General > General Technical Chat
Oppenheimer Movie Review
MadTux:
Fun fact, you could simply build a nuclear weapon with natural uranium back 3.5billion years ago.
Unfortunately the good stuff decays much faster, so much less is present now ;D
m98:
--- Quote from: peter-h on July 30, 2023, 09:30:12 pm ---I doubt anybody posting on this thread has any idea of the electronics in a modern atom bomb :)
And I am sure they have come a long way from a load of krytrons :)
--- End quote ---
I don't think they would have moved away from Krytrons, or rather Sprytrons. Why would they? Semiconductors are still catching up to their performance for pulsed power switching. Diode laser igniters might be the next technology step, but again, why would they want to innovate something that was probably perfected half a century ago?
MadTux:
--- Quote from: m98 on July 30, 2023, 10:06:04 pm ---
--- Quote from: peter-h on July 30, 2023, 09:30:12 pm ---I doubt anybody posting on this thread has any idea of the electronics in a modern atom bomb :)
And I am sure they have come a long way from a load of krytrons :)
--- End quote ---
I don't think they would have moved away from Krytrons, or rather Sprytrons. Why would they? Semiconductors are still catching up to their performance for pulsed power switching. Diode laser igniters might be the next technology step, but again, why would they want to innovate something that was probably perfected half a century ago?
--- End quote ---
Exactly, wouldn't go boom any different, decrease in size probably only marginal, while huge risk with reliability of designs tested 100s of times in the 1950-1960s...
peter-h:
Regular tests are taking place these days too, but without the active material. So you can just do it in a bunker.
They must be using MOSFETs or similar nowadays. It is very easy. About 30 years ago I designed a handheld exploder device (these are widely used to trigger demolition/mining charges) and the spec is typically a few hunded volts and a few amps, discharged from a specific capacitor. There is a spec on the V/I profile to be achieved. The krytron or similar device does the job nicely (even at ~10000G for a 155mm shell - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W48) and at the time there was nothing else because valve technology won't deliver high currents. The krytron works by flashing over. There is totally no reason to use them today.
msuffidy:
--- Quote from: DonKu on July 30, 2023, 05:46:01 am ---"The Day After Trinity" is the story of Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb. The skeletons on sidewalks it shows are suitable for a "Terminator" movie.
--- End quote ---
Is this it?
https://archive.org/details/thedayaftertrinity
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