> If you just want a bad atomic bomb, isn't it enough to put 2 chunks of fissile (enough) material at either end of a very thick steel tube and shoot them toget

> If you just want a bad atomic bomb, isn't it enough to put 2 chunks of fissile (enough) material at either end of a very thick steel tube and shoot them together using explosives? Linear (gun-type) fission design was tried at Los Alamos in early days of Manhattan project and was abandoned in favor of spherical implosion device [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon#Fission_weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon#Fission_weapons