WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Close, but No Nuclear War 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:13.720 and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:15.400 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.239 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.080 tech are you? It is time for a classic. 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.360 Episode, and this one is a bit of a sobering one. 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:25.640 It is called Close but. 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:26.880 No Nuclear War. 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.360 It originally published on May seventeenth, twenty seventeen, and it's 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.199 all about some close calls the world got into a 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.360 few times over the last few decades. 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:41.080 Enjoy. Let's go to basic science on this one. So 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.000 I'm going to start fundamental. I know you guys know this, 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:46.160 but I feel like it's always important to start from 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.800 the base and build your way up. So you probably 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.280 are familiar with this from elementary school science and atom 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.760 consists of a nucleus orbited by one or more electrons, 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.720 and the nucleus contains one or more protons and possibly 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:05.560 some neutrons. Electrons have a negative charge, protons have a 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.440 positive charge, and neutrons have no charge at all because 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.640 their credit is bad. Now, if you know the rules 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.520 about electromagnetic charges, you remember that opposites attract and the 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:21.640 same charges repel each other. So that raises a question, 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.040 how can an atom have a nucleus with two or 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.319 more protons in it and not just break apart? If 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:33.720 you have two positively charged particles sub atomic particles protons 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:36.399 that close to each other, how come they don't just 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.600 push against each other and the nucleus just pop splits apart. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:42.600 And then we would just end up with hydrogen atoms, 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.319 because a hydrogen atom is just a proton and an electron, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.920 your basic hydrogen atom. That would all make sense, right 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.800 if the entire universe was just hydrogen. Why do we 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:59.080 have nucleuses or nuclei I should say nuclei with multiple protons. Well, 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.240 to answer this question, we have to turn to the 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:06.400 Standard Model of physics, which is mostly how we think 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:11.640 the universe works. Mostly, the Standard model doesn't quite incorporate everything. 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:16.000 It doesn't explain absolutely everything. Gravity is a big mystery 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:17.800 with the Standard model. We consider it one of the 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.520 four fundamental forces, but we don't really have all the 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:26.600 mechanisms explained under the Standard Model of physics. It does, however, 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:28.480 give us a pretty good idea of what's going on. 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.040 It's held up to lots of experimentation and observations, so 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.160 The standard model says that stuff like protons and neutrons 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:40.240 are made up of even smaller particles called quarks, which 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.440 is not as I learned the sound made by a Dirk. 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.880 Quarks are the smallest building block we know of right now, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.639 and you can't split them up into smaller things. That's 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.120 as small as you can get, at least as far 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.160 as we know at the moment. Anyway, there's a force 0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:02.160 that holds these quark particles together to form larger particles 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:06.919 called hadrons, among which are protons and neutrons. Those are 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.840 both types of hadrons. There are lots and lots of 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.840 other ones as well, and this force is called the 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:17.600 strong nuclear force. It's also what binds nuclei together so 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:19.680 that they don't go splitting up all over the place, 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:22.959 and out of the four fundamental forces of our universe, 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.320 this is the strongest. However, it also takes effect over 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:31.920 the smallest distance. The range is incredibly small. It's on 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.680 the sub atomic scale, so while it's very strong, it 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:41.320 doesn't reach very far. There's also a weak nuclear force. 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:45.960 The physicist Enrico Fermi theorized that the weak nuclear force 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.760 was what he was observing when he saw certain atoms 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:54.080 undergoing what is called beta decay. Has nothing to do 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:58.760 with Siamese fish. Beta decay is about a neutron or 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:04.280 a proton atoms nucleus switching sides. Essentially, a neutron will 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.160 change it into a proton, and it will expel an 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.520 electron in the process, so you've got a neutrally charged particle, 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.280 it expels an electron. It becomes positive as a result, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.200 And to make matters a bit more confusing, we call 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.080 this electron that gets expelled a beta particle, so it 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:25.600 is an electron, but specifically a beta particle. Another subatomic 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.000 particle also forms in this process. It's called an antineutrino. 