1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:08,960 Speaker 1: It's ready, Are you did? In touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:17,760 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:20,000 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polette, 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:21,919 Speaker 1: and I am an editor at how stuff works dot Com. 6 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:24,479 Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as he typically does on days 7 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 1: like this, not rainy ones, but the days we do 8 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:30,000 Speaker 1: the podcast. Although today's both senior writer Jonathan Strickland of 9 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:33,040 Speaker 1: Herbert West who was my friend in college, and an 10 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:38,120 Speaker 1: afterlife I can speak only with extreme terror. Oh that's 11 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:40,840 Speaker 1: a good one to start today. Yes, today we wanted 12 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 1: to talk about a subject that is, uh, it's pretty terrifying. 13 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: We're talking about nuclear weapons. Yes, yes, not clear not 14 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: nuclear he was. I was teasing him about this before 15 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: and he said that I had better not I'm not 16 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: gonna say nuclear, I mean other than just then. Um. 17 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: And one of the reasons I wanted to uh to 18 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:03,000 Speaker 1: talk about this today is because it's been in the 19 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,679 Speaker 1: news a lot lately. Um. Of course, uh iran um 20 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 1: is rumored or depending on whom you ask, more than 21 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: rumored to be working on nuclear weapons program. And um, 22 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,880 Speaker 1: you know that that's been a busy topic. I was 23 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: about to say, a hot topic, let's not go there 24 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: um lately, and I thought, well, you know, why don't 25 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,679 Speaker 1: we We've never really talked about, um, the technology that 26 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:32,040 Speaker 1: makes nuclear weapons possible. UM. And while I'm not particularly 27 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: fond of things that cause death and destruction, uh, the 28 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: the actual bombs themselves, how they make them work is 29 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 1: kind of interesting, and it's it's important stuff. I mean, 30 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of there are a lot 31 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: of discussions about nuclear arms races. You know, we had 32 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: a famous nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and 33 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: the United States during the Cold War, which uh started 34 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: to look like things were going to to improve, where 35 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: you know, both nations were starting to dismantle a lot 36 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: of their nuclear weapon programs. But then you've got other 37 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 1: countries like China and India and Pakistan and other countries 38 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,079 Speaker 1: that are that have either have a nuclear weapons program 39 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: or developing. North Korea is another good example. They either 40 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: have a and a fully fledged out nuclear weapons program 41 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: or they're working on it. And uh, it adds a 42 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,800 Speaker 1: lot of concern because these weapons potentially pack an enormous 43 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: punch and it's the kind of weapon that you know, 44 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: most weapons, you use them and then the uh, that 45 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:40,000 Speaker 1: immediate moment, the aftermath, that's that's all you're dealing with. 46 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:43,960 Speaker 1: And the aftermath is generally, you know, not not uh 47 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:46,920 Speaker 1: something that is perpetual, right, I mean, you might have 48 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 1: to do some massive clean up or whatever, but that's it. 49 00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:53,760 Speaker 1: Nuclear weapons are different, and that the aftermath can be 50 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:58,720 Speaker 1: as destructive or maybe not as destructive, but but destructive 51 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:03,920 Speaker 1: on their own beyond the initial blast. And so plus 52 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:07,520 Speaker 1: plus it's possible that the uh, the effects of the 53 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:13,959 Speaker 1: nuclear blast can carry across the terrain to places that 54 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:18,080 Speaker 1: the US, as we'll find out in in our discussion, um, 55 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:22,119 Speaker 1: that people may not necessarily have been planning on being affected. 56 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: Yeah you might. You know, it's not just the immediate area. 57 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: It's not a precision weapon and that Yeah, there's a 58 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:32,080 Speaker 1: precision blast area that you're that you can be pretty 59 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: sure is going to be vaporized when you hit it. 60 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 1: But then there's a large area around that. Depending upon 61 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: the climate and you know, the specific weather conditions at 62 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: that time, it could affect neighboring countries, you know, essentially 63 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: innocent bystanders to whatever. So let's get into this, let's 64 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 1: talk first about atoms. Yeah, I mean you think about 65 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: it that One of the fascinating things about this is 66 00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: that such a devastating reaction can be caused something as 67 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,760 Speaker 1: tiny as an atom. Yeah. Uh. And just so that 68 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: we all have our little a little refresher course, even 69 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: though I'm sure no one listening needs it. Your basic 70 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:16,240 Speaker 1: atom has a nucleus that is orbited by electrons. Now 71 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: your electrons are you're negatively charged particles. Yes, your nucleus 72 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: typically contains at least one proton. Actually it has to 73 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: otherwise it's not an atom. So the proton is a 74 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,839 Speaker 1: positively charged particle, and the protons positive charge in the 75 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: electrons negative charge are attracted to one another. It's pretty powerful. Now, 76 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:42,080 Speaker 1: there can also be in that nucleus a and a 77 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:46,040 Speaker 1: particle that carries no charge at all, a neutron which 78 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: has no charge, and neutrons kind of act like glue 79 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:53,840 Speaker 1: for protons. Because you know, you've got this this nucleus 80 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:56,200 Speaker 1: that could have more than one proton. Well, the problem 81 00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:00,480 Speaker 1: is that a similar charges repel one another. So if 82 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:02,839 Speaker 1: you have to possibly charged particles and you try and 83 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: put them close to each other, they're going to start 84 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 1: repelling each other. Well, neutrons kind of act like a 85 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:11,680 Speaker 1: glue that that allows these protons to group together to 86 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:16,920 Speaker 1: form this nucleus. So, uh, if you've I'm getting out 87 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:18,520 Speaker 1: of here. No, no, no, no, it's all right, it's 88 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:22,839 Speaker 1: all right. Now you can change the number of neutrons 89 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,320 Speaker 1: that are within an atom. And if you do that, uh, 90 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:29,919 Speaker 1: you know, atoms have typically they have a number of 91 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:33,599 Speaker 1: neutrons that you will naturally find within the atoms of 92 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: that element. Uh. If you find something that's outside of 93 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:41,719 Speaker 1: that that either is gut either has more fewer neutrons, 94 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:46,600 Speaker 1: it's an isotope. So isotopes of atoms are atoms that 95 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:49,839 Speaker 1: contain a different number of neutrons than you would typically 96 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:54,800 Speaker 1: find them in nature. Plus baseball team in Springfield, that's 97 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:59,120 Speaker 1: also true. Now, this is not to be confused with ions. 98 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: And ion is an atom that has either gained or 99 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: lost in electron, and so it either has a positive 100 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:10,200 Speaker 1: charge or a negative charge because of that. So of course, 101 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,040 Speaker 1: if it's gained an electron, then overall the atom has 102 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:15,239 Speaker 1: a negative charge. If it's lost in electron, then overall 103 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: the atom has a positive charge. So that's the difference 104 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:22,600 Speaker 1: between ions and isotopes. Now isotopes. Really that's what ends 105 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,800 Speaker 1: up being important in these nuclear weapons. It's it's sort 106 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: of a key feature. Um. Another thing that's that's important 107 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: to note is that for the most part, atoms are 108 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 1: pretty stable. I mean, once you get them in their 109 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 1: natural state, they're unlikely to change all that much. They 110 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:43,920 Speaker 1: don't uh, randomly shed electrons or the things unless some 111 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,040 Speaker 1: force acts on them. They just sort of go along 112 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:49,920 Speaker 1: there about their business