4 ms·

Pretty hard. But the enrichment isn’t even the hardest part, just tedious. Iran has had the knowledge and equipment for several years. But it takes time to p

by parsimo2010 6y ago

Pretty hard. But the enrichment isn’t even the hardest part, just tedious. Iran has had the knowledge and equipment for several years. But it takes time to produce enough material to be useful, and they keep getting sabotaged. Not just the equipment, but top leaders and scientists get killed from time to time. Keep in mind that the Manhattan Project employed over 100,000 people and cost a couple billion dollars, which would be tens of billions of dollars after inflation. Iran has been under sanctions of varying strictness for a few decades. That amount of people and money isn’t trivial to them like it is to the USA in 1940, which was a rising superpower.

kps 6y ago
And the Manhattan Project only managed to enrich enough uranium for one bomb.
- gruez 6y ago
  But they had no trouble making two bombs to drop on japan?
  - makomk 6y ago
    The other bomb dropped on Japan used plutonium, as did the Trinity nuclear test. (Yes, the US had so little uranium that the bomb design using it wasn't even tested before it was used against Japan.)
- thatcat 6y ago
  I'm pretty certain they made way more than one, but even if not - that was a really inefficient design. Only a few percent of the input material actually achieved fission.
tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
But that was with the technology available in 1940. I would imagine that this has become vastly simpler and cheaper since then. What used to take rooms full of people with slide rules or state-of-the-art supercomputers can now be calculated on a Raspberry Pi in seconds. ABEC 9 ball bearings are disposable consumer goods that you can order by the 20-pack for $10. CNC machines went from non-existent to affordable by hobbyist groups. Likewise, knowledge that used to be a state secret is now available in high school text books. I can't imagine a Manhattan Project requiring anywhere near that amount of people and resources nowadays.
missedthecue 6y ago
The Manhattan Project also used 10% of the US electricity capacity

kps 6y ago

And the Manhattan Project only managed to enrich enough uranium for one bomb.

gruez 6y ago
But they had no trouble making two bombs to drop on japan?
- makomk 6y ago
  The other bomb dropped on Japan used plutonium, as did the Trinity nuclear test. (Yes, the US had so little uranium that the bomb design using it wasn't even tested before it was used against Japan.)
thatcat 6y ago
I'm pretty certain they made way more than one, but even if not - that was a really inefficient design. Only a few percent of the input material actually achieved fission.

tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago

But that was with the technology available in 1940. I would imagine that this has become vastly simpler and cheaper since then. What used to take rooms full of people with slide rules or state-of-the-art supercomputers can now be calculated on a Raspberry Pi in seconds. ABEC 9 ball bearings are disposable consumer goods that you can order by the 20-pack for $10. CNC machines went from non-existent to affordable by hobbyist groups. Likewise, knowledge that used to be a state secret is now available in high school text books. I can't imagine a Manhattan Project requiring anywhere near that amount of people and resources nowadays.

missedthecue 6y ago

The Manhattan Project also used 10% of the US electricity capacity