4 ms·
Also depends on the design of the bomb - more recent designs tend to be fission-fusion-fission with most of the energy coming from the final fission stage drive
by arethuza 8y ago
Also depends on the design of the bomb - more recent designs tend to be fission-fusion-fission with most of the energy coming from the final fission stage driven by the neutrons from the secondary where most of the fusion happens. Some weapons (e.g. the US B53) came in "clean" and "dirty" versions depending on whether the cladding for the secondary was U238 (dirty) or something non-fissile (clean).
If you want to be really nasty you can use something like cobalt to blanket your secondary - cobalt having isotopes that are fairly long half lives but still rather potent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_bomb
Fortunately, nobody has built weapons like this.
- noir_lord 8y ago> Fortunately, nobody has built weapons like this. The cynic in me says yet.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoRelated, there's a concept of using radioisotopes as area denial weapons. You disperse an element with half-life in, say, weeks, over some area, and the enemy will not be able to move through it until the radiation subsides. Don't know if this was ever tested, I've read of it once as theoretical concept (along with a handy list of radioisotopes with half-life ranging from hours to months).
- noir_lord 8y agoThat sounds like the nuclear cruise missile they worked on that was powered by an unshielded reactor and could fly around for weeks spewing radioactive byproducts across the land. As a species some of us are really fucked up.