and stick to themselves, right because 113 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: if they were if they were unstable, they would very 114 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,280 Speaker 1: they would not necessarily very quickly. But if they were unstable, 115 00:06:56,320 --> 00:07:00,159 Speaker 1: they would change to become more stable over time. That's 116 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: what we call decay. So if you have an atom 117 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: that is unstable, it will eventually change to a more 118 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:10,880 Speaker 1: stable form, and in the process of that, it's going 119 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,040 Speaker 1: to give up some energy, uh, and it can give 120 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:18,080 Speaker 1: up energy and in multiple ways. There's actually three main 121 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:24,280 Speaker 1: types of radioactive decay. There's alpha decay, which is where 122 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:27,200 Speaker 1: you've got your nucleus and it it's going to kick 123 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: out two protons and two neutrons bound together, which is 124 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: also called an alpha particle. Then you've got beta decay, 125 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:41,560 Speaker 1: and this is where a neutron actually changes becomes a proton. Uh. 126 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:45,120 Speaker 1: Then the neutron or the proton and the an electron 127 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 1: and an anti anti neutrino are all ejected together. That's 128 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: the beta particle or actually the ejected electron is the 129 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:56,600 Speaker 1: beta particle specifically UM. So yeah, good all anti neutrinos. 130 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:00,280 Speaker 1: I tell you they they go opposite the best as 131 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: the speed of light. So we talked about the whole 132 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: new trinos whether or not they were going faster than 133 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: the speed of light with large hatron collider. Right now, 134 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 1: it looks like they didn't. Looks like that was all 135 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:15,000 Speaker 1: due to some some issues with the measuring technology. Looking 136 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:18,160 Speaker 1: at the scoreboard today right, which could change by the 137 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 1: time this podcast gets out. So the third type is 138 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:25,880 Speaker 1: spontaneous fission. Now, fission is where you have a nucleus 139 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:30,960 Speaker 1: split into two pieces. It's um the opposite of fusion. 140 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:35,000 Speaker 1: Fusion is where two nucleuses come together and join, and 141 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:39,360 Speaker 1: both vision and fusion you have a release of energy. Now, 142 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:43,440 Speaker 1: for radioactive decay, we're specifically talking about fission, not fusion. 143 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,360 Speaker 1: So in this the nucleus splits and it might eject 144 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,839 Speaker 1: neutrons which can become neutron rays, and it also can 145 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:59,280 Speaker 1: emit electromagnetic energy called gamma rays, which do not talk 146 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:03,200 Speaker 1: about fantast stick for you're looking at me like I 147 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:06,960 Speaker 1: was talking about some or the Hulk. I was waiting 148 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: for you to make that joke. Actually, I think it 149 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:11,640 Speaker 1: was cosmic rays with the fantastic gamma radiation for the 150 00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: incredible Hulk. I don't want to get my science wrong. 151 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:20,560 Speaker 1: You're absolutely scientific. My air quotes science wrong. So yeah, 152 00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:23,679 Speaker 1: gamma rays. It's interesting that they are the only type 153 00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:27,920 Speaker 1: of nuclear radiation that comes from energy rather than particles. Yes, 154 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,240 Speaker 1: all right, I bet you learned that on how stuff 155 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:32,320 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Yes, there's a really good article about that. 156 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:34,160 Speaker 1: We we have we have a couple of articles on 157 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com that are going to be 158 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:38,719 Speaker 1: really useful as we talk about this. They include how 159 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: nuclear weapons work, how nuclear how nuclear radiation works, and 160 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:47,600 Speaker 1: also how there's an article about the Manhattan Project. We'll 161 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:51,080 Speaker 1: talk about the Manhattan Project in a little bit. So 162 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:53,960 Speaker 1: we've now got these three different forms of radioactive decay 163 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,920 Speaker 1: and we know about this new spontaneous fission. Well, what's 164 00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:00,520 Speaker 1: interesting is that the fission doesn't necessary really have to 165 00:10:00,559 --> 00:10:05,360 Speaker 1: be spontaneous. If you find the right kind of unstable 166 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:10,439 Speaker 1: atom and you are able to bombard it with neutrons. 167 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,920 Speaker 1: Then sometimes those atoms will accept a neutron and in 168 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: the process they will become so unstable as that the 169 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,040 Speaker 1: nucleus itself will split apart, and in that process the 170 00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:24,439 Speaker 1: nucleus will release energy. It also may release other neutrons, 171 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:26,360 Speaker 1: which means that if you get a bunch of these 172 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:30,720 Speaker 1: unstable items together and you shoot a neutron at them, 173 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:34,520 Speaker 1: and then that first that first nucleus splits apart and 174 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:38,080 Speaker 1: more neutrons split off of it, it can cause more 175 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:41,320 Speaker 1: of these unstable atoms to do the same thing, and 176 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,280 Speaker 1: that's where you have a chain reaction. I can't remember 177 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:47,199 Speaker 1: who it was that had that the TV show where 178 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:51,320 Speaker 1: they had a clear plastic box and on the bottom 179 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:54,760 Speaker 1: of the box they had uh mouse traps, and each 180 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: mouse traps, each mouse trap had two ping pong balls 181 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:00,240 Speaker 1: on it, and those represented um the stable. Actually, it's 182 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 1: probably been done by five thousand people anyway. You can 183 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:07,400 Speaker 1: find clips of the same sort of thing on YouTube 184 00:11:07,559 --> 00:11:09,720 Speaker 1: and then by lots of different people, and I enjoy 185 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:13,000 Speaker 1: watching it because it's really an excellent demonstration. So each 186 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:16,520 Speaker 1: of these these mouse trap atoms with its two ping 187 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:20,480 Speaker 1: pong balls represents these unstable atoms, and as soon and 188 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:24,880 Speaker 1: the ping pong balls represent the ejected neutrons exactly exactly, 189 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:28,280 Speaker 1: And so uh, somebody else will drop a ping pong 190 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: ball inside a small hole in the box representing the 191 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,000 Speaker 1: neutron in this case that is bombarding these these atoms. 192 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:37,200 Speaker 1: And as soon as it hits one mouse trap and 193 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:39,920 Speaker 1: sets it off, the ping pong balls from that one 194 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:43,760 Speaker 1: fly in other directions, thereby setting off the other mouse traps, 195 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:45,920 Speaker 1: and it all happens in a very very short period 196 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 1: of time. It takes almost no time at all for 197 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:50,120 Speaker 1: this thing, for all the the mouse traps to release 198 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 1: their part of ping pong balls now. And in the 199 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,679 Speaker 1: case of a nuclear weapon, these reactions are happening in 200 00:11:55,800 --> 00:12:00,440 Speaker 1: billions of a second. So now let's get to the 201 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: actual elements that are used in nuclear weaponry. So one 202 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:07,720 Speaker 1: of them is an isotope of uranium, uranium two thirty five. 203 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:12,960 Speaker 1: That's a very complex atom. Yeah, it's got ninety two protons, right, so, 204 00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:16,760 Speaker 1: but it's got a hundred and forty three neutrons. And 205 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:19,640 Speaker 1: the thing about this is that it will accept a 206 00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:23,400 Speaker 1: neutron if if you bombard uranium two thirty five, it 207 00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:28,080 Speaker 1: very easily will accept that neutron. Yeah yeah, and then 208 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:31,760 Speaker 1: it it makes the uranium unstable, and then it will 209 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:34,080 Speaker 1: split apart like I just said in and you'll get 210 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:40,199 Speaker 1: that energy and those other neutrons released. So that the problem, 211 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:43,280 Speaker 1: the problem with this, many problems with this. One of 212 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:46,800 Speaker 1: the issues that the people who first started working on 213 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:50,840 Speaker 1: nuclear weapons technology encountered was that, first of all, they 214 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:54,560 Speaker 1: weren't sure which elements were going to react this way, 215 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:57,520 Speaker 1: because not all of them do, so finding the right 216 00:12:57,559 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: elements was tricky. The other part is that uranium two 217 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 1: thirty five is relatively rare compared to other isotopes of uranium. Yeah, 218 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:11,120 Speaker 1: that's right. So when you find naturally occurring uranium, the 219 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:15,040 Speaker 1: uranium two thirty five in that deposit is going to 220 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:20,480 Speaker 1: be relatively sparse, and for a nuclear weapon to work, 221 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:25,120 Speaker 1: you need about uranium two thirty five so that you 222 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 1: have the right amount of material to perpetuate this chain reaction. 