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:36.480 So this type of beta decay is called beta minus decay. However, 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.680 there's also a beta plus decay. That's when you have 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.360 the opposite happen, where a proton becomes a neutron as 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.800 opposed to a neutron becoming a proton. Beta plus decay 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.680 products include not just the brand new neutron. It also 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:56.320 includes a subatomic particle called a positron and a neutrino. 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.359 So you get antineutrinos and electrons with one, and you 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.440 get positrons and neutrinos, with the other anyway weak. The 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:08.200 nuclear force explains this process of nuclear decay, this particular 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.679 type of nuclear decay. They're a couple of others as well. 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.440 So when atoms decay, one of the byproducts is also energy. 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.920 They give off energy as they decay, they radiate it. 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.279 So this is the source of radiation. That's why we 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:28.800 call it nuclear radiation. Not all atoms do this because 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.360 some of them are perfectly stable. That means that they're 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.680 not going to decay into some other form because they're 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:38.719 already stable. They're not there's nothing for them to get 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.560 more stable. It's kind of like if you were to have, 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:47.200 you know, a stack of things and they fall over 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.680 to a certain point, they're not going to fall anymore 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.960 because they're flat against the ground. That's as far as 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:59.840 they go. That's kind of the same idea. Now, in 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.839 the case of nuclear weapons, the elements we use, their 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:08.400 atoms need just the right push in order to have 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.520 their nuclei split, and when that happens, the split nuclei 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.919 shoot off a few neutrons, and that ultimately is the 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:20.480 secret sauce to nuclear weapons. So here's how it all works. Well, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:24.400 let's say you get yourself a whole bunch of a 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:29.600 particular large, unstable atom. Let's say, for argument's sake, it's oh, 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.000 I don't know, uranium two thirty five, which is essentially 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:39.320 weaponized uranium. It also actually it's out there in nature. 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.719 It is not the most common form of uranium in 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:47.560 nature because it is by its very nature unstable. It 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:51.320 will decay on its own over a very long period 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.400 of time. The more common form of uranium in nature 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.479 is uranium two thirty eight, but for weapons you want 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:03.039 uranium two thirty five. It's an isope of uranium. Isotopes 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.760 are forms of an element that have the same number 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.400 of protons, because if you change the number of protons, 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.600 you change the element itself, so it has to have 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.560 the exact same number of protons from isotope to isotope, 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:19.760 but has a different number of neutrons. So, as another example, 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.280 carbon twelve is a type of carbon that has six 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.440 protons and six neutrons. Carbon fourteen is different. It's got 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:32.080 six protons and eight neutrons. It's also radioactive, meaning it 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.000 will decay into a more stable form or another a 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.400 more stable atom, and give off energy in that process 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.240 as well. As some neutrons. So uranium two thirty five 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:46.000 has ninety two protons and one hundred forty three neutrons. 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.000 The half life of uranium two thirty five is seven 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:54.760 hundred million years now half life. What that means is 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.400 that if you had a chunk of uranium two thirty five, 0:07:57.720 --> 0:07:59.400 so you've got a whole bunch of these uranium two 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:04.200 thirty five atoms, it's statistically probable that after seven hundred 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.600 million years past, half of those atoms would decay have 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:12.280 decayed to other more stable atoms. Statistically speaking, this is 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:17.280 all about probability, not about a definite future. That's the 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.960 thing you have to remember about half life. It's about probability, 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:26.120 not definitive outcomes. Uranium two thirty eight, that more common 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.680 form of uranium I talked about, has a half life 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:33.160 of four point five billion years. So while uranium two 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:35.520 thirty five is seven hundred million years half life, that's 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.360 a long long time, I mean, particularly for human species. Right, 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.760 four point five billion years leaves it in the dust. 