide with sufficient energy so that they stick together (fuse) and form a heavier element. This reaction also releases energy; more energy per event than in a fission reaction. The fuel of choice here is the isotopes of hydrogen known as Deuterium and Tritium. The only problem with these gaseous fuels, is that they do not have sufficient internal energy to fuse at normal temperatures. In order for these isopotes to start to fuse, they must be heated (energy added). This energy must be added to the gas at a rate fast enough to start the fusion process before the gas container melts. The only way I know of producing the energy required to start the fusion reaction, is to start with a fission device (bomb). So I would guess that Oralloy is not a 'sparkplug' at all, but something added to the design to enhance the end result. If you want my guess at what Oralloy is, check out the definition of 'Tritium' in a good dictionary (Webster's 3rd International, for example). (Sorry this took so long.) ***************************************************************** * John R. Masly, Mechanical Engineer, Mainz Army Depot, Germany * * "The U.S. Army's Depot on the Rhein" (German Spelling) * ***************************************************************** ON THIS DAY: 1950 First Marine Division begins fighting retreat to the sea after Chinese forces enter the Korean War.