"The plutonium behind that flash [in the 1st nuclear test] is estimated at one gram – the weight of a dollar bill."https://twitter.com/AndyWeberNCB/status/641032786304991232 …
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Replying to @StephenUCS
@StephenUCS It's wrong - about 1kg of Pu fissioned http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/12/23/kilotons-per-kilogram/@WilliamJBroad …1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @russianforces
@russianforces I posted it b/c it was so shocking, but can't testify to it. But the link you posted doesn't work for me.@wellerstein?3 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @StephenUCS
@StephenUCS@russianforces The "weight of a 1 dollar bill" is the amount of mass converted to energy, not the amount of actual Pu fissioned.1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @wellerstein
@wellerstein@StephenUCS That's a good way of thinking about it. The way it was said in the article is rather misleading2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @russianforces
@russianforces@StephenUCS I think the last part of the paragraph in question is an editing mistake.1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @wellerstein
@wellerstein@StephenUCS Schlosser made the same mistake in Command and Control6 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @russianforces
@russianforces@StephenUCS Which is a more concrete mental model and doesn't get us stuck on hard questions like "what is binding energy?"1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @wellerstein
@wellerstein I don't go into "binding energy" Fission releases energy, mostly as kinetic energy of fission products1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @russianforces
@wellerstein Where this energy comes from is a separate issue. If you mix them you get the dollar bill2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
@russianforces That is, it doesn't tell you as much about nuclear weapons (why and how they work) as pop culture would have one believe.
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