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.800 All right, So back to uranium two thirty five. Fermine 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.840 was able to create a controlled nuclear reaction using uranium 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:52.480 two thirty five. So what he did was he took 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:56.199 a He took low speed neutrons and fired them at 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.160 atoms of uranium two thirty five in order to break 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:04.280 the isotope part splitting it. That's what we call nuclear fission. 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.480 We're splitting an atom. In this process, the atom gives 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.440 off heat and radiation as well as generating new atoms. Right, 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:17.079 because you split it into two or more components. Also 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:19.840 in that process, it shoots off some extra neutrons, so 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:23.160 those go spinning off. Now that means that if you 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:25.720 had enough uranium two thirty five, and you had a 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.920 means of making sure those neutrons that gave off could 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:33.439 hit those other atoms of uranium two thirty five, you 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:38.120 could continue this reaction. It becomes a chain reaction. The 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.679 neutrons that get fired off hit other uranium two thirty 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:47.479 five atoms, which then produce more free neutrons flying outward, 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.120 which can hit more uranium two thirty five atoms, and 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.400 so on and so forth. And each time you're doing this, 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.280 it's generating more and more heat and energy and radiation. 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:57.960 And thus, if you were to do this in an 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.000 uncontrolled way, you get a bomb. If you do it 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.760 in a controlled way, you can have a nuclear power plant. 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.840 Our power plants are based off nuclear fission because that's 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:12.080 the type of nuclear power we have found to be sustainable. 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:16.319 Right now, there's a real push to make nuclear fusion 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:21.160 a sustainable means of generating electricity, but right now it 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.480 is very difficult to create a sustainable version of that. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:29.040 We can we can start nuclear fusion, but generally speaking, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.960 we tend to put as much or more energy into 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.960 the system as we're getting out of it, and so 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.800 that doesn't really work if you want a sustainable form 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:42.400 of generating electricity. If you're spending more than you take in, 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:49.960 you go broke eventually. Anyway, this uncontrolled chain reaction could 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:52.960 be more of a bomb situation, although to be fair, 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:57.120 in nuclear weapons it's still very much a controlled system. 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.640 It's just controlled in a way to release annormous amount 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.920 of energy in a very destructive way. 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.800 We'll be back with more about close calls with nuclear war, 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.920 a fun filled topic after these quick messages. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.200 Now, this requires enriched uranium. It requires a lot of 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.400 uranium two thirty five. You need a really high concentration 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.560 of uranium two thirty five because uranium two thirty eight 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:34.720 doesn't accept neutrons as readily. So if you shoot neutrons 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.760 at uranium two thirty five, you're it's much easier to 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:39.880 split that than if you were to fire it off 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.800 at uranium two thirty eight. So weapons grade uranium is 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.959 typically about ninety percent uranium two thirty five. This is 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.280 a much higher concentration than you would find out in nature. 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:54.640 So with these nuclear bombs, you have to make sure 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:58.760 that the fuel is kept in separate subcritical masses to 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.320 prevent premature detonation. So you obviously don't want this thing 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:05.600 to go off before you intend it to, or else 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.040 you're going to destroy yourself. To make it explode, you 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.920 need the bomb to achieve what is called critical mass. 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.400 This is the minimum amount of mass you need of 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.520 fissionable material to create a nuclear chain reaction sufficient enough 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.080 to act as a weapon. So over at HowStuffWorks dot Com, 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.000 we have an article all about this about how nuclear 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:30.360 weapons work, and it contains a really helpful analogy. It says, 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.839 imagine that the fissionable material, the stuff that you are 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:37.760 going to split, is represented as a bunch of marbles 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.120 inside a circle. If the marbles are really close together, 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.679 then you shoot a marble into that circle, it's going 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:45.680 to hit against a couple of other marbles. If you've 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.600 used enough force, it's going to create a little chain reaction. 