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This link has some details about what they were actually worried about - which appears to be that a nuclear weapon would trigger fusion of nitrogen nuclei: htt
by arethuza 6y ago
This link has some details about what they were actually worried about - which appears to be that a nuclear weapon would trigger fusion of nitrogen nuclei:
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/chung1/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/chung1/
- mannykannot 6y agoThat's fascinating - and, later, a somewhat similar calculation was done erroneously. The yield of the Castle Bravo bomb - the first hydrogen bomb to use lithium as its source of tritium - was 250% greater than predicted, on account of overlooking the prompt conversion of lithium-7 to tritium when bombarded by high-energy neutrons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo#High_yield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo#High_yield
- arethuza 6y agoI'm sure I read that someone had done that calculation for Castle Bravo and was watching the test and for a few moments, as the fireball got bigger and bigger and bigger, that they had actually got the calculation wrong!
- Already__Taken 6y agoweren't they on the same Island with it in a bunker or something?