Posted: 10/25/2011 10:33:46 AM EDT
| I mean, if they are just put in storage, do they last a long time, or do they go bad after a while? |
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Depends on the type. I.e gun type, implosion, teller ulam, boosted, etc.
Components corrode quickly from the hot metals an need to be replaced regularly. Part of a nuclear arsenal is the infasteucturw to maintain them. Ergo. One of the reasons terrorists can't do a lot with one. |
This one's been in service since 1962, almost 50 yearsUS's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantledhttp://www.wtop.com/?nid=209&sid=2606029 |
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The fuses have to be replaced regularly. In terms of nuclear material Tritium in particular due to its short half life. Plutonium is stable for thousands of years though. But as long as you do the maintenace/remanufacturing then quite a while. I wonder if Pakistan does the maintenance on theirs. |
| We better hope a damn long time because we haven't made an entirely new one in probably 20-30 years. There is some question as to whether we even CAN build an entirely new nuclear weapons system at this point with the erosion of capability that has occurred since we last did it. Scary fucking shit. |
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This one's been in service since 1962, almost 50 years US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantledhttp://www.wtop.com/?nid=209&sid=2606029 Would trade you some American Nukes, never used and only dismantled once 
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The fuses have to be replaced regularly. In terms of nuclear material Tritium in particular due to its short half life. Plutonium is stable for thousands of years though. But as long as you do the maintenace/remanufacturing then quite a while. I wonder if Pakistan does the maintenance on theirs. They could probably do it on ours
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The fuses have to be replaced regularly. In terms of nuclear material Tritium in particular due to its short half life. Plutonium is stable for thousands of years though. But as long as you do the maintenace/remanufacturing then quite a while. I wonder if Pakistan does the maintenance on theirs. They could probably do it on ours The next great round of outsourcing! Just think of the money we could save if we embraced this part of the greater "global economy"........There are probably "free trading" idiots here that would do it..... |
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This one's been in service since 1962, almost 50 years US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantledhttp://www.wtop.com/?nid=209&sid=2606029 Now if that killer asteroid does come we are really farked, thanks Obummer. Russia might still have some big ones. I seem to remember that they use tritium in them and that has a half life of 12 years. In Europe you can get neat tritium key fobs that glow but not here, too much tritium in them. |
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This one's been in service since 1962, almost 50 years US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantledhttp://www.wtop.com/?nid=209&sid=2606029 Good timing on finding this article/thread |
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Quoted: Not every nuke is tritium boosted. You can make them a nuke fairly complex or relatively simple. Quoted: The fuses have to be replaced regularly. In terms of nuclear material Tritium in particular due to its short half life. Plutonium is stable for thousands of years though. But as long as you do the maintenace/remanufacturing then quite a while. I wonder if Pakistan does the maintenance on theirs. |
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This one's been in service since 1962, almost 50 years US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantledhttp://www.wtop.com/?nid=209&sid=2606029 Yeah, I used to watch them load those on alert B52's back in the 70's and 80's - big stinkin bombs. |
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Everytime we have a thread on Nuclear Weapons I am amazed by the responses of the internet experts. You need about a high school science education and 5 minutes on wikipedia to understand that you need to replace tritium thats used in nukes. There is a bit of difference between a high school guess and having CNWDI. Those that know usually don't get too involved in these threads because it's so easy to cross the line between that which is posted on Wikipedia and real live fact.. Wiki has many facts completely wrong and I sure don't want to correct them. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Everytime we have a thread on Nuclear Weapons I am amazed by the responses of the internet experts. What amazes me is how many real experts we have here. Exactly. I don't understand all the self negativity about arfcom. We have some really amazing people here in every field and walk of life. That's why I come here. I get to here from experts in many different fields. The idiots contribute too. They get people who actually know what they are talking about to prove them wrong. The idiot might not learn anything, but the rest of us do. Even knowledgeable people get corrected and learn or have to battle with someone in the same field until the better logic wins. Arfcom is awesome. DU is a race to the bottom of stupidity. We build a pyramid of achievement and advance our own individual knowledge. Here the stupid can't fuck everything up. In fact, they are the reason why the knowledgeable produce the knowledge for all to see. The entertainment value alone brings us back for more. Arfcom is the university where the stupid teach by luring the knowledgeable to kill the ignorance. God Bless Arfcom. |