Posted: 4/30/2017 4:36:24 AM EDT
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With our current technology, is there a known, or hypothetical, limit on the yield that a nuclear weapon can have? How big can we make them? Is there an actual limit that we can't get past?
Also, what is the future of nuclear weapons? Smaller yield devices? Or bigger splosions? Cleaner devices with less radiation and fallout? Or glow in the dark glass as far as the eye can see? |
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With the current design there is no limit as far as yield goes, practicality is the only limitation.
Nukes these days are only 'useful' as a deterrent against other nuclear equipped nations - realistically in a wartime situation it's going to be conventional warheads that do the work where they can take out key targets like power stations, refineries, satellite uplinks, etc without contaminating the area or pissing off your allies by dry roasting a bunch of civs. |
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There's not really a limit to how many stages you could design, see Tsar Bomba. However, there's no point to use such weapons.
The future is in modular warheads designed for ease of maintenance and upgrades. The new French TNO is an example of this, and the US RRW would have been if it hadn't been cancelled. |
When you merely wish to bury bombs, there is no limit to the size. After that they are connected to a gigantic complex of computers. Now then, a specific and clearly defined set of circumstances, under which the bombs are to be exploded, is programmed into a tape memory bank.
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