1.
Nuclear weapon
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A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from small amounts of matter. The first test of a bomb released the same amount of energy as approximately 20,000 tons of TNT. The first thermonuclear bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10 million tons of TNT, a thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons of TNT. A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate a city by blast, fire. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of destruction, and their use. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in nuclear warfare, both times by the United States against Japan near the end of World War II, the bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel from acute injuries sustained from the explosions. The ethics of the bombings and their role in Japans surrender remain the subject of scholarly, since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for the purposes of testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them, israel is also believed to possess nuclear weapons, though in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands are nuclear weapons sharing states, south Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons. Modernisation of weapons continues to occur, all existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as bombs or atom bombs. This has long noted as something of a misnomer, as their energy comes from the nucleus of the atom. The latter approach is considered more sophisticated than the former and only the approach can be used if the fissile material is plutonium. A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of just under a ton to upwards of 500,000 tons of TNT, all fission reactions necessarily generate fission products, the radioactive remains of the atomic nuclei split by the fission reactions. Many fission products are highly radioactive or moderately radioactive. Fission products are the radioactive component of nuclear fallout
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
TNT
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Trinitrotoluene, or more specifically 2,4, 6-trinitrotoluene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H23CH3. This yellow-colored solid is used as a reagent in chemical synthesis. The explosive yield of TNT is considered to be the measure of bombs. In chemistry, TNT is used to charge transfer salts. TNT was first prepared in 1863 by German chemist Julius Wilbrand and its potential as an explosive was not appreciated for several years, mainly because it was so difficult to detonate and because it was less powerful than alternatives. Its explosive properties were first discovered by another German chemist, Carl Häussermann, the German armed forces adopted it as a filling for artillery shells in 1902. The British started replacing lyddite with TNT in 1907, TNT is still widely used by the United States military, as well as construction companies around the world. The majority of TNT currently used by the US military is manufactured by Radford Army Ammunition Plant near Radford, in industry, TNT is produced in a three-step process. First, toluene is nitrated with a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acid to produce mononitrotoluene, the MNT is separated and then renitrated to dinitrotoluene. In the final step, the DNT is nitrated to trinitrotoluene using a mixture of nitric acid. Nitric acid is consumed by the process, but the diluted sulfuric acid can be reconcentrated and reused. The rinse water from sulphitation is known as red water and is a significant pollutant, control of nitrogen oxides in feed nitric acid is very important because free nitrogen dioxide can result in oxidation of the methyl group of toluene. This reaction is exothermic and carries with it the risk of a runaway reaction leading to an explosion. In the laboratory,2,4, 6-trinitrotoluene is produced by a two-step process, a nitrating mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids is used to nitrate toluene to a mixture of mono- and di-nitrotoluene isomers, with careful cooling to maintain temperature. The nitrated toluenes are then separated, washed with dilute sodium bicarbonate to remove oxides of nitrogen, towards the end of the nitration, the mixture is heated on a steam bath. The trinitrotoluene is separated, washed with a solution of sodium sulfite. TNT is one of the most commonly used explosives for military, industrial, TNT has been used in conjunction with hydraulic fracturing, a process used to recover oil and gas from shale formations. The technique involves displacing and detonating nitroglycerin in hydraulically induced fractures followed by wellbore shots using pelletized TNT, TNT is valued partly because of its insensitivity to shock and friction, with reduced risk of accidental detonation compared to more sensitive explosives such as nitroglycerin
4.
Cruise missile
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A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a warhead over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of travelling at supersonic or high speeds, are self-navigating. The idea of a torpedo was shown in the British 1909 film The Airship Destroyer. In 1916, Lawrence Sperry built and patented an aerial torpedo, a small biplane carrying a TNT charge, a Sperry autopilot, inspired by these experiments, the United States Army developed a similar flying bomb called the Kettering Bug. Germany had also flown trials with remote-controlled aerial gliders built by Siemens-Schuckert beginning in 1916, in the period between the World Wars the United Kingdom developed the Larynx, which underwent a few flight tests in the 1920s. In the Soviet Union, Sergei Korolev headed the GIRD-06 cruise missile project from 1932 to 1939, the 06/III and 06/IV contained gyroscopic guidance systems. The vehicle was designed to boost to 28 km altitude and glide a distance of 280 km, in 1944, Germany deployed the first operational cruise missiles in World War II. The V-1, often called a bomb, contained a gyroscope guidance system and was propelled by a simple pulsejet engine. Accuracy was sufficient only for use against very large targets, while the range of 250 km was significantly lower than that of a bomber carrying the same payload, the main advantages were speed and expendability. The production cost of a V-1 was only a fraction of that of a V-2 supersonic ballistic missile. Unlike the V-2, however, the deployments of the V-1 required stationary launch ramps which were susceptible to bombardment. Immediately after the war the United States Air Force had 21 different guided missile projects, all were cancelled by 1948, except four — the Air Materiel Command BANSHEE, the SM-62 Snark, the SM-64 Navaho, and the MGM-1 Matador. The BANSHEE design was similar to Operation Aphrodite, like Aphrodite, it failed, during the Cold War period both the United States and the Soviet Union experimented further with the concept, deploying early cruise missiles from land, submarines and aircraft. The main outcome of the United States Navy submarine missile project was the SSM-N-8 Regulus missile, the United States Air Forces first operational surface-to-surface missile was the winged, mobile, nuclear-capable MGM-1 Matador, also similar in concept to the V-1. Deployment overseas began in 1954, first to West Germany and later to the Republic of China and this alert was in response to the crisis posed by the Soviet attack on Hungary which suppressed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Between 1957 and 1961 the United States followed an ambitious and well-funded program to develop a nuclear-powered cruise missile and it was designed to fly below the enemys radar at speeds above Mach 3 and carry a number of hydrogen bombs that it would drop along its path over enemy territory. Although the concept was sound and the 500 megawatt engine finished a successful test run in 1961
5.
