Nuclear Weapons Development

[Sultan]

Link

So both countries cited in the article possess an equal amount of nuclear weapons.

Why is one pursuing plutonium based weaponry while the other uses HEU? Is there an advantage of one over the other?

It is a sorry state of affairs where most of the countries listed in the article have poor economic state with a sizeable number of populace living at or below the poverty line while the governments continue to invest in WMD ignoring the populace who yearn for bread and water.

 

[0marTheZealot]

IIRC, plutonium gets you better yield per KG used.

 

[Sultan]

Originally posted by: 0marTheZealot
IIRC, plutonium gets you better yield per KG used.

any sources for more reference?

 

[0marTheZealot]

nah this is just from sh!t i used to read back when i liked nuclear bombs. but nukes are so 20th century

 

[IEC]

Plutonium is rarer but can be obtained from processing of spent nuclear waste IIRC. Meaning they use low grade uranium for nuclear power plants and reprocess it to get the HEU and Plutonium...

 

[AnImuS]

Well its a good thing we have 3000+ nuclear warheads

I always said we should focus more on india as a roadblock against China's massive military pool.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Sultan

Originally posted by: 0marTheZealot
IIRC, plutonium gets you better yield per KG used.

any sources for more reference?

Dude, why do you need to know this?

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: AnImuS
Well its a good thing we have 3000+ nuclear warheads

I always said we should focus more on india as a roadblock against China's massive military pool.

We acknowledge over 12,500 nukes still. D:

 

[jackschmittusa]

While producing weapons grade uranium requires some level of sophistication much specialized equipment, the engineering hurdles are fairly mundane. Design of a uranium weapon is also much simpler than a plutonium weapon, requiring much less specialized knowledge. It is by far, the cheaper and faster route.

Plutonium weapons offer better yield and therefore better payload for a given delivery system. It is fairly easy to produce, but difficult to refine to a usable state. Refinement facilities are large, costly, and potentially dangerous. Plutonium is much more deadly to humans than uranium. Shielding and confinement at such facilities is a major factor, as well as meticulous control during the process to prevent accidents.

If you have the time and money, you build plutonium weapons. Fast and cheap(er) requirements mean uranium weapons.