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.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of two laboratories in the United States in which classified work towards the design of nuclear weapons has been undertaken. LANL is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security, located in Los Alamos, the laboratory is one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. It conducts multidisciplinary research in such as national security, space exploration, renewable energy, medicine, nanotechnology. General Leslie Groves wanted a central laboratory at a location for safety. It should be at least 200 miles from international boundaries and west of the Mississippi, major John Dudley suggested Oak City, Utah or Jemez Springs, New Mexico but both were rejected. Manhattan Project scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer had spent much time in his youth in the New Mexico area, Dudley had rejected the school as not meeting Groves’ criteria, but as soon as Groves saw it he said in effect This is the place. Oppenheimer became the laboratorys first director, during the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos hosted thousands of employees, including many Nobel Prize-winning scientists. The location was a total secret and its only mailing address was a post office box, number 1663, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Eventually two other post office boxes were used,180 and 1539, also in Santa Fe, though its contract with the University of California was initially intended to be temporary, the relationship was maintained long after the war. The work of the laboratory culminated in the creation of several devices, one of which was used in the first nuclear test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, codenamed Trinity. The other two were weapons, Little Boy and Fat Man, which were used in the attacks on Hiroshima, the Laboratory received the Army-Navy ‘E’ Award for Excellence in production on October 16,1945. Many of the original Los Alamos luminaries chose to leave the laboratory, in the years since the 1940s, Los Alamos was responsible for the development of the hydrogen bomb, and many other variants of nuclear weapons. In 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was founded to act as Los Alamos competitor, Los Alamos and Livermore served as the primary classified laboratories in the U. S. national laboratory system, designing all the countrys nuclear arsenal. Additional work included basic research, particle accelerator development, health physics. Many nuclear tests were undertaken in the Marshall Islands and at the Nevada Test Site, during the late-1950s, a number of scientists including Dr. J. Robert Bob Beyster left Los Alamos to work for General Atomics in San Diego. Three major nuclear-related accidents have occurred at LANL, criticality accidents occurred in August 1945 and May 1946, and a third accident occurred during an annual physical inventory in December 1958. Several buildings associated with the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, Los Alamos nuclear work is currently thought to relate primarily to computer simulations and stockpile stewardship. The development of the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility will allow complex simulations of nuclear tests to take place without full explosive yields, the lab has made intense efforts for humanitarian causes through its scientific research in medicine
4.
TNT equivalent
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TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy defined by convention to be 4.184 gigajoules. The convention intends to compare the destructiveness of an event with that of conventional explosives, the kiloton is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 terajoules. The megaton is a unit of equal to 4.184 petajoules. The kiloton and megaton of TNT have traditionally used to describe the energy output. The TNT equivalent appears in various nuclear weapon control treaties, and has used to characterize the energy released in such other highly destructive events as an asteroid impact. A gram of TNT releases 2673–6702 J upon explosion, the energy liberated by one gram of TNT was arbitrarily defined as a matter of convention to be 4184 J, which is exactly one kilocalorie. The measured, pure heat output of a gram of TNT is only 2724 J, alternative TNT equivalency can be calculated as a function of when in the detonation the value is measured and which property is being compared. A kiloton of TNT can be visualized as a cube of TNT8.46 metres on a side, the RE factor is the relative mass of TNT to which an explosive is equivalent, the greater the RE, the more powerful the explosive. This enables engineers to determine the proper masses of different explosives when applying blasting formulas developed specifically for TNT. For example, if a timber-cutting formula calls for a charge of 1 kg of TNT, then based on octanitrocubanes RE factor of 2.38, using PETN, engineers would need 1. 0/1.66 kg to obtain the same effects as 1 kg of TNT. With ANFO or ammonium nitrate, they would require 1. 0/0.74 kg or 1. 0/0.42 kg, *, TBX or EBX, in a small, confined space, may have over twice the power of destruction. The total power of aluminized mixtures strictly depends on the condition of explosions, guide for the Use of the International System of Units. National Institute of Standards and Technology, nuclear Weapons FAQ Part 1.3 Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb, cooper, Paul W. Explosives Engineering, New York, Wiley-VCH, ISBN 0-471-18636-8 HQ Department of the Army, Field Manual 5-25, Explosives and Demolitions, Washington, D. C. Pentagon Publishing, pp. 83–84, ISBN 0-9759009-5-1 Explosives - Compositions, Alexandria, VA, thermobaric Explosives, Advanced Energetic Materials,2004. THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS, nap. edu, retrieved September 2004
5.
