Questions on Nuclear Weapons

1. What uses are made of nuclear technology in the military?
2. In what way(s) nuclear technology is preferred to the conventional ones?
3. What is the uranium fission reaction? Name its by products, for a typical reaction.
4. Could it have other (from question #3) by products?
5. How, roughly,  is the energy of reaction distributed in a typical fission reaction?
6. What isotopes of uranium naturally occur in the ore? Which isotope is most prominent, and which is the least?
7. Explain the processing used to change the uranium ore to reactor grade fuel?
8. How does a calutron mass spectrometer work?
9. What are the stages necessary for making a fission bomb? How are these different from those needed for a nuclear power generating reactor?
10. Why is an "atom-bomb" a misnomer?
11. What are the differences between an atom-bomb and an H-bomb?
12. Why is the hydrogen bomb called a "thermonuclear" bomb?
13. Explain what is meant as the "critical mass" and why is it necessary for bomb making. How is this achieved?
14. What are the two primary designs of a fission bomb? Make a schematic drawing for each design. What, if any, is the limit to how devastating a fission bomb could be?
15. What is a neutron bomb? In what way is it different from a typical fission bomb?
16. What is an H-bomb? Make a schematic drawing of a so called Teller-Ulam design, label all its primary components, and explain their role in the explosion.
17. Describe the different stages of destruction caused by a fission bomb. By an H-bomb.
18. What are the human and property casualty effects of nuclear weapons? In what ways, if any, are they different from those generated by conventional non-nuclear weapons?
19. What are the different stages of destruction of a nuclear bomb and what do they do?
20. What is the "fallout" and how does it differ for neutron bombs, fission bombs, and thermonuclear weapons?

Last Modified Monday, October 22, 2007 malekis@union.edu