223 00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:36,319 Speaker 1: Otherwise your your atoms that are unstable, maybe too far 224 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:39,440 Speaker 1: apart from each other for that chain reaction to really 225 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:43,720 Speaker 1: take off. Note to all the nuclear physicists who are 226 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:46,760 Speaker 1: writing who have paused to podcast and rode in to 227 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:48,920 Speaker 1: tell us that there are other types of fuel that 228 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:51,040 Speaker 1: can be used for nuclear weapons. Yes, we know that. 229 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:54,920 Speaker 1: However we're using we're starting here, starting with uranium because 230 00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:58,079 Speaker 1: that's where that's where, that's where the scientists started. Yes, 231 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:01,440 Speaker 1: plutonium also used as all as their hydrogen bombs that 232 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:03,679 Speaker 1: we'll talk about a little bit. But even hydrogen bombs 233 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 1: use uranium and plutonium um. It's just that they're they're 234 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:11,720 Speaker 1: using a different mechanism. They're using fusion as opposed to vision. 235 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:16,960 Speaker 1: So uranium two thirty five, you have to actually refine 236 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:21,400 Speaker 1: your your right, your uranium. Wow, I can't talk today, 237 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:26,880 Speaker 1: but yes, you must take uranium, your uranium, yeah, toy 238 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:30,600 Speaker 1: boat anyway, you have to take this uranium there we 239 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:33,480 Speaker 1: got that works and refine it so that you have 240 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:36,320 Speaker 1: a higher percentage of uranium two thirty five. Which is 241 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:38,480 Speaker 1: what you hear about when you when you hear about 242 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:43,160 Speaker 1: these these nations like Iran with their nuclear program, you 243 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:48,080 Speaker 1: hear about are they making uranium for power facilities or 244 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:51,440 Speaker 1: are they trying to make weaponized uranium. This is talking 245 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:55,640 Speaker 1: about the enrichment process. Yes, so if you are enriching, 246 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:58,600 Speaker 1: if you're if you're creating uranium, so that you've got 247 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:04,360 Speaker 1: a section of uranium the is uranium that's indicative of 248 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: a weapon that's not. You don't need that kind of 249 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:10,280 Speaker 1: concentration for a nuclear power facility. So that's one of 250 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:14,400 Speaker 1: those things that that inspectors try to determine when they 251 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:17,360 Speaker 1: go and look at a nuclear power facility to make 252 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:22,120 Speaker 1: sure that the uranium being produced is not weapons grade uranium. 253 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:26,720 Speaker 1: So anyway, that's the basis, that's the basic science behind 254 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:30,680 Speaker 1: the fission part of nuclear weapons. Will get into fusion 255 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,560 Speaker 1: in a second. So how did this all come about? Well, 256 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:39,000 Speaker 1: first we have to look at a fellow named Einstein. Now, 257 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 1: Einstein came up with that famous equation E equals MC 258 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:48,040 Speaker 1: squared the theory of relativity, which states that energy is 259 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:51,880 Speaker 1: equal to mass times the speed of light squared the 260 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:54,480 Speaker 1: constant of the speed of light through a vacuum. As 261 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:57,960 Speaker 1: it turns out, so that means that you take the 262 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: you take and a unit of mass, you multiply it 263 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:05,240 Speaker 1: by the square of the speed of light speed of 264 00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:09,320 Speaker 1: light squared rather and and then that's how much energy 265 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 1: you get from that mass. So this tells us that 266 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:14,760 Speaker 1: a tiny little bit of mass could equate to an 267 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 1: enormous amount of energy because you're multiplying that that unit 268 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:23,800 Speaker 1: of mass against a huge number. Well, that starts leading 269 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 1: people to think, well, this is true, then there should 270 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:31,120 Speaker 1: be some way to tap into the stuff that's around 271 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:34,280 Speaker 1: us and get at huge amounts of energy. And you 272 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:36,840 Speaker 1: had a lot of really really smart people working on this, 273 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: and most of them were probably at least initially working 274 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:42,400 Speaker 1: on this as a way of finding a new energy source, 275 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:47,520 Speaker 1: not necessarily a weapon. However, World War Two really helped 276 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:52,760 Speaker 1: push the the the the research towards finding a way 277 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:55,640 Speaker 1: of using this in a military application as opposed to 278 00:16:55,640 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 1: to just a power generation alternative. So then we go 279 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:05,560 Speaker 1: up to the nineteen thirties. You've got a fellow named 280 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:11,960 Speaker 1: Enrico Fermi, and hep him in grade school. He's the 281 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:16,200 Speaker 1: one who discovered that if you were to shoot neutrons 282 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:20,600 Speaker 1: at atoms, you could sometimes form new elements. And they 283 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:23,040 Speaker 1: were including ones that just did not show up on 284 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:25,960 Speaker 1: the periodic table at all. So most of these are 285 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 1: are atoms that are so unstable that you know they 286 00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:33,679 Speaker 1: almost immediately decay. But uh that he discovered that, and 287 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,240 Speaker 1: then a few years later a pair of German scientists 288 00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 1: Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman discovered that by bombarding uranium 289 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:45,360 Speaker 1: with neutrons that they could create cause the uranium atoms 290 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:49,440 Speaker 1: to split. So they're the ones who actually connected the 291 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:56,000 Speaker 1: concept of fission with shooting neutrons at an isotope and 292 00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,159 Speaker 1: uh it actually created a radioactive barium isotope once they 293 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:00,919 Speaker 1: did that, and that's how they discovered, oh, you know, 294 00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:04,239 Speaker 1: this is what happens. If you do this, then you 295 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:06,880 Speaker 1: have a couple of other There are so many famous 296 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:09,560 Speaker 1: names that we could mention that worked on this, but 297 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:14,080 Speaker 1: Neil's Bore and John Wheeler started to theorize that if 298 00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:17,199 Speaker 1: you were to create a fission reaction within enough of 299 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:21,680 Speaker 1: this material, you could cause a chain reaction, and if 300 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,120 Speaker 1: you were to contain this in some way, you could 301 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,960 Speaker 1: have a controlled nuclear reaction which would generate huge amounts 302 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:32,760 Speaker 1: of energy. Uh. Now, a controlled nuclear reaction could allow 303 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:36,560 Speaker 1: you to have uh power, or a controlled nuclear reaction 304 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,720 Speaker 1: that then results in an uncontrolled explosion is a weapon. 305 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:43,560 Speaker 1: It's a bomb. You know. I'm sort of reminded of 306 00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:47,600 Speaker 1: our our discussion of quantum computing, which also works with adams. 