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.160 That's what we're talking about with fissionable material and a 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.880 nuclear bomb. But if you fire a marble off into 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.800 a circle and all the individual marbles are further apart 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.520 from each other, it's less likely that you're going to 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.360 be able to set off that nuclear chain reaction because 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.720 even if you hit another marble, it's far enough away 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:14.240 from its fellow marbles that you're not likely to make 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:19.920 it a consistent, persistent nuclear chain reaction. And so that's 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.640 really the difference between critical and subcritical masses. Now. To 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.679 start the whole reaction, nuclear weapons typically use a pellet 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.680 of polonium and beryllium separated by a piece of foil. 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.360 When the subcritical masses come together, as in when a 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.800 bomb is set to detonate, and more about that in 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:41.800 a second, it causes the polonium to emit alpha particles, 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.400 and an alpha particle, in case you're curious, is a 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:47.880 pair of protons and a pair of neutrons that are 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:52.319 bound together. The alpha particles make contact with a beryllium, 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:56.199 which cause it to transform into an isotope of beryllium 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:00.400 and emit neutrons. So the beryllium changes into a different 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.400 type of beryllium, a different isotope of beryllium, and it 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.680 ejects these neutrons as part of it. Those ejected neutrons 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.439 then become the starting point for the nuclear chain reaction. 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:17.760 Now surrounding your enriched uranium two thirty five is a 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:22.880 casing called a tamper. That's what's designed to contain the 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.880 energy of the nuclear fission until it's time to release 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:30.040 it in the form of the nuclear explosion. And typically 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:34.000 it's uranium two thirty eight that ends up redirecting those 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.120 free neutrons back into the core so that they can 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:42.600 more efficiently impact other uranium two thirty five atoms, and 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.680 it aids in the continuation of fission. The more fissionable 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.760 material gets activated, the more efficient the bomb is, and 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.640 the bigger the explosion you get as a result. Now, 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.360 one way to detonate a nuclear weapon is with the 0:14:55.480 --> 0:15:00.560 uranium bullet method. So typically you have the tamper, which 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.200 you know as this container of some sort kind of 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:06.400 like it's usually kind of a cylinder shape because you're 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.360 fitting it inside a larger form factor of a bomb, 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.840 and that's what's made of uranium two thirty eight. Inside 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.640 of this you have a sphere of uranium two thirty five, 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.720 and in the center of the sphere is your neutron generator, 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.840 in other words, your little pellet of polonium and brillium. 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.480 You've got a tube leading down into the center of 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.760 the sphere. At the other end of the tube are 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.240 some explosives, and inside the tube is a bullet of 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.200 uranium two thirty five. So when it's time to detonate 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.480 the bomb, you explode the explosives. These are conventional explosives, 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.360 not nuclear explosives. That propels the uranium two thirty five 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.960 bullet and a very high rate down the tube, colliding 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:57.880 with the pellet and thus initiating the neutron generator, which 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:02.560 shoots out neutrons and thus starts to fission the uranium 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:09.200 two thirty five. This fissioning activity happens in an instant, 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.960 like the fraction of a fraction of a fraction of 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.920 a second, but in that fraction each time this is 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.680 happening so so fast that energy builds and builds and 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.640 builds and builds, until it's greater than what the bomb 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:27.040 itself can contain. And then it explodes. It takes place 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:34.840 so fast that it's like billions of a second. You 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.080 want to be super careful with that, obviously, because it's 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.960 a massive amount of destruction. Now, there's another method for 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:47.720 detonating a nuclear weapon called the implosion method, in which 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.320 high explosives around the tamper. So again that uranium two 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:58.040 thirty eight, typically explosive surrounding it create a powerful shock 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.200 wave when they go off. So the explosive go off 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:07.640 creates a shockwave generated into the center of this that 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.640 compresses the tamper and thus compresses the fissionable core inside 