![]() Neutron reflectors and “boosters” are generally used to accomplish this, nonetheless, this basic type of weapon is inefficient, although easy to design and incredibly deadly. The trick is designing nuclear devices like this is to keep them together long enough so that enough energy is released. The assembly stays together for a few microseconds before the energy released from the fission blows it to pieces. This is typically referred to as a “gun assembly”, in which one piece of fissile uranium is fired at a fissile uranium target at the end of the weapon, similar to firing a bullet down a gun barrel.Įach of the uranium fragments are less than a critical mass, but when they collide, they form a mass capable of sustaining the nuclear chain reaction. In the original design, this was accomplished by taking two non-critical pieces and forcing them together (very rapidly). A mass of fissile material that exceeds the critical mass is unstable, so you must begin with a smaller, non-critical mass and somehow create one within a few microseconds. Designing a workable fission bomb presents many technical challenges. The process of nuclear fission is best known within the context of fission bombs and as the process that operates within nuclear power plants. ![]() The mass of uranium (or other fissile element) that is required in order to sustain a chain reaction is called the critical mass. This represents a chain reaction, and in order to sustain a chain reaction like this, the mass or uranium must be large enough so that the probability of every released neutron being captured by another uranium is high. If these are captured by another nucleus, the process happens again and three more neutrons are released. The three neutrons that are released are now speeding through the mass of uranium.
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