307 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:51,879 Speaker 1: But the thing is that figuring out the predict predictability 308 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,240 Speaker 1: if you happen to listen to that podcast of where 309 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:59,080 Speaker 1: the particle will go and in what direction um is 310 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:00,879 Speaker 1: not always possible. That's one of the things that makes 311 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:05,320 Speaker 1: quantum cryptography so useful. But yeah, in this case, UM, 312 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,919 Speaker 1: it's kind of scary because if you imagine that this 313 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: this reaction is going to unleash a large amount of power, 314 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:14,879 Speaker 1: or maybe it won't. You know, that's that can be 315 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:17,440 Speaker 1: a little scary because you don't know for sure exactly 316 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:19,199 Speaker 1: what's gonna happen when you do this is which is 317 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:24,119 Speaker 1: why UM, you know, they started doing experiments like you know, 318 00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:27,720 Speaker 1: Columbia University in n um up in New York. They 319 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:29,639 Speaker 1: starting to mess around with this to see if they 320 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:33,640 Speaker 1: could make it work. University of Chicago squash court. Yes, yes, 321 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:38,760 Speaker 1: now that's funny because of underground underneath the famous stag 322 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:41,640 Speaker 1: field there at the University of Chicago. UM, they were 323 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:46,880 Speaker 1: Enrico Fermi finally got it to work in the controlled situation. UM, 324 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:50,760 Speaker 1: so you know, again, what what if it weren't controlled 325 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:53,399 Speaker 1: that might have been a little scary, but uh, you know, 326 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:55,879 Speaker 1: he got it to to uh to do what they 327 00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:58,639 Speaker 1: thought and this This was important because UM again this 328 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:02,520 Speaker 1: is they realize is that this could be a seriously 329 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:07,160 Speaker 1: potent weapon that they could be building. So UM they 330 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:09,119 Speaker 1: realized that if they could harness this and do this 331 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:11,679 Speaker 1: in a controlled way, you know, then they could turn 332 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:14,960 Speaker 1: it to their advantage. UM. Around the same time that 333 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:21,719 Speaker 1: work was being done on uranium uh and and nuclear fission, 334 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:25,680 Speaker 1: scientists over at the University of California at Berkeley back 335 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:32,720 Speaker 1: in discovered a new element, element ninety four uh and 336 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,400 Speaker 1: They thought that this could also work as a potential 337 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:41,960 Speaker 1: fuel for nuclear chain reactions. And this element they named 338 00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:47,960 Speaker 1: plutonium and the dog, Yes, it was named for the 339 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,920 Speaker 1: dog the it took. It took his name for the 340 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:57,400 Speaker 1: Roman god. But yeah, it was a year later they 341 00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:01,560 Speaker 1: had actually produced enough plutonium to finally do some experiments 342 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:04,159 Speaker 1: on it, because it was not something that was easily found, 343 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:08,200 Speaker 1: which I guess we should all be thankful for. UM. 344 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:12,200 Speaker 1: And they they figured out that plutonium also would undergo 345 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:16,320 Speaker 1: fission when bombarded by neutrons. You know, we should talk 346 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:21,920 Speaker 1: about the criticality of about the of the the atoms themselves. 347 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:26,520 Speaker 1: Because the thing is, UM say, say you have your 348 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:29,199 Speaker 1: your creative mousetratchs and ping pong balls. You have to 349 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,040 Speaker 1: make sure that nothing is going to set it off 350 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:34,760 Speaker 1: before you mean to set it off. Yeah, you don't 351 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:39,000 Speaker 1: want to have something jostle that that system and have 352 00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:41,920 Speaker 1: it all go off prematurely. And of course with a 353 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,480 Speaker 1: nuclear bomb, this is truly important because of the the 354 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:48,720 Speaker 1: just the enormous amount of damage that it could it 355 00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:54,600 Speaker 1: could it could cause. So yeah, so there's there's a 356 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,760 Speaker 1: couple different concepts here. There's a concept called critical mass, 357 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 1: which is the minimum amount of mass necessary for you 358 00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:07,440 Speaker 1: to have a sustain nuclear fission reaction. And then there's 359 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,560 Speaker 1: the subcritical mass, which is where you've got lower than 360 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:15,119 Speaker 1: that amount, And ideally what you want is to have 361 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:17,960 Speaker 1: lower than that amount up until the point where you 362 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,240 Speaker 1: actually want to detonate the bomb. Yes, because that's going 363 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:25,439 Speaker 1: to keep it as safe as you can you can 364 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:28,879 Speaker 1: get it. So there were a lot of challenges in 365 00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: trying to find a way to create a bomb where 366 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:37,119 Speaker 1: you had the material set up as subcritical until the 367 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:40,240 Speaker 1: moment of detonation, where it would convert to a critical mass, 368 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,879 Speaker 1: so that that nuclear reaction would remain sustained within it. 369 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:47,960 Speaker 1: Otherwise your bomb would still be dangerous. It would still 370 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:50,720 Speaker 1: emit radiation, It would still admit a lot of energy, 371 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,440 Speaker 1: it just wouldn't cause as much damage as it was 372 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,359 Speaker 1: designed to do. Right now, now, critical mass is, as 373 00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:01,439 Speaker 1: Jonathan said, the minimum amount needed to to achieve the 374 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 1: fish and reaction. Now uh, ideally for a for a 375 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,639 Speaker 1: bomb condition, if you're you're trying to do this, um, 376 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:11,040 Speaker 1: you would want the fuel to be in a supercritical mass, 377 00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: which basically means there's more than enough necessary to to 378 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: achieve the fish and reaction. Um uh you know, because 379 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,480 Speaker 1: in this case it just applies and plenty. You want 380 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:26,200 Speaker 1: to make sure that it's going to happen. You don't wanna, 381 00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:29,560 Speaker 1: you don't want to have it where through some weird 382 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:35,520 Speaker 1: set of circumstances, just some improbable but possible outcome that 383 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:40,119 Speaker 1: the bomb that a smaller percentage of the reactions takes 384 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,520 Speaker 1: place than you had anticipated, because that means that the 385 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:45,000 Speaker 1: effect is going to be smaller than you had anticipated. 386 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,159 Speaker 1: And if you're gonna be building something as nasty and 387 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:50,840 Speaker 1: dangerous as a nuclear weapon, you kind of want it 388 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,600 Speaker 1: to be effective. Yes. Yeah, The point is again to 389 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:58,199 Speaker 1: to operate it when it's going to achieve the desired effect, 390 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:00,639 Speaker 1: and not before and which is really I mean, this 391 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:02,280 Speaker 1: is where it gets hard to talk about this because 392 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:06,480 Speaker 1: the desired effect is so mind numbingly awful. Yeah, I'm 393 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 1: trying to speak of it in a in a clinical sense. Um. Yeah, 394 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,440 Speaker 1: it's it's a little rough. So there there are two 395 00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:20,520 Speaker 1: different ways to create a supercritical mass within a fission 396 00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:25,240 Speaker 1: based bomb. Uh. And actually both of these ways were 397 00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:29,600 Speaker 1: used in the first two nuclear weapons ever actually used 398 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,400 Speaker 1: in battle. Um. One of the things that I think 399 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,600 Speaker 1: of is uh, again in in a clinical sense, but 400 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: it's it's still kind of amusing to me, is in 401 00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 1: reading about this. Um. The nuclear weapons that were detonated 402 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 1: in Japan too, uh, or i should say over Japan 403 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:50,280 Speaker 1: to um end the Second World War were really I 404 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:52,320 Speaker 1: mean it seems like, well, they did what they were 405 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:56,080 Speaker 1: intended to do, but they were really more like lab 406 00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 1: experiments packed in a case and and and created. So 407 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:02,960 Speaker 1: I mean, now things are are pretty standardized, but the 408 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,960 Speaker 1: two those two weapons were very different and the way 409 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:09,680 Speaker 1: they did things and uh and really they the scientists 410 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:12,280 Speaker 1: weren't certain that they were going to do what they 411 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:14,160 Speaker 1: thought they were going to do. Yeah. And those two 412 00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:17,879 Speaker 1: weapons were called we're called Little Boy and Fat many. 413 00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:20,640 Speaker 1: Little Boy was the one that was dropped on Hiroshima 414 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:24,119 Speaker 1: on August six n and Fat Man was dropped over 415 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:29,000 Speaker 1: Nagasaki on August nine. So these two us two different 416 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:33,240 Speaker 1: methods to initiate this supercritical mass and begin the nuclear 417 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:37,720 Speaker 1: fission process. A Little Boy used what was was called 418 00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:42,600 Speaker 1: a bullet. It's ah, you, in order to start this 419 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:44,439 Speaker 1: whole reaction, you have to have something that's going to 420 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:48,479 Speaker 1: create neutrons, and in this case, it actually was a bullet, 421 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,720 Speaker 1: although not you know, in the sense of a gun. 422 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:53,399 Speaker 1: The gun that fired, it was not the kind of 423 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:55,600 Speaker 1: gun that we would think of necessarily, right, This was 424 00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:59,360 Speaker 1: a So you take take a ball of uranium two 425 00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:02,919 Speaker 1: thirty five, all right, and then you take a small 426 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:06,440 Speaker 1: amount of that two out as a bullet. It's a projectile. 