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Aren't heavy water reactors the most popular way that new countries have built nuclear weapons? Basically everyone but North Korea?
by wumpus 5y ago
Aren't heavy water reactors the most popular way that new countries have built nuclear weapons? Basically everyone but North Korea?
- khuey 5y agoYou don't need a reactor to make a uranium based nuclear weapon at all (you just need to enrich natural uranium to a high enough percentage of U-235). American and Soviet plutonium production reactors were largely (perhaps even entirely? not sure) graphite moderated.
- KirillPanov 5y agoYeah, but that graphite has to have zero boron in it, which is not easy to accomplish. You have to go to fairly crazy extremes, like regulating what kind of laundry detergent your factory workers are allowed to use. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_graphite https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_graphite Heavy water is simpler to get; you basically just need a lot of electricity.