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:15.080 the tamper, and that triggers the fissioning reaction, and you 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.960 get the same result as the one I mentioned earlier. Now, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.280 in World War Two, we dropped two atomic bombs. We 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.280 the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. One 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.840 of them called Little Boy, and that was a uranium 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.439 bullet style bomb. The other was called Fat Man, and 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.360 that was an implosion style bomb, and it also used 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.639 plutonium two thirty nine as its core, not uranium, but 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:42.159 plutonium two thirty nine. Later, a guy named Edward Teller, 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.760 who we've talked about on tech stuff before, improved the 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.960 yield of nuclear weapons using what is called the boosting method. 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.920 This combines fusion reactions with fission bombs. The fusion reactions 0:17:55.960 --> 0:18:00.440 would create the neutrons which then would trigger the fission 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:04.320 reactions at a really high rate, so more efficiently, so 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.680 you get more of the fissionable material to split, thus 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.720 generating more energy, and nearly ninety percent of American nuclear 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.680 weapons follow that particular design. But then you've also got 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:20.200 fusion bombs. Now, fusion is when you fuse two atoms 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.479 together and you still get a big release of energy 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:31.200 in this process. Essentially, these bombs fuse hydrogen isotopes including 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:36.320 deuterium and tritium together and that ends up releasing an 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:38.679 enormous amount of energy. So to explode a bomb of 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.440 this type, you reverse the roles of fusion and fission. 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:44.480 You know, I just mentioned that to make a really 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.640 efficient fission bomb, you could incorporate fusion into it as 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.000 well well. In this case, you're talking about using fission 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.520 reactions in order to fuel a fusion reaction, which will 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:59.320 generate the massive amount of energy for the bomb. So 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.439 the fission bomb would create an implosion shockwave, kind of 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.680 like the explosives I talked about in the previous example 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:11.280 with fat Man, and in that shockwave you would also 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:13.639 get a release of X rays. That's one of the 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.160 types of energy you would get as a release from 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:20.280 a fission reaction. The X rays will end up heating 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.200 the tamper, which you still have, just like you would 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.920 with the other types of nuclear weapons, and that would 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.760 still be uranium two thirty eight typically inside of which 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:34.000 is a fuel of lithium deuteride, and that would end 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.000 up heating up because of the X rays. The X 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:40.240 rays heat up the lithium deuteride. The shockwave would compress 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.920 the lithium deuteride by a factor of like thirty It's 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:47.600 crazy how compressed it gets. And also inside the tamper 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.920 is a plutonium rod which would start to fission as 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.680 a result of all this, and that would release more 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.760 heat more neutrons. Those neutrons would combine with the compressed 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:02.560 lithium deuteride to fuel to create tritium, so you would 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:06.680 then have enough temperature and pressure to support fusion reactions. 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:10.000 That's one of the problems with nuclear fusion power plants 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:12.800 is that you have to create such an intense amount 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.120 of pressure and temperature that the energy you pour in 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.320 is equal to or greater than the energy you're getting 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.000 out of the actual fusion. Well, in a bomb, that's 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.760 not so much a concern. You want to generate as 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:27.960 much of this heat and pressure as you possibly can, 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.960 so because the fission reactions are creating that tremendous amount 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.080 of heat and pressure, nuclear fusion can actually occur, and 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:41.159 you start getting tritium deuterium and deuterium deuterium reactions, and 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.520 that generates even more heat and more radiation, which is 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:48.120 enough to induce fission in the uranium two thirty eight tamper. 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.919 So remember the uranium two thirty eight tamper doesn't typically 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.439 fission in most of these bombs, it requires so much 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.840 energy to do that. But these fusion bombs can actually 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.600 eat that kind of energy. The combination of all that 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.199 energy is enormous, and then the bomb explodes, releasing it 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:11.359 into the environment. Now, at the point of explosion, you 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:16.439 would easily imagine there's an intense release of an incredible 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.840 amount of heat, and the blast also creates a really 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:22.760 powerful pressure wave moving outward from the point of explosion. 