427 00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:09,400 Speaker 1: It's placed at one end of a long tube. It's 428 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: got explosives behind it. So when the explosives go off, 429 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:16,040 Speaker 1: it propels the bullet down the tube until it impacts 430 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,719 Speaker 1: the sphere of uranim two five at the other end. 431 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 1: And uh so, the here's how it. Here's what happens. 432 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:27,119 Speaker 1: Explosives fire, the bullet goes down the barrel, the bullet 433 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:30,719 Speaker 1: hits the sphere and it hits a neutron generator. Like 434 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,120 Speaker 1: I said, you have to have neutrons to start this 435 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:38,440 Speaker 1: fission process. So just dropping uranium two five, that's not 436 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,880 Speaker 1: that's not going to cause a huge explosion. But by 437 00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:47,200 Speaker 1: creating these neutrons with this neutron generator, uh, it ends 438 00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:51,679 Speaker 1: up starting off that that series of reactions within the bomb. 439 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,720 Speaker 1: So once those neutrons are generating and starts saying the 440 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:59,560 Speaker 1: uranium two thirty five, the fission reaction begins. The individual 441 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:02,440 Speaker 1: atoms of uranium two five starts to split, and A 442 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,440 Speaker 1: two start to eject neutrons, which causes more uranium two 443 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,199 Speaker 1: thirty five to split, and that reaction continues and the 444 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:14,000 Speaker 1: energy builds up until the bomb explodes. So that was 445 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:16,200 Speaker 1: the little Boy version, by the way, in case you're 446 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:21,440 Speaker 1: wondering how little little Boy was, uh, it was it. Well, 447 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,480 Speaker 1: it was able to drop a bomb that was equivalent 448 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:28,840 Speaker 1: to fourteen point five kilo tons of T and T 449 00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:39,119 Speaker 1: wait no, um, yeah, so yeah, so little is a 450 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,400 Speaker 1: as a relative term. And then we have fat Man. 451 00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:45,719 Speaker 1: Fat Man used an implosion triggered bomb. Yes, this is 452 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,240 Speaker 1: this is different from the bullet method, and what happens 453 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:53,720 Speaker 1: here is you've got a sphere of the nuclear fuel, 454 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:56,800 Speaker 1: so in this case again uranium two thirty five and 455 00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:02,640 Speaker 1: then you have plutonium two thirty nine core inside that 456 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:08,840 Speaker 1: and and and surrounding the core are some explosives. So 457 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,919 Speaker 1: what happens is in this bomb, the the sequence of 458 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:16,239 Speaker 1: events is the explosives around the plutonium fires and that 459 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:20,200 Speaker 1: creates a shock wave. The shock wave ends up compressing 460 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:25,400 Speaker 1: that plutonium to nine and that compression is what triggers 461 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:30,240 Speaker 1: the fission reaction within the plutonium. That reaction becomes a 462 00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:33,040 Speaker 1: chain reaction again, and the energy is build up and 463 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:37,320 Speaker 1: then the bomb explodes. So the whole way that this 464 00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:40,520 Speaker 1: works is that it it creates and then directs that 465 00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,000 Speaker 1: shock wave from the un initial explosion to generate that 466 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:48,120 Speaker 1: first fission reaction that becomes the chain reaction. So yeah, 467 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:50,600 Speaker 1: a little different from the bullet method. Uh, and it 468 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:52,680 Speaker 1: was it was interesting, you know, both of these methods 469 00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:55,080 Speaker 1: were being worked on at the same time during the 470 00:28:55,080 --> 00:29:00,640 Speaker 1: Manhattan Project and uh, actually the implosion triggered bomb. I understand, 471 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: it was the very first method that was tested. Who's 472 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,840 Speaker 1: the trinity bomb that was tested back in Los Alamos, 473 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:13,120 Speaker 1: which was not prime real estate back in that time 474 00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:16,000 Speaker 1: because of all the nuclear testing they did. In fact, 475 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,440 Speaker 1: back when they did that first nuclear bomb test, no 476 00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:21,479 Speaker 1: one really knew what the result was going to be, right, 477 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:24,480 Speaker 1: I mean, there's just no way of knowing. And uh, 478 00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: it turned out that several of the scientists who are 479 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:32,440 Speaker 1: observing the nuclear bomb test back in Los Alamos temporarily 480 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,280 Speaker 1: lost their vision because the the explosion was so bright 481 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,920 Speaker 1: that it damaged their eyes. But they were able to 482 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:44,440 Speaker 1: recover their vision after a while. But people didn't know 483 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:47,040 Speaker 1: how powerful this was going to be, how intense the 484 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:49,680 Speaker 1: energy was going to be, and so they were viewing 485 00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,840 Speaker 1: it with their naked eye, and that turned out to 486 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:58,000 Speaker 1: be a mistake, right, And of course, uh, an explosion 487 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: of that magnitude also spread radioactive material over a very large, 488 00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:07,920 Speaker 1: uh physical space. So uh, you know, we were talking 489 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,520 Speaker 1: about that a few minutes ago. When there is a 490 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: nuclear explosion like this, if there is um you know, 491 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:18,040 Speaker 1: it spreads nuclear material out over an area. Basically, you 492 00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,360 Speaker 1: can think of it in roughly, if you're taking weather 493 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 1: out of the picture, um, you know, you would have 494 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:29,720 Speaker 1: a huge circular ish area over which this material is spread. Now, 495 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:33,240 Speaker 1: of course, if the wind is blowing um, you know 496 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,320 Speaker 1: or you know, the temperature is right, the the material 497 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:41,000 Speaker 1: can drift along with the wind. That can uh you know, 498 00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,760 Speaker 1: get into water supplies, it can you know, cover it 499 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,920 Speaker 1: can move quite a bit. Um. And you know, the 500 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:52,280 Speaker 1: the effects, the physical effects of course, UM. You know, 501 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,479 Speaker 1: there's there can be a lot more than just uh, 502 00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:58,960 Speaker 1: vision problems. I mean there's there's there's cancer has been 503 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,600 Speaker 1: attributed to it um. There have band cancers attributed to 504 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:07,120 Speaker 1: it um and many many other physical conditions um related 505 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,360 Speaker 1: to that. So it's not just the people who are atomized, 506 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:13,400 Speaker 1: if you will, by the bomb right as they are, 507 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:15,800 Speaker 1: they happen to be in close enough proximity that it 508 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,560 Speaker 1: can have long lasting effects on on many many other 509 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,920 Speaker 1: people and can make the area radioactive for many many 510 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:27,760 Speaker 1: years to come. Yeah, These these elements that are experiencing 511 00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:33,480 Speaker 1: radioactive decay, they can be in this state for hundreds 512 00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 1: of years, depending on the materials. The Yeah. The essential 513 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,520 Speaker 1: if you are if you're at ground zero of a 514 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:44,920 Speaker 1: nuclear explosion, which is which is essentially right at the 515 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:52,000 Speaker 1: center of the explosion, yea, the location of the detonation essentially, Um. 516 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:57,640 Speaker 1: The the thing that would kill you be the heat. Yes, 517 00:31:57,840 --> 00:31:59,640 Speaker 1: the heat would be so intense that you would you 518 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:03,680 Speaker 1: would be essentially vaporized. Um. But following the heat is 519 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:07,040 Speaker 1: the pressure that's created from the shock wave of the explosion. 