Do Nukes Expire? The benefits and drawbacks of tritium boosting with Professor Davis
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- čas přidán 10. 07. 2024
- Professor Davis discusses the radiological properties of tritium and how it can accelerate or quench a nuclear reaction.
NuDat 3.0 Website
www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat3/
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Even unboosted fission devices have a shelf life to care about. While you correctly point out that the amount of fuel remaining isn't a problem, what can be a problem is predetonation - especially with plutonium-based bombs. What's in those 0.98% after 100 years matters - if you have some strong neutron emitters in there then the "assembly" process isn't quiet enough in terms of neutron flux and the device can start undergoing the chain reaction before reaching peak criticality. The result is: lower yield yet dirtier fallout. (In fact this phenomenon is exactly why plutonium can't be used in a gun-type device - the assembly process just takes too long and predetonation is inevitable given plutonium's inherent radioactivity, no matter how pure).
Thanks for that incredibly informative comment! Learning from my channel is as much fun as helping to share the knowledge sometimes!!!!
This is also why U233 bombs have never been overly sucessful. The difficulty of removing U232 and its daughter products means that yields are vastly reduced (the gamma emissions of U232 mean extra careful handling precautions too - you don't want to kill your ground crew)
The plutonium in a fission bomb isn’t 100% plutonium. First weapons grade plutonium is classified as 93% or more Pu239 the rest is Pu240. However, the issue you are neglecting is that pure plutonium is not ductile. Plutonium in nuclear weapons is an alloy together with 3% gallium. This is necessary to obtain a crystal structure suitable for creating the precisely shaped core for implosion. Look into the thermodynamic stability of the allotrope of Pu-Ga used in nuclear weapons and you might find the real aging concern.
Sorry to the three viewers who got a look at the previously uploaded version with a 'whoops' in it (orders of magnitude matter!).
Check out the NuDat website for tons of information on nuclear decay modes of every known elemental isotope
www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat3/
or learn more about beta radiation from me at the links below.
czcams.com/video/P0j0YitWOPU/video.html
czcams.com/video/c9WfZJYUWv0/video.html
I am happy I subscribed, this stuff is intresting. Eventough I'm an organic chemist
Funny you should say that. The channel is my side-hustle, but I teach Organic Labs at Georgetown University. I have plenty of organic content on my channel and also an entire 30-lecture course on wondrium.com!
U explained very well thanks for that 😇
Liked the video. I think you pretty much nailed it.
Glad you think so! It is always good to hear positive feedback. Each video takes a big investment of my time to make, and 'naling it' is pretty much my goal!
First MOFO on the list. :D Thanks for the chem survival tips
Here's my Contribution: OIL RIG (Oxidation Is Loss, Reduction Is Gain...of Electrons)
Congrats on comment #1, LOL. OIL RIG works true enough for loss of electrons from the atom's cloud, but beta radiation is an electron emission from the nucleus, so I'm not sure it really qualifies as an oxidation. It's an interesting question that I might have to explore in a future video (thanks for the inspiration!) See my video here for more on beta radiation... czcams.com/video/P0j0YitWOPU/video.html
if we're talking memory aids ANOX REDCAT,
Oxidation happens at the Anode, Reduction at the Cathode