Posted by Tina
More than a few comedians have gotten laughs by making fun of the 1950’s public safety films advising citizens to “duck and cover” in case of an attack on the nation. The thinking was that a nuclear attack would hit fast and furiously…too fast to arrange for air fare to far off lands. Soooo…what good to duck and cover…har har-dy har har.
Low and behold it’s not so funny after all. Now there’s new information coming out of the scientific community and Washington…it seems that going forward…we’ll be going back to the past:
Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe.
The advice is based on recent scientific analyses showing that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.
But a problem for the Obama administration is how to spread the word without seeming alarmist about a subject that few politicians care to consider, let alone discuss. So officials are proceeding gingerly in a campaign to educate the public.
It’s well beyond time for Americans to wake up about what is going on in the world around us. It’s time to face the very real threats to our nation as adults.
The soviets once posed a threat to the US but probably not as direct as the terrorists who are now waging war against us. Terrorists and the fanatics who give them life pose a much different, and one might say personal, problem. Couple their efforts with the growing capabilities and alliances forming in South America and the situation becomes even more immediate and troubling.
Does anyone else recal the fallout shelters in the fifties? I do, as well as the warning sirens that went off periodically to warn people to take shelter. A few ambitious citizens even built shelters in their back yards. We may see a revival of these and if not, at least the public shelters in big city neighborhood and shopping areas. In Israel homes now include interior shelters…could this become the most sought-after feature in future American home and office buildings?
It’s hard to say what, if anything, will be made of this new information…for now it’s enough to wonder what started the conversation…that NYT article reads like a memo from the WH.
Building a nuke is not nearly as hard as obtaining fissionable material. For example here is the method to build a nuclear device in your home or garage for fun or profit. It all starts with making the plastique explosive that surround the fissionable material, here we go:
[1] 1 cup concentrated solution of uric acid (C5 H4 N4 O3) [2] 1/3 cup of nitric acid
[3] 4 heat-resistant glass containers
[4] 4 filters (coffee filters will do)
Filter the concentrated solution of uric acid through a filter to remove impurities. Slowly add 1/3 cup of nitric acid to the solution and let the mixture stand for 1 hour. Filter again as before. This time the Urea Nitrate crystals will collect on the filter. Wash the crystals by pouring water over them while they are in the filter. Remove the crystals from the filter and allow 16 hours for them to dry. This explosive will need a blasting cap to detonate.
It may be necessary to make a quantity larger than the aforementioned list calls for to bring about an explosion great enough to cause the Uranium (or Plutonium) sections to weld together on impact.
Neutron Deflector
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The neutron deflector is comprised solely of Uranium-238. Not only is U-238 non-fissionable, it also has the unique ability to reflect neutrons back to their source.
The U-238 neutron deflector can serve 2 purposes. In a Uranium bomb, the neutron deflector serves as a safeguard to keep an accidental supercritical mass from occurring by bouncing the stray neutrons from the `bullet’ counterpart of the Uranium mass away from the greater mass below it (and vice- versa). The neutron deflector in a Plutonium bomb actually helps the wedges of Plutonium retain their neutrons by `reflecting’ the stray particles back into the center of the assembly. [See diagram in Section 4 of this file.]
Uranium & Plutonium
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Uranium-235 is very difficult to extract. In fact, for every 25,000 tons of Uranium ore that is mined from the earth, only 50 tons of Uranium metal can be refined from that, and 99.3% of that metal is U-238 which is too stable to be used as an active agent in an atomic detonation. To make matters even more complicated, no ordinary chemical extraction can separate the two isotopes since both U-235 and U-238 possess precisely identical chemical characteristics. The only methods that can effectively separate U-235 from U-238 are mechanical methods.