Thermonuclear weapon
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A thermonuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon that uses the energy from a primary nuclear fission reaction to compress and ignite a secondary nuclear fusion reaction. The result is greatly increased power when compared to single-stage fission weapons. It is colloquially referred to as a bomb or an H-bomb because it employs the fusion of isotopes of hydrogen. The first full scale thermonuclear test was carried out by the United States in 1952, similar devices were developed by the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, China, and France. The radiation implosion mechanism is an engine that exploits the temperature difference between the secondary stages hot, surrounding radiation channel and its relatively cool interior. This temperature difference is maintained by a massive heat barrier called the pusher. If made of uranium, as is almost always the case, it can capture neutrons produced by the reaction and undergo fission itself. In many Teller–Ulam weapons, fission of the pusher dominates the explosion, detailed knowledge of fission and fusion weapons is classified to some degree in virtually every industrialized nation. Born secret is rarely invoked for cases of private speculation, in a small number of prior cases, the U. S. government has attempted to censor weapons information in the public press, with limited success. According to the New York Times, physicist Kenneth Ford defied government orders to remove classified information from his new book, Building the H Bomb, the state of public knowledge about the Teller–Ulam design has been mostly shaped from a few specific incidents outlined in a section below. At a bare minimum, this implies a primary section consists of an implosion-type fission bomb. The energy released by the primary compresses the secondary through a process called radiation implosion, at which point it is heated, surrounding the other components is a hohlraum or radiation case, a container that traps the first stage or primarys energy inside temporarily. The outside of this case, which is also normally the outside casing of the bomb, is the only direct visual evidence publicly available of any thermonuclear bomb components configuration. Numerous photographs of various thermonuclear bomb exteriors have been declassified, generally, a research program with the capacity to create a thermonuclear bomb has already mastered the ability to engineer boosted fission. The secondary is usually shown as a column of fusion fuel, around the column is first a pusher-tamper, a heavy layer of uranium-238 or lead that serves to help compress the fusion fuel. Inside this is the fuel itself, usually a form of lithium deuteride. This dry fuel, when bombarded by neutrons, produces tritium, inside the layer of fuel is the spark plug, a hollow column of fissile material that, when compressed, can itself undergo nuclear fission. The tertiary, if one is present, would be set below the secondary, separating the secondary from the primary is the interstage
6.
Enduring Stockpile
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The Enduring Stockpile is the United States arsenal of nuclear weapons following the end of the Cold War. During the Cold War the United States produced over 70,000 nuclear weapons, by its end, the U. S. stockpile was about 23,000 weapons of 26 different types. The production of weapons ended in 1989, and since then existing weapons have been retired, dismantled. As of 2001, the Enduring Stockpile consisted of about 9,600 weapons of 10 types, as of 2004, about 3,000 of those weapons had been moved to the lowest readiness level, in which they are not dismantled, but no longer in active service. Weapons in the Enduring Stockpile are categorized by level of readiness, in 2004, the stockpile included 5,886 strategic warheads and 1,120 tactical weapons. The tactical weapons consist of 800 tactical B61 gravity bombs and 320 nuclear warheads for Tomahawk missiles, the START II Treaty called for a reduction to a total of 3,500 to 3,000 warheads, but was not ratified by the Russian Duma. The replacement 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty delayed reductions to 2012, the New START treaty signed in 2010 commits to lowering that limit to 1,550 warheads, and was ratified by the Russian Duma on 26 January 2011
7.
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
8.
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
9.
AGM-86 ALCM
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The AGM-86 ALCM is an American subsonic air-launched cruise missile built by Boeing and operated by the United States Air Force. This missile was developed to increase the effectiveness and survivability of the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bomber, in combination, the missile dilutes an enemys forces and complicates air defense of its territory. Examples of the AGM-86A and AGM-86B are on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, near Washington, the Tor missile system of the Soviet Union was specifically designed from the outset to shoot down the AGM-86. All variants of the AGM-86 missile are powered by a Williams F107 turbofan jet engine that propels it at sustained subsonic speeds, the missile deploys its folded wings, tail surfaces and engine inlet after launch. AGM-86B/C/D missiles increase flexibility in target selection, AGM-86B missiles can be air-launched in large numbers by the bomber force. An enemy force would have to each of the missiles, making defense against them costly. The enemys defenses are further hampered by the small size and low-altitude flight capability. The nuclear armed AGM-86B uses a terrain contour-matching guidance system to fly to its assigned target, the AGM-86C/D CALCM differs from the AGM-86B air-launched cruise missile in that it carries a conventional fragmentation payload rather than a thermonuclear payload. The AGM-86C/D uses an onboard Global Positioning System coupled with its navigation system to navigate in flight. This allows the missile to guide itself to the target with pinpoint accuracy, litton Guidance and Control, and Interstate Electronics Corp. were the guidance contractors for the C-model. The 86A model did not go into production, it was designed to fit the weapon bay of the B-1A, production of the initial 225 AGM-86B missiles began in fiscal year 1980 and production of a total 1,715 missiles was completed in October 1986. The air-launched cruise missile had become operational four years earlier, in December 1982, more than 100 launches have taken place since then, with a 90% approximate success rate. The missiles flight path is pre-programmed and it becomes autonomous after launch. In June 1986 a limited number of AGM-86B missiles were converted to carry a high-explosive blast/fragmentation warhead and they were redesignated as the AGM-86C CALCM. This modification also replaced the B models terrain contour-matching guidance system, the AGM-86C is a Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile and is a conventional blast/fragmentation derivative of the nuclear armed AGM-86B. The AGM-86D is the version of the CALCM which is designed to attack deeply buried targets. In 1996 and 1997,200 additional CALCMs were produced from excess ALCMs and these missiles, designated Block I, incorporate improvements such as a larger and improved conventional payload, a multi-channel GPS receiver and integration of the buffer box into the GPS receiver. The upgraded avionics package was retrofitted into all existing CALCM so all AGM-86C missiles are electronically identical, the CALCM became operational in January 1991 at the onset of Operation Desert Storm