Tomahawk (missile)
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The Tomahawk is a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile named after the Native American axe. Introduced by McDonnell Douglas in the 1970s, it was designed as a medium to long-range. It has been improved several times, and after corporate divestitures, some Tomahawks were also manufactured by General Dynamics. The Tomahawk missile family consists of a number of subsonic, jet engine-powered missiles designed to attack a variety of surface targets, although a number of launch platforms have been deployed or envisaged, only sea launched variants are currently in service. Tomahawk has a design, allowing a wide variety of warhead, guidance. The Tomahawk project was awarded to Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel. James H. Walker led a team of scientists to design, the original design with advanced technology is still used today. There have been variants of the BGM-109 Tomahawk employing various types of warheads. BGM-109A Tomahawk Land Attack Nuclear - Not deployed, bGM-109A Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – Nuclear with a W80 thermonuclear weapon. Retired from service sometime between 2010 and 2013, rGM/UGM-109B Tomahawk Anti Ship Missile – active radar homing anti-ship missile variant, withdrawn from service in the 1990s. BGM-109C Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – Conventional with a unitary warhead and this was initially a modified Bullpup warhead. BGM-109D Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – Dispenser with cluster munitions, rGM/UGM-109E Tomahawk Land Attack Missile – improved version of the TLAM-C. BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile – with a W84 nuclear warhead, aGM-109H/L Medium Range Air to Surface Missile – a shorter range, turbojet powered ASM with cluster munitions, never entered service, cost US$569,000. Many of the versions were converted into TLAMs at the end of the Cold War. The Block III TLAMs that entered service in 1993 can fly farther, Block IV TLAMs are completely redesigned with an improved turbofan engine. The F107-402 engine provided the new BLK III with a throttle control and this engine also provided better fuel economy. The Block IV TLAMs have enhanced capabilities and are equipped with a real-time targeting system for striking fleeting targets. A major improvement to the Tomahawk is network-centric warfare-capabilities, using data from sensors to find its target
6.
B61 nuclear bomb
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The B61 nuclear bomb is one of the primary thermonuclear weapons in the U. S. Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War and it is an intermediate-yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation implosion design. The B61 is a variable yield bomb designed for carriage by high-speed aircraft and it has a streamlined casing capable of withstanding supersonic flight speeds. The weapon is 11 ft 8 in long, with a diameter of about 13 inches, basic weight is about 700 pounds, although the weights of individual weapons may vary depending on version and fuze/retardation configuration. The B61, known before 1968 as the TX-61, was designed in 1963 and it was designed and built by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. It began from a program for a lightweight, streamlined weapon launched in 1961, production engineering began in 1965, with full production beginning in 1968 following a series of development problems. Total production of all versions was approximately 3,155, of which approximately 1,925 remain in service as of 2002, the warhead has changed little over the years, although early versions have been upgraded to improve the safety features. As of late 2013, there were 200 B61 bombs actively in use by the United States, of these,180 were deployed with NATO allies in Europe. Nine versions of the B61 have been produced, each shares the same physics package, with different yield options. The newest variant is the B61 Mod 11, deployed in 1997, which is a ground-penetrating bunker buster. The B61 unguided bomb should not be confused with the MGM-1 Matador cruise missile, when the B61 was still classified, aircrew were not allowed to use the term B61. Instead, it was referred to as a shape, silver bullet, the B61 has been deployed by a variety of U. S. military aircraft. USAFE and all NATO dual role aircraft can carry B61s, the Lockheed S-3 Viking was also able to deploy the B61 as a nuclear depth bomb. The B61 can fit inside the F-22 Raptors weapons bays and will also be carried by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, as of 2005, they were deployed in Europe under the NATO nuclear sharing arrangement. NATO has agreed to improve the capabilities of this force with the increased accuracy of the B61 Mod 12 upgrade. This will, for the first time, add a modest standoff capability to the B61, as of 2013, the Pentagon was asking for an $11 billion life-extension program for the B61 bomb, which would be the most ambitious and expensive nuclear warhead refurbishment in history. Congress is opposed to this effort for cost and timeline issues, sequestration budget cuts in early 2013 have delayed any start until 2020. The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee stated that extending the life of B61s and consolidating its variants may not be a cheap and low-risk method to meet military requirements. The B61 Mod 12 is to replace the previous Mod 3,4,7, refurbishing the existing variants and eliminating the guidance kit would save $2–3 billion
7.
BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile
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The Ground Launched Cruise Missile, or GLCM, was a ground-launched cruise missile developed by the United States Air Force in the last decade of the Cold War. The BGM-109G was developed as a counter to the mobile medium-, GLCM is also a generic term for any ground-launched cruise missile. Since the U. S. deployed only one cruise missile in the tactical role. The GLCM was built by General Dynamics, a conventionally configured cruise missile, the BGM-109 was essentially a small, pilotless flying machine, powered by a turbofan engine. Also, it flies at lower altitudes than a ballistic missile. The trade-off for this low-observability flight is strike time, cruise missiles travel far more slowly than a weapon. The W84 warhead was a 0. 2-150kt variable-yield weapon and this yield contrasts with the yield of the W80 warhead found on other versions of the Tomahawk and on the ALCM from which the W84 was derived, which had a selectable yield of 5 or 150 kt. The Pentagon credited the GLCM with a range of 2000–2500 kilometers, like other U. S. cruise missiles of this period, accuracy after more than 2000 km of flight was within half the width of an American football field or 100 ft. The missile was entirely subsonic, powered by an engine with a rocket booster assisting at launch. Militarily, the GLCM was targeted against fixed targets—at the outer edge of its range, the missiles were launched from an elevated launcher, with the missile ejected from its canister for about 13 seconds of solid rocket booster flight. The fins extended at 4 seconds, the air inlet and wings deployed at 10 seconds, flying at low level, the missile was guided by TERCOM to the target. 3 This contrasted strongly with Pershing II, which had a time of 10–15 minutes. BGM-109G personnel were trained at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, on 1 October 1985, the squadron became part of the 868th Tactical Missile Training Group. The group and squadron were inactivated on 31 May 1990, an area near Fort Huachuca, Arizona was used for field training for GLCM flights. GLCM testing was conducted at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, BGM-109G missiles would be based at six locations throughout Europe, in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Comiso Air Station in Italy. Each location had its own problems, but all required extensive construction by the USAF. Initial operating capability occurred in 1983, normal basing was in blast shelters at military installations. Each TMS consisted of flights, made up of 69 people and 22 vehicles
8.
Nuclear weapon design
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Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types, in many existing designs, the explosive energy of deployed devices is derived primarily from nuclear fission, not fusion. Pure fission weapons were the first nuclear weapons built and have so far been the type ever used in warfare. Implosion, a mass of either material is surrounded by high explosives that compress the mass. The implosion method can use either uranium or plutonium as fuel, the gun method only uses uranium. Boosted fission weapons improve on the implosion design, the high pressure and temperature environment at the center of an exploding fission weapon compresses and heats a mixture of tritium and deuterium gas. The hydrogen fuses to form helium and free neutrons, boosting can more than double the weapons fission energy release. Staged thermonuclear weapons are essentially a chain of fusion-boosted fission weapons, the secondary stage is imploded by x-ray energy from the first stage, called the primary. This radiation implosion is much more effective than the high-explosive implosion of the primary, consequently, the secondary can be many times more powerful than the primary, without being bigger. The secondary can be designed to maximize fusion energy release, but in most designs fusion is employed only to drive or enhance fission, as it is in the primary. More stages could be added and conceptual designs incorporating up to seven have been produced, pure fusion weapons have not been invented. Such weapons, though, would produce far less radioactive fallout than current designs, pure fission weapons historically have been the first type to be built by a nation state. Most known innovations in nuclear weapon design originated in the United States, although some were developed independently by other states. In early news accounts, pure fission weapons were called atomic bombs or A-bombs, Weapons involving fusion were called hydrogen bombs or H-bombs, also a misnomer since their energy comes mostly from fission. Practitioners favored the terms nuclear and thermonuclear, respectively, the term thermonuclear refers to the high temperatures required to initiate fusion. It omits the equally important factor of radiation pressure, which was considered secret at the time the term became widespread, many nuclear weapon terms similarly obfuscate because of their origin in a classified environment. Nuclear fission separates or splits heavier atoms to form lighter atoms, Nuclear fusion combines together lighter atoms to form heavier atoms. In some ways, fission and fusion are opposite and complementary reactions, to understand how nuclear weapons are designed, it is useful to know the important similarities and differences between fission and fusion
9.
