Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work Part 1/2
Belfer Center4 HN recommenders · 2018–2024
2.6M views · lecture · evergreen · Uploaded 2013-09-10
Harvard Belfer Center lecture by Matthew Bunn explaining how nuclear bombs work, including fission and fusion weapons and which parts of bomb-making are hard. It is part 1 of 2 in the Nuclear 101 series.
HN recommends it as an entertaining, clear explanation of nuclear weapons basics from a policy expert.
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5 comments from Hacker News
In context, here is a great video from the Belfer center on nuclear bomb making and what are the hard parts [0]. Getting the fission material is the hard part, and in order to get plutonium nukes you need a enrichment plant, i.e. a reactor that is not meant to produce energy but breed plutonium. [0] [VIDEO] (at min 47, he starts talking about the hard parts)
On US soil you'd have fallout from the soil getting sucked up into the atmosphere. See... "Why World War II Matters - Victor Davis Hanson" [video] [LINK] Harvard Belfer Center: "Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work Part 1/2" [video] [VIDEO]
[VIDEO] has a good explanation of how nuclear weapons work. It may be possible that a missel is disabled and when it hits the ground, produces a much lower yield explosion than designed for, in particular a plutonium device, if I recall the video and extrapolate with sufficient accuracy
For anyone interested in the basics of nuclear weapons, I highly recommend the "Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work" lectures by Matthew Bunn, a man heavily involved in nuclear arms control. His lectures are always highly entertaining, a real pleasure to watch. This is a clip from his lecture explaining the basics of thermonuclear warheads: [LINK] And the full “Nuclear 101” lecture, in two parts: [VIDEO] [LINK]
> It's because of the way the weapons are designed, which requires a CNWDI clearance to know, so your curiosity is not likely to be sated. While that's true, the information that is online is surprisingly detailed. For example, this series "Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work" [VIDEO] [LINK]