Nuclear Weapons 101

NUCLEAR VEAPONS Anything from Hlroshima to James Bond may come to mind when you think of nuclear weapons. At any rate, extreme danger always enters the picture. There is nothing soothing about these deadly pieces of machinery but this information will hopefully pull back a little of the cloak from their mystique. 1. The MANHATTAN PROJECT was responsible for the development of the FIRST atomic bomb. The project was directed by J.ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, a Both CANADA and the UNITED KINGDOM physics professor from Berkeley. assisted America. 2. Adjusted for inflation, the cost of the first atomic bomb: = $20,000,000,000 No.1 3. There are two basic types of nuclear weapons: Nuclear Fission Bombs (Atomic Bombs) The nucleus of an atom is split in two by a neutron. Nuclear Fusion Bombs (Hydrogen Bombs) Two small atoms, often hydrogen isotopes, are brought together to form a a larger atom. 4. IVY MIKE, an early hydrogen test bomb, wiped the island of ELUGELAB off the face of the Earth in 1952. Marshall Islands This was 750 TIMES Elugelab the power of the HIROSHIMA bomb. 5. Total number of nuclear tests: NEVADA 911 PACIFIC OCEAN 116 6. Hiroshima: Nagasaki: Equivalent to 13 KILOTONS of TNT Equivalent to 21 KİLOTONS of TNT 4.4 MILES of FIRE 69% of the city's BUILDINGS were demolished "Little Boy" "Fat Man" 1 mile blast radius 1.2 mile blast radius 140,000 casualties 90,000 casualties 7. America's largest test bomb was “Bravo," a 15 MEGATON bomb. The LARGEST bomb EVER was the Soviet Union's "Tsar Bomba," a 50 MEGATON bomb. A MEGATON is equivalent to the power of 1,000,000 tons of TNT. "Bravo" 15 MEGATONS 8. AMERICA HAS BUILT 67,500 NUCLEAR MISSILES SINCE 1951. THAT'S 1,144 A YEAR. 9. The world's nuclear weapon reserves: US: 2,126 strategic warheads 500 operational tactical warheads 6,700 reserve warheads RUSSIA: O FRANCE : 350 warheads O CHINA : 200 warheads O ISRAEL : 200 warheads * UK : 160 warheads INDIA : 100 warheads PAKISTAN: 90 warheads * NORTH KOREA: 0, but has enough plutonium for 12 warheads 2,787 strategic warheads 2,000 operational tactical warheads 8,000 réserve warheads 10. US nuclear weapons facilities occupy 15,654 SQUARE MILES of land. 15,357 square miles Nuclear Facilities 15,654 square miles District of Columbia Massachusetts New Jersey 11. Number of US nuclear bombs lost and not recovered: 11 SOURCE http://www.brookings.edu/projects/archive/nucweapons/50.aspx http://www.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-bomb.htm http://www.brookings.edu/projects/archive/nucweapons/weapons.aspx http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX63.html http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat http://www.listfied.com/10-facts-about-the-atomic-bombings-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki http://www.answers.com/topic/uranium-enrichment http://www.fisilematerials.org/ipfm/pages_us_en/fissile/fissile/fissile.php