Plutonium
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Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states and it reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen, silicon and hydrogen. When exposed to moist air, it forms oxides and hydrides that can expand the sample up to 70% in volume and it is radioactive and can accumulate in bones, which makes the handling of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first produced and isolated on December 14,1940 by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Joseph W. Kennedy, Edwin M. McMillan, wahl by deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the 60-inch cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. They first synthesized neptunium-238 which subsequently beta-decayed to form a new element with atomic number 94. Uranium had been named after the planet Uranus and neptunium after the planet Neptune, and so element 94 was named after Pluto, wartime secrecy prevented them from announcing the discovery until 1948. Plutonium is the heaviest element to occur in nature as trace quantities arising similarly from the capture of natural uranium-238. Both plutonium-239 and plutonium-241 are fissile, meaning that they can sustain a chain reaction, leading to applications in nuclear weapons. Plutonium-240 exhibits a high rate of fission, raising the neutron flux of any sample containing it. The presence of plutonium-240 limits a plutonium samples usability for weapons or its quality as reactor fuel, plutonium-238 has a half-life of 88 years and emits alpha particles. It is a source in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are used to power some spacecraft. Plutonium isotopes are expensive and inconvenient to separate, so particular isotopes are usually manufactured in specialized reactors, producing plutonium in useful quantities for the first time was a major part of the Manhattan Project during World War II that developed the first atomic bombs. The Fat Man bombs used in the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, Human radiation experiments studying plutonium were conducted without informed consent, and several criticality accidents, some lethal, occurred after the war. Disposal of plutonium waste from power plants and dismantled nuclear weapons built during the Cold War is a nuclear-proliferation. Other sources of plutonium in the environment are fallout from numerous above-ground nuclear tests, Plutonium, like most metals, has a bright silvery appearance at first, much like nickel, but it oxidizes very quickly to a dull gray, although yellow and olive green are also reported. At room temperature plutonium is in its α form and this, the most common structural form of the element, is about as hard and brittle as gray cast iron unless it is alloyed with other metals to make it soft and ductile. Unlike most metals, it is not a conductor of heat or electricity
10.
Gamma ray
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Gamma ray, denoted by the lower-case Greek letter gamma, is penetrating electromagnetic radiation of a kind arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of photons in the highest observed range of photon energy, paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900 while studying radiation emitted by radium. In 1903, Ernest Rutherford named this radiation gamma rays, Rutherford had previously discovered two other types of radioactive decay, which he named alpha and beta rays. Gamma rays are able to ionize atoms, and are thus biologically hazardous. The decay of a nucleus from a high energy state to a lower energy state. Natural sources of gamma rays on Earth are observed in the decay of radionuclides. There are rare terrestrial natural sources, such as lightning strikes and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, However, a large fraction of such astronomical gamma rays are screened by Earths atmosphere and can only be detected by spacecraft. Gamma rays typically have frequencies above 10 exahertz, and therefore have energies above 100 keV and wavelengths less than 10 picometers, However, this is not a strict definition, but rather only a rule-of-thumb description for natural processes. Electromagnetic radiation from radioactive decay of nuclei is referred to as gamma rays no matter its energy. This radiation commonly has energy of a few hundred keV, in astronomy, gamma rays are defined by their energy, and no production process needs to be specified. The energies of gamma rays from astronomical sources range to over 10 TeV, a notable example is the extremely powerful bursts of high-energy radiation referred to as long duration gamma-ray bursts, of energies higher than can be produced by radioactive decay. These bursts of gamma rays are thought to be due to the collapse of stars called hypernovae, the first gamma ray source to be discovered historically was the radioactive decay process called gamma decay. In this type of decay, a nucleus emits a gamma ray almost immediately upon formation. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900, However, Villard did not consider naming them as a different fundamental type. Rutherford also noted that gamma rays were not deflected by a field, another property making them unlike alpha. Gamma rays were first thought to be particles with mass, like alpha, Rutherford initially believed that they might be extremely fast beta particles, but their failure to be deflected by a magnetic field indicated that they had no charge. In 1914, gamma rays were observed to be reflected from crystal surfaces, Rutherford and his coworker Edward Andrade measured the wavelengths of gamma rays from radium, and found that they were similar to X-rays, but with shorter wavelengths and higher frequency. This was eventually recognized as giving them more energy per photon
