• Question: how is a nuclear bomb made?

    Asked by ebola boy to Arthur, Clare, Daniel, David, Tora on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Tora Smulders-Srinivasan

      Tora Smulders-Srinivasan answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      This isn’t my area, but it has to do with the smaller bits that atoms/molecules are made of and splitting them up to release the energy within them. & then putting them on a bomb!

      It’s nice that these days people don’t worry too much about getting bombed by nuclear bombs — when I was in school in the USA, there was still the cold war going on between the USA and the Soviet Union — and there was real worry about war breaking out & nuclear destruction!

      What makes you ask this question?

    • Photo: Clare Harding

      Clare Harding answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      If you would like to make one, its not too hard, all you will need is about Urainium235, about 40kg of something explosive like TNT and a detonator (you will probably want a radio controlled one for this).

      I would also highly recommend standing very, very far away and having a very good explanation for when the government comes over asking questions about why your trying to buy uranium!

    • Photo: Daniel Parsons

      Daniel Parsons answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Nuclear bombs are made by combining a small detonation charge with a mas of fissile material – this is material that will undergo a nuclear reaction – normally it is Uranium or Plutonium.

      Older bombs used fission reactions (like those in nuclear power stations) but newer, more powerful thermonuclear bomb combine fission with an element of fusion…these can give off massive amounts of energy. For example a thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than a ton can produce an explosion with a force comparable 1 million tons of TNT!

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