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wellerstein's profile
Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein
Verified account
@wellerstein

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Alex WellersteinVerified account

@wellerstein

Historian of science, secrecy, and nuclear weapons. Professor of STS at @FollowStevens. UC Berkeley alum with a Harvard PhD. NUKEMAP creator. Coder and web dev.

Hoboken, NJ / NYC
blog.nuclearsecrecy.com
Joined September 2011

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    1. Emerson Capuano‏ @emersoncapuano 1 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @GeorgeWHerbert @SpaceCat4NonPro and

      Both Uranium an Plutonium can be assembled as implosion configuration, but i have a doubt about output power of uranium implosion device. In the same configuration , could Uranium-implosion type warhead be more powerful than Plutonium implosion system?

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    2. GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 1 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @emersoncapuano @SpaceCat4NