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From: jmasly@mainz-emh2.army.mil (John Masly)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: RE: Thermonuclear Trigger
Message-ID: <1990Dec3.050137.1908@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 3 Dec 90 05:01:37 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
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From:     John Masly <jmasly@mainz-emh2.army.mil>
>From: prm@ecn.purdue.edu (Phil Moyer)
>Oralloy is a contraction of the phrase "Oak Ridge Alloy".  It was coined
>in 1945 during the Manhattan project.  It was/is the code name and industry
>jargon for U-235.  Nice try, though.

>From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>Oralloy is bomb-designer slang for U-235; it is short for "Oak Ridge alloy",
>Oak Ridge being the site of the first US uranium-enrichment plants.  There
>is no secrecy or mystery about this.

	Thanks to both, for explaining the jargon to me.  The original
	phrase that got me started was "thermonuclear weapons no longer
	need 'sparkplugs' ".  Obviously, they do, wheather it is called
	Oralloy or U-235, or plutonium.  To believe otherwise, would be
	to assume that the national labs (Sandia, LLL, etc.) have found
	a means to produce fusion without the flash-bang of a fission
	device, and can fit it all within the size of a bomb casing.
	You need a lot of energy to start the fusion process, just take
	a look at the set up they have for trying to produce commercial
	fusion power.  I think 'sparkplugs' will be needed for a long
	time to come. :-)

>From: prm@ecn.purdue.edu (Phil Moyer)
>BTW, the Tritium (H-3) in the fusion weapons comes from the fissioning of
>Lithium-6 in the ceramic "fuel" in the weapon itself.  Tritium has a half life
>of 12.xxx years, so is inappropriate for use in thermonuclear weapons (in it's
>raw state); much better to produce it as needed.  :-)

	Probably so, since it is alwasy nicer to carry around some
	'safe' object that only becomes deadly, when needed.  But
	the choice of the word 'inappropriate' in itself, seems
	inappropriate.  Many nuclear weapons are 'yield selectable'.
	Meaning that you can take certain actions before you launch/
	drop/fire the weapon, to select the size of the blast.  These
	'select-a-bang' weapons must use some material to enhance the
	yield, that can be easily added to the basic weapon by the
	user.  Since it is kind of hard to add more solid material to
	an encased bomb, the only reasonable way I can see of doing
	this, is to add additional (gaseous) fusionable material to the
 	the device at the proper time (and place) in the nuclear process.
	Also, nuclear devices receive periodic maintenance just like
	every other item in the inventory, so if the half-life of H-3
	is just 12.xxx years, what would be so inconvienent about
	replacing the H-3 container on a periodic basis?  BTW, what
	are the decay products of H-3?  Isn't one of them Deuterium
	(H-2)?  What is it's half-life?  :-)

	


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