The Duke Nuked'em

Note: this post is for informational purposes only, and I cannot be held resposible for any attempt on making a nuclear reaction (/bomb) in your bath tub, if you don't have a bath tub then in your shower, and if you don't have a shower either then I don't know you.

A nuclear reaction is a process where two nuclear particles collide, to simplify things I will only be going over the two most known reactions: fusion and fission.

A fusion reaction is, as the words says, the process of combining two lighter elements to create a larger one. That is what takes place in the sun as well as in hydrogen bombs, and so, that is how one can create a huge amount of energy. In short, two elements are thrown at eachother at very high speeds and depending on their weight they will either release energy or absorb it (the split point being at the Iron or Nickel state). The problem is that it currently uses more energy than it produces to be able to control it, so for the moment it is pointless to use it as a clean energy source.

A fission reaction is the oposite: spliting one larger element in to two smaller ones. We first used that reaction on August 6th, 1945, over Hiroshima. We then understood its potential and started using it as an energy source. The danger of a nuclear fission is that when started it undergoes a chain reaction: to split the element one bombards it with a neutron, but when done that reaction will produce another several neutrons enabling multiple other reactions to take place; so unless you are working with only one of those atoms it is strongly suggested to find the means to control the outgoing neutrons. This is what can be done in a nuclear reactor and was what failed at Chernobyl.
The main elements used in this process is a metal called Uranium (we'll drop Plutonium for this time). But it can only take place with Uranium 235 (235 being its atomic weight) and not Uranium 238 (accounting for 99% of earth's supply). So when extracted they must be seperated, a process also known as Uranium enrichment. But it is a very difficult and costly process: one must spin the compound at extremely hight speeds (aproximating 10,000 rpm) as to send the heavier atoms (U238) to the outside, and this must be done several times round. To understand this better you must know that a nuclear reactor uses Uranium enriched at 5% (5% U235 & 95% U238) whereas a nuclear bomb needs Uranium enriched at 90%, and to achieve the latter one must have aproximately 100,000 centrifuges (the machine that spins); which is most reassuringly not the case of Iraq.


post dedicated to Ricardas who complained about my posts being too boring (he's one of those guys who has nor bath tub nor shower)