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:27.199 Then on top of that, you've got the radiation, the 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:30.680 energy being radiated out like gamma rays and other very 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.720 harmful forms of radiation, followed by radiation fallout, which is 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:41.080 typically radioactive dust and debris that originated inside the bomb itself. 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:46.520 Stuff close to the hypocenter, which is another term for 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:51.720 ground zero, would be vaporized because of the temperatures involved. 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:55.760 We're talking three hundred million degrees celsius or five hundred 0:21:55.840 --> 0:22:00.840 million degrees fahrenheit. Further out from the center, the pressure 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:05.000 wave could cause entire buildings to collapse because it's so powerful, 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:09.040 and the heat is still intense enough to cause fatalities. 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.280 It's hot enough to burn people alive even if you're 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.600 not right there at the point of explosion. The further 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.680 out you go, the less effect those initial events will have. 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.480 The heat will become less intense the further out, The 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.520 pressure wave less effective further out, but there are a 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.320 lot of secondary problems that could still be life threatening, 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:33.480 including things like fallout, radiation fallouts going to spread really 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.919 far and will continue to spread based upon prevailing winds 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.600 of the area, and also stuff like fires. The heat 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:42.320 is going to be hot enough to generate a lot 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:44.600 of fires in a lot of areas, and that could 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:51.679 end up being a very prevalent and immediate danger to you. 0:22:53.359 --> 0:23:01.520 So that's cheerful. Right. Nuclear weapons are terrifying, There's no 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:05.200 question about it. They can wak devastation greater than anything 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:08.680 humans have ever witnessed. And since World War Two, many 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.320 have worked really hard to make sure no more nuclear 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:14.760 weapons see use ever again. But we've had a whole 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:18.800 lot of close calls, and I'm gonna go more into 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:21.800 that in just a minute, but first, let's take a 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:33.280 quick break to thank our sponsor. All Right, We're gonna 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:39.719 start with probably the closest we've ever been to getting 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:46.000 into a full on nuclear confrontation. There were other events 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:48.240 that happened before this, and there are other events that 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:50.520 happened after this, and I'll cover some of those later on, 0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:53.840 but let's start with the granddaddy, the big one. That 0:23:53.880 --> 0:23:58.160 would be October nineteen sixty two, when the United States 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:02.400 of America and the then Soviet Union were at the 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:05.880 height of the Cold War. So you had these two 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:09.680 powerful countries standing in opposition to each other, and both 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:13.359 were building up their respective militaries and arsenals in an 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:16.080 effort to stay on top or at least not fall 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:21.760 behind their great rival. It's a pretty terrifying time for everybody, 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:24.720 whether you lived in the Soviet Union or the United 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:28.520 States or one of countless other nations that felt helpless 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:34.160 because these two giants were posturing against each other. And 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:37.960 one could argue, we're sort of returning to that kind 0:24:38.000 --> 0:24:40.520 of world now, but that's really a discussion for a 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:44.720 different show anyway. In October nineteen sixty two, an event 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:49.440 called the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. This was a nuclear 0:24:49.560 --> 0:24:52.440 game of chess between the White House and the Kremlin, 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:55.359 and it was the closest the United States and the 0:24:55.440 --> 0:24:59.480 USSR ever got to a full fledged nuclear conflict on 0:24:59.560 --> 0:25:04.399 both sides. This at least, this was the closest anyone 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:09.680 got that wasn't the creation of a computational error. More 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:12.000 on those types of close calls in a little bit. 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:15.520 So to catch you guys up on some history in 0:25:15.560 --> 0:25:18.840 case you don't know about the Cuban Missile crisis, the 0:25:18.880 --> 0:25:22.600 government in Cuba was Communist and that was something that 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:26.359 made the United States government really nervous. So the US 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:30.320 attempted to overthrow the Cuban government. But that was a 0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:33.640 total disaster. That was the Bay of Pigs invasion, as 0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:37.880 well as some other events that were around that time. Meanwhile, 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:41.879 the Soviet Union had reached an agreement with Cuba. The 0:25:41.920 --> 0:25:47.200 Soviet Union would install nuclear missiles and nuclear aircraft nuclear 0:25:47.240 --> 0:25:51.640 capable aircraft in Cuba as a deterrent to US invasions, 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:54.439