U-235 is slightly, but only slightly, lighter than its counterpart, U-238. A system of gaseous diffusion is used to begin the separating process between the two isotopes. In this system, Uranium is combined with fluorine to form Uranium Hexafluoride gas. This mixture is then propelled by low- pressure pumps through a series of extremely fine porous barriers. Because the U-235 atoms are lighter and thus propelled faster than the U-238 atoms, they could penetrate the barriers more rapidly. As a result, the U-235’s concentration became successively greater as it passed through each barrier. After passing through several thousand barriers, the Uranium Hexafluoride contains a relatively high concentration of U-235 — 2% pure Uranium in the case of reactor fuel, and if pushed further could (theoretically) yield up to 95% pure Uranium for use in an atomic bomb.
Once the process of gaseous diffusion is finished, the Uranium must be refined once again. Magnetic separation of the extract from the previous enriching process is then implemented to further refine the Uranium. This involves electrically charging Uranium Tetrachloride gas and directing it past a weak electromagnet. Since the lighter U-235 particles in the gas stream are less affected by the magnetic pull, they can be gradually separated from the flow.
Following the first two procedures, a third enrichment process is then applied to the extract from the second process. In this procedure, a gas centrifuge is brought into action to further separate the lighter U-235 from its heavier counter-isotope. Centrifugal force separates the two isotopes of Uranium by their mass. Once all of these procedures have been completed, all that need be done is to place the properly molded components of Uranium-235 inside a warhead that will facilitate an atomic detonation.
Supercritical mass for Uranium-235 is defined as 110 lbs (50 kgs) of pure Uranium.
Depending on the refining process(es) used when purifying the U-235 for use, along with the design of the warhead mechanism and the altitude at which it detonates, the explosive force of your A-bomb can range anywhere from 1 kiloton (which equals 1,000 tons of TNT) to 20 megatons (which equals 20 million tons of TNT — which, by the way, is the smallest strategic nuclear warhead we possess today.
While Uranium is an ideally fissionable material, it is not the only one. Plutonium can be used in an atomic bomb as well. By leaving U-238 inside an atomic reactor for an extended period of time, the U-238 picks up extra particles (neutrons especially) and gradually is transformed into the element Plutonium.
Plutonium is fissionable, but not as easily fissionable as Uranium. While Uranium can be detonated by a simple 2-part gun-type device, Plutonium must be detonated by a more complex 32-part implosion chamber along with a stronger conventional explosive, a greater striking velocity and a simultaneous triggering mechanism for the conventional explosive packs. Along with all of these requirements comes the additional task of introducing a fine mixture of Beryllium and Polonium to this metal while all of these actions are occurring.
Supercritical mass for Plutonium is defined as 35.2 lbs (16 kgs). This amount needed for a supercritical mass can be reduced to a smaller quantity of 22 lbs (10 kgs) by surrounding the Plutonium with a U-238 casing.
To illustrate the vast difference between a Uranium gun-type detonator and a Plutonium implosion detonator, here is a quick rundown.
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[1] Uranium Detonator
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Comprised of 2 parts. Larger mass is spherical and concave. Smaller mass is precisely the size and shape of the `missing’ section of the larger mass. Upon detonation of conventional explosive, the smaller mass is violently injected and welded to the larger mass.
Supercritical mass is reached, chain reaction follows in one millionth of a second.
[2] Plutonium Detonator
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Comprised of 32 individual 45-degree pie-shaped sections of Plutonium surrounding a Beryllium/Polonium mixture. These 32 sections together form a sphere. All of these sections must have the precisely equal mass (and shape) of the others. The shape of the detonator resembles a soccerball. Upon detonation of conventional explosives, all 32 sections must merge with the B/P mixture within 1 ten-millionths of a second.
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– Here’s the diagram – (Omitted as it can’t be published in this format) However, if you really want the plans send a banc check, money order or PayPal, in the amount of $749,000.99 to Jack Lee care of this site and I’ll send you my plans within 5 working days and the best part is… I’ll even pay the postage! For Iran, North Korea, Palestine or Somalia, add $25 for handling. Buy today to insure delivery by Christmas.
WARNING: Not responsible for predetonation or accidental discharge while handling.