520 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:09,800 Speaker 1: And so let's say that you're far enough out where 521 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:11,720 Speaker 1: you're not going to be vaporized by that heat, that 522 00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:14,000 Speaker 1: pressure could be enough to knock over the building you're 523 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:18,400 Speaker 1: in totally. It could crush you. So you have that 524 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,120 Speaker 1: to look forward to. Then you've got, like like Chris 525 00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:24,760 Speaker 1: was saying, the radiation and the radioactive fallout. So you 526 00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:27,120 Speaker 1: can think of that sort of a bull's eye target, right, 527 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,120 Speaker 1: Like the very center of that target is where the 528 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,440 Speaker 1: heat is going to be the most intense. Just outside 529 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:35,160 Speaker 1: of that is the general area where the pressure from 530 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,680 Speaker 1: the shock wave is going to be intense enough to 531 00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:41,840 Speaker 1: be deadly. Just outside of that is the radiation, where 532 00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:44,400 Speaker 1: the radiation could be strong enough where you're you could 533 00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:49,640 Speaker 1: suffer severe radiation sickness, uh, just from the exposure from that. 534 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:53,720 Speaker 1: And then the radioactive fallout could affect the largest area, 535 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:57,040 Speaker 1: and like you were saying, the weather can end up 536 00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:02,600 Speaker 1: carrying particles that have this radioactivity to them and contaminate 537 00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,200 Speaker 1: other areas miles and miles away from the site of 538 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,080 Speaker 1: the bombing. It can affect living cells, uh, you know, 539 00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:13,840 Speaker 1: preventing them from behaving normally. I mean they can cause 540 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,840 Speaker 1: birth defects in in future generations. Um. So this is 541 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 1: this is very very serious stuff of course. Um. Now, 542 00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,840 Speaker 1: later after one of the things that they realized after 543 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:30,680 Speaker 1: using these weapons was these these fission bombs work very well. 544 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:35,200 Speaker 1: Obviously they're very effective. But um they began thinking that, uh, 545 00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:38,640 Speaker 1: perhaps fusion would be a more effective or create a 546 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:42,600 Speaker 1: more effective weapon. And that's the course they began following, right, 547 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:46,920 Speaker 1: And they in some cases they first started looking at fusion. 548 00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:50,400 Speaker 1: Back in there was a physicist by the name of 549 00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:54,280 Speaker 1: Edward Teller, and he came up with an idea called boosting. 550 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:57,480 Speaker 1: And this is a process where you create a fusion 551 00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:01,600 Speaker 1: reaction in order to generate neutral ons, and those neutrons 552 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:07,080 Speaker 1: then go on to create a fission reaction. So it's 553 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,440 Speaker 1: a hybrid really. Uh. Now, like we said, fusion is 554 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,279 Speaker 1: where you've got the two atoms that combine together to 555 00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:17,480 Speaker 1: form a heavier single atom, and in that process it 556 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:21,040 Speaker 1: gives off quite a bit of energy. Uh. And you 557 00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,000 Speaker 1: can use different kinds of atoms to do this, but 558 00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:29,399 Speaker 1: typically in a thermonuclear weapon. We're talking about hydrogen, and 559 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:35,320 Speaker 1: hydrogen has different isotopes, right, there's uh, deuterium and tritium. Yes, 560 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:40,560 Speaker 1: And this is all talk. Normally a hydrogen atom, uh 561 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:43,840 Speaker 1: just has the one proton, Yes, But if you add 562 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:47,239 Speaker 1: the if you start adding neutrons, then you get deuterium 563 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:51,400 Speaker 1: and tritium. And deuterium is stable. If you have a 564 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:55,359 Speaker 1: deuterium atom, it's stable. It's not gonna decay. You can 565 00:34:55,400 --> 00:35:00,959 Speaker 1: actually create water with deuterium, but it will in enough, 566 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,799 Speaker 1: in large enough amounts. Deuterium is toxic, so it's not 567 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,759 Speaker 1: something you want to have around you. Uh. Is that 568 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:10,640 Speaker 1: heavy water? Is that heavy? You know what I couldn't 569 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:13,080 Speaker 1: tell you. All I remember about heavy water is uh 570 00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:18,120 Speaker 1: from Batman? Should it? Pretty sure? That's not very scit, 571 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:20,680 Speaker 1: But then you think, you know, it would make sense 572 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,799 Speaker 1: in a in a in a sense because deuterium, you've 573 00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:25,000 Speaker 1: got the neutron at it, which means that the actual 574 00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:29,359 Speaker 1: atom itself is heavier, which means any molecule created out 575 00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:31,399 Speaker 1: of that atom that would take the place of the 576 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:36,360 Speaker 1: normal is or the the natural state of that atom 577 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:40,000 Speaker 1: would be intern heavier. Sorry, you can keep talking. This 578 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:42,840 Speaker 1: is one of those times when uh, it's something didn't 579 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:44,680 Speaker 1: click to me until we were actually talking about it. 580 00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:46,320 Speaker 1: And I'll let's see if I can find something like 581 00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,879 Speaker 1: And I'm not a nuclear physicist, so I honestly can't 582 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:50,759 Speaker 1: answer all those questions off top of my head. But 583 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:55,800 Speaker 1: tritium is not uh stable, it will it will decay 584 00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:59,600 Speaker 1: retive relatively quickly. So it's a bit of a challenge. 585 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:05,640 Speaker 1: But what what is it, Chris, Yes, it's it's water 586 00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:10,120 Speaker 1: made with deuterium. There you go. And so trying to 587 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:14,080 Speaker 1: create a fusion bomb is a little bit tricky because 588 00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:18,359 Speaker 1: tritium is one of those elements that is typically used 589 00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:21,600 Speaker 1: in these but it is not it's not easy to store, 590 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:25,480 Speaker 1: and it's got a very short half life. So so 591 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:29,640 Speaker 1: if you have this problem with storage and how do 592 00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:34,000 Speaker 1: you keep tritium stable so that you can have fusion 593 00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:37,759 Speaker 1: reaction in order to start off the fission that's going 594 00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:42,560 Speaker 1: to ultimately lead to this destructive force. Scientists came up 595 00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:48,280 Speaker 1: with a fairly creative solution. First, they created a lithium deuterate, 596 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:52,160 Speaker 1: which is a solid compound and it does not have 597 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 1: the problem of undergoing radioactive decay at room temperatures at 598 00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:59,640 Speaker 1: normal temperatures or even you know, normal operating temperatures of 599 00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 1: a nucle your bomb until you detonate it. And then 600 00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:09,160 Speaker 1: with the tritium problem, they began to rely upon a 601 00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:14,200 Speaker 1: reaction of fission reaction which will produce tritium from lithium. 602 00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,440 Speaker 1: So first they have to induce a fission reaction with 603 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:22,239 Speaker 1: the lithium, and then the lithium in turn will produce tritium. 604 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:26,479 Speaker 1: And then you've got the uh chance, you've got the 605 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,840 Speaker 1: the the right elements in place to have the fusion reaction, 606 00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:34,160 Speaker 1: so you have fission to fusion to fission again to boom. Yes, 607 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:38,560 Speaker 1: it's a little complicated, right, and uh that fission reaction 608 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:40,719 Speaker 1: with lithium, it also gives off a lot of X rays, 609 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:44,600 Speaker 1: and the X rays are actually what allow uh well, 610 00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:47,280 Speaker 1: the X rays end up increasing the temperature within the bomb, 611 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:51,480 Speaker 1: all right, And those that increased temperature and the pressures 612 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:54,800 Speaker 1: that are associated with it are the that's the energy 613 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:57,160 Speaker 1: that goes into the system that allows fusion to happen. 614 00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:59,040 Speaker 1: Because this is one of the tricky things about fusion. 615 00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,320 Speaker 1: You gotta or energy into the system in order diffused 616 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:06,560 Speaker 1: two atoms together, right, right, and the components of the 617 00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:11,239 Speaker 1: bomb are separated by casings that prevent accidental or or 618 00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:17,280 Speaker 1: or maybe premature detonation, so that that initial explosion UH 619 00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:22,680 Speaker 1: and causing the X rays basically UH causes the deterioration 620 00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:28,319 Speaker 1: of those materials and allows the bomb to continue detonating. Yeah, 621 00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:32,600 Speaker 1: so let's it's it's it's a little complicated to talk 622 00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:36,520 Speaker 1: about this without an illustration. Yes, but the way this 623 00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:40,160 Speaker 1: fusion bomb would work is that you've got an implosion 624 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:44,399 Speaker 1: fission bomb with the cylinder casing of uranium two thirty eight, 625 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:46,480 Speaker 1: which is acting as a tamper. A tamper is the 626 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:50,680 Speaker 1: thing that is controlling this reaction so that you get 627 00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:56,440 Speaker 1: as much energy involved before it actually unleashes the energy. Um. 628 00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:00,799 Speaker 1: The within inside that that tamper of uranium two thirty 629 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:04,520 Speaker 1: eight is the lithium deuteride, and there's also a hollow 630 00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:07,240 Speaker 1: rod of plutonium two thirty nine in the very center 631 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:12,400 Speaker 1: of all that. And then separating this this cylinder of 632 00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:16,440 Speaker 1: a tamper of the uranium two eight from the implosion 633 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:22,759 Speaker 1: bomb is the shield of uranium and some plastic foam. 634 00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:26,160 Speaker 1: And this is what once you start detonating at the 635 00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:29,920 Speaker 1: sequence of events, is that the fission bomb, So that 636 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:34,840 Speaker 1: first explosion goes off, and this generates the really intense 637 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,399 Speaker 1: X rays which increased the temperature and the pressure within 638 00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:42,640 Speaker 1: the bomb. Uh the shield, that uranium two shield with 639 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:46,400 Speaker 1: the foam, it actually is what keeps that contains that 640 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:50,759 Speaker 1: that explosion so that it does not prematurely detonate the 641 00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:54,160 Speaker 1: rest of the fuel. But the heat causes the tamper 642 00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:56,960 Speaker 1: that cylinder of the uranium two thirty eight to start 643 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,960 Speaker 1: to expand and it begins to burn away. It starts 644 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:04,719 Speaker 1: put more pressure on the lithium deuterate, which is squeezed 645 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:08,920 Speaker 1: so hard that it causes shock waves that initiate fission 646 00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:11,600 Speaker 1: within the plutonium rod. So here's you've got your second 647 00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:15,239 Speaker 1: fission reaction. So you've got the first fission reaction which 648 00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:20,360 Speaker 1: causes the shock wave. Ultimately that begins a second fission 649 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:24,759 Speaker 1: reaction within the plutonium rod. Now that reaction starts to 650 00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:29,600 Speaker 1: give off radiation, so it begins to to expel neutrons, 651 00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:31,319 Speaker 1: and also it gives off a lot of heat, so 652 00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:33,360 Speaker 1: now you've got even more heat in addition to the 653 00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:37,040 Speaker 1: heat that was generated by the X rays. The neutrons 654 00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:40,600 Speaker 1: go into the lithium deuterate, which then combine with the 655 00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:44,120 Speaker 1: lithium and that makes tritium. So now you've got this 656 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:49,880 Speaker 1: environment of incredibly high temperature, this incredible pressure, and it 657 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:55,400 Speaker 1: allows the tritium and deuterium and also deuterium deuterium fusion 658 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:59,799 Speaker 1: reactions to occur. So you've got tritium combining with deuterium 659 00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:03,920 Speaker 1: and deuterium combining with itself in these reactions, which produces 660 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:08,000 Speaker 1: even more heat, more radiation, more neutrons. Those neutrons from 661 00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:12,279 Speaker 1: those fusion reactions induce a final fission reaction in the 662 00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:17,239 Speaker 1: uranium two eight pieces that are making up that tamper, 663 00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:21,759 Speaker 1: and the the shield that's around the whole thing, which 664 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:24,880 Speaker 1: of course creates even more radiation and heat, and then 665 00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:28,640 Speaker 1: the bomb goes boom. So you've got these this series 666 00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:31,839 Speaker 1: of explosions going on in a fusion bomb, several which 667 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:35,279 Speaker 1: are fission, one of which is fusion. The reason for that, 668 00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:38,760 Speaker 1: you may wonder, well, why do you need so many 669 00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:42,480 Speaker 1: reactions to go on for a bomb to explode? Well, 670 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:46,400 Speaker 1: when we were talking about Little Boy, Uh, the interesting 671 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:47,960 Speaker 1: thing to me about Little Boy is that it was 672 00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:51,759 Speaker 1: incredibly destructive weapon, but only one point five percent of 673 00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:55,440 Speaker 1: the material the fission norble material within that bomb actually 674 00:41:55,560 --> 00:42:00,200 Speaker 1: underwent fission one five percent, so it could have been 675 00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:03,319 Speaker 1: even more destruction. Yes, the energy it unleashed could have 676 00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:08,960 Speaker 1: been orders of magnitude larger than it was, so a 677 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:13,840 Speaker 1: fusion one. A fusion bomb is designed in part to 678 00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:19,239 Speaker 1: try and create as efficient a series of explosions and reactions, 679 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,280 Speaker 1: really we shouldn't even say explosions reactions within the bomb, 680 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:25,759 Speaker 1: um as as many as possible or as much of 681 00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:28,880 Speaker 1: that material as possible, so that what it does detonate, 682 00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:32,000 Speaker 1: it unleashes the largest amount of energy it possibly can 683 00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:35,440 Speaker 1: for the the amount of payload that it has. Now, 684 00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:37,400 Speaker 1: this also means that we have been able to reduce 685 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:41,760 Speaker 1: the size of the actual payloads because we can create 686 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:45,120 Speaker 1: just as an effective and explosion but with a smaller 687 00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:49,120 Speaker 1: amount of material as we could from several decades ago. Yeah, 688 00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:52,279 Speaker 1: the weapons these days are far more reliable than than 689 00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:55,839 Speaker 1: those early ones. UM. And we've gone from dropping them 690 00:42:55,840 --> 00:43:01,360 Speaker 1: from planes to mounting them on cruise missiles and I 691 00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:07,080 Speaker 1: see b MS intercontinental ballistic missiles UM. And of course, uh, 692 00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:10,919 Speaker 1: you know these these weapons now travel under their own 693 00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:15,279 Speaker 1: power at a certain point anyway, and um, you know 694 00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:17,560 Speaker 1: the the I C B ms can they actually leave 695 00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:20,480 Speaker 1: the atmosphere and re enter the atmosphere so they can 696 00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:24,439 Speaker 1: travel very very long distances that way. Um, and we 697 00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:27,359 Speaker 1: we wouldn't really be able to to accomplish that if 698 00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:31,600 Speaker 1: we hadn't moved to a fusion method where we could 699 00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:34,440 Speaker 1: be so efficient with the way that we eliminate the 700 00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,480 Speaker 1: existence of other people on the planet. I hate to 701 00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:39,319 Speaker 1: put it that way, but you know, ultimately, even though 702 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:42,200 Speaker 1: we're talking about something that's really scientific, the application of 703 00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:45,120 Speaker 1: this is absolutely horrifying. But it's not even to get 704 00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:48,239 Speaker 1: away from that, but the uh yeah, because if if 705 00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:50,040 Speaker 1: we hadn't done that, if we hadn't come up with 706 00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:54,120 Speaker 1: the fusion process, then it would be much less efficient, 707 00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:57,160 Speaker 1: and we might not have the option of putting something 708 00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:00,479 Speaker 1: on a missile because it would the pay it could 709 00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:04,280 Speaker 1: be too great for for a missile to be uh practical, 710 00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:06,239 Speaker 1: because at that point you would have to build a 711 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:08,920 Speaker 1: missile that would be able to carry enough fuel so 712 00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:11,719 Speaker 1: that it could propel both the missile itself and the 713 00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:13,680 Speaker 1: payload to wherever it is you're going to send it. 714 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:17,640 Speaker 1: And it could just become a matter of scale and 715 00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:20,960 Speaker 1: and it just would not be It would be possible 716 00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:25,880 Speaker 1: but not practical. By making it way more efficient, we 717 00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:27,880 Speaker 1: can now put it on top of lots of stuff, 718 00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:33,680 Speaker 1: including you know, not just missiles, but weapons aboard submarines. 719 00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:37,560 Speaker 1: I mean that's all sorts of stuff, right, so terrifying 720 00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:41,839 Speaker 1: in a way, but yeah, we we have we have 721 00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:43,680 Speaker 1: Einstein a thing for it. So next time you see 722 00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:47,960 Speaker 1: that guy, well, UM, one of the things that I 723 00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:49,520 Speaker 1: wanted to mention too. And we don't have to get 724 00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:52,440 Speaker 1: into it in great depth because we're getting there as 725 00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,440 Speaker 1: far as time goes. But um is the testing of 726 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:59,360 Speaker 1: these these weapons traditionally UM. Of course, as Jonathan mentioned earlier, 727 00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:02,560 Speaker 1: in the very very early days before they had been 728 00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:07,200 Speaker 1: actually used, UH, scientists wanted to test them to to 729 00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:10,240 Speaker 1: find out if it was even possible to make uh 730 00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,560 Speaker 1: the weapon of mass destruction that they envisioned, to to 731 00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:17,160 Speaker 1: to see exactly what would do, how well it would work. UM. 732 00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:21,760 Speaker 1: So they did all this testing outside, um and above ground. 733 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:24,000 Speaker 1: Now they've a lot of in a lot of cases 734 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:26,919 Speaker 1: they've done well, they've done tests pretty much in all 735 00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,799 Speaker 1: sorts of forms. I mean they still do them outside, 736 00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:32,240 Speaker 1: but uh, in a lot of cases now they uh 737 00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:36,759 Speaker 1: weapons engineers do this underground um in an attempt to 738 00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:41,240 Speaker 1: contain the reaction. Of course, although it UH, a nuclear 739 00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:46,359 Speaker 1: reaction can produce such force that it can vaporize large 740 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:48,560 Speaker 1: amounts of rock, so they have to be very careful 741 00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:52,279 Speaker 1: where they do this. UM. You know, for a long time, 742 00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,840 Speaker 1: many governments around the world would use UH islands to 743 00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,439 Speaker 1: to test their their weapons, places that they felt were 744 00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:05,960 Speaker 1: uh somewhat unoccupied. UM. And for for example, UH actually 745 00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:10,439 Speaker 1: that inspired uh the Godzilla series of movies, UM, where 746 00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:14,759 Speaker 1: they a lizard was irradiated on an island. Where it's 747 00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:20,120 Speaker 1: a series of documentary documentaries where uh, the the the 748 00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:23,120 Speaker 1: the one, the one lizard who was irradiated by this 749 00:46:23,239 --> 00:46:25,719 Speaker 1: this nuclear explosion turns into Godzilla and not you know, 750 00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:27,879 Speaker 1: all of the other animals that happened to be living there. 751 00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:31,200 Speaker 1: Um he got just the right amount of deust apparently. 752 00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:35,279 Speaker 1: So UM. They've tested weapons underwater, um, you know, and 753 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:41,319 Speaker 1: in space, but people are are gradually moving to computer testing, UM, 754 00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:46,240 Speaker 1: which allows scientists to get a much better idea of 755 00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:51,120 Speaker 1: how things might work without having to actually blow something up, 756 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:56,319 Speaker 1: actually blow something up uh and create the environmental conditions UM, 757 00:46:56,800 --> 00:47:00,560 Speaker 1: the the fallout and and reactions that would follow UM. 758 00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:05,319 Speaker 1: And they've found that this can be actually beneficial. I 759 00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:07,279 Speaker 1: was reading an article I believe it was in the 760 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:10,880 Speaker 1: Washington Post that was saying that uh uh computer modeling 761 00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:16,040 Speaker 1: had allowed engineers to discover problems that they hadn't realized 762 00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:20,080 Speaker 1: existed with the weapons system that they built UM and 763 00:47:20,239 --> 00:47:23,560 Speaker 1: uh prevented it from becoming you know, they re engineered 764 00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:25,719 Speaker 1: the weapons that were in existence because there was a 765 00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:29,239 Speaker 1: possibility that it may not then it may cause problems 766 00:47:29,239 --> 00:47:33,120 Speaker 1: and wouldn't be a stable UM and uh, you know, 767 00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:37,160 Speaker 1: it's it's interesting. But of course they've found out through 768 00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:41,280 Speaker 1: testing that that fallout can travel UM through air currents 769 00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:43,960 Speaker 1: and water. And uh, I think that's one of the 770 00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:49,400 Speaker 1: things that leads to UM fear that keeps people from 771 00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:53,720 Speaker 1: using nuclear weapons more freely, because people really understand now 772 00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:57,680 Speaker 1: more than they did UM years ago, that you know, 773 00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:01,560 Speaker 1: this is not something that should be done casually. You know. 774 00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:05,120 Speaker 1: There's also the fear of the hypothetical nuclear winter, yes, 775 00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:10,160 Speaker 1: which you know, the particulate matter from multiple explosions basically 776 00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:13,200 Speaker 1: causing clouds above the earth right which would block the 777 00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:16,239 Speaker 1: sun's light from reaching the ground, thus killing off a 778 00:48:16,239 --> 00:48:19,160 Speaker 1: lot of the plant life that depends upon sunlight and 779 00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:22,719 Speaker 1: then that it ends up that ends up killing off 780 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:26,319 Speaker 1: the species that all depend on plants, humans being one 781 00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:30,160 Speaker 1: of them. So it could end up being a global 782 00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:32,759 Speaker 1: extinction event. It could also be something where it just 783 00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:36,400 Speaker 1: changes the climate globally where you know, we actually do 784 00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:40,080 Speaker 1: have a really harsh winter because the sun's light just 785 00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:42,440 Speaker 1: isn't hitting the surface and warming it the way it 786 00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:46,880 Speaker 1: usually would. Uh. And we see, we see things that 787 00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:51,359 Speaker 1: could point us into like suggest that that's true by 788 00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:54,279 Speaker 1: by things like like a volcanic eruptions where a lot 789 00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:58,160 Speaker 1: of matters is ejected into the atmosphere and it can 790 00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:03,279 Speaker 1: affect uh, local weather patterns. Now, when we're talking about 791 00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:05,680 Speaker 1: a nuclear winner, we're talking about something that would last 792 00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:09,400 Speaker 1: longer than a you know, just a month or two. 793 00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:12,600 Speaker 1: So it's pretty it's a it's a it's a one 794 00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:15,680 Speaker 1: of those doomsday scenarios. It's a sobering thought, to be sure. 795 00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:20,600 Speaker 1: Um And uh, you know, it's one of the reasons 796 00:49:20,680 --> 00:49:23,520 Speaker 1: I'm interested in this is, you know, to see the 797 00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:26,400 Speaker 1: flip side, you know, the idea that that nuclear energy 798 00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:29,320 Speaker 1: can be used as a very efficient and clean source 799 00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:32,480 Speaker 1: of power. Of course, we saw we we talked about 800 00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:38,800 Speaker 1: the Fukushima UM reactor last year, right after it happened. UM, 801 00:49:38,840 --> 00:49:42,520 Speaker 1: but that's not the same as an intentionally intentionally using 802 00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:46,239 Speaker 1: nuclear power to cause the destruction of many people. So UM, 803 00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:51,480 Speaker 1: it's it's amazing to me personally that a little tiny 804 00:49:51,480 --> 00:49:56,240 Speaker 1: atom can be used to do these amazing things, whether 805 00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:59,000 Speaker 1: they're you know, and I mean amazing and the clinical 806 00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:05,760 Speaker 1: good thing, instructive or destructive. It's it's amazing. It is amazing, 807 00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:07,799 Speaker 1: And well, probably I think what we'll need to do 808 00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:09,880 Speaker 1: is in a future podcast, we'll have to do a 809 00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:13,879 Speaker 1: full episode just on the Manhattan Project, because the if 810 00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:16,200 Speaker 1: you look at a list of names of the people 811 00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:19,360 Speaker 1: associated with it, if you've ever taken any any classes 812 00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:22,120 Speaker 1: in physics, you're going to recognize a lot of those names. 813 00:50:22,600 --> 00:50:27,520 Speaker 1: I mean, the era that the Manhattan Project existed in 814 00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:31,080 Speaker 1: was remarkable in the sense of it was it was 815 00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:37,520 Speaker 1: an unprecedented era of scientific exploration and innovation. UM. One 816 00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:41,200 Speaker 1: of those where you just it was phenomenal the amount 817 00:50:41,239 --> 00:50:45,160 Speaker 1: of of uh work and scientific discovery that went on 818 00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:48,640 Speaker 1: at that time, and in no small part that was 819 00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:53,359 Speaker 1: due to things like World War World. World War two 820 00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:58,080 Speaker 1: was definitely one of the reasons why that those those 821 00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:01,200 Speaker 1: advances were made at the pace they were. It's not 822 00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:03,279 Speaker 1: the only reason. It was one of those things where 823 00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:05,839 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff doing together all at once and 824 00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:10,200 Speaker 1: kind of created this environment. Anyway. Hence for another podcast, 825 00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:13,760 Speaker 1: because this one's gone on long enough. If you guys 826 00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:16,839 Speaker 1: have any suggestions for topics that Chris and I should 827 00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:19,879 Speaker 1: talk about in the future, I welcome you to email us. 828 00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:23,200 Speaker 1: Our address is tech stuff at Discovery dot com, or 829 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:26,479 Speaker 1: let us know on Facebook and Twitter. You can find 830 00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:30,080 Speaker 1: us there with the handle text stuff hs W and 831 00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:32,640 Speaker 1: Chris and I will talk to you again really soon. 832 00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:37,320 Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff 833 00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,000 Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how stupp Work staff as we 834 00:51:40,040 --> 00:51:44,880 Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow the 835 00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:47,399 Speaker 1: house Stuff Works. I Find app has arrived down at 836 00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:54,719 Speaker 1: it today on iTunes, brought to you by the reinvented 837 00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,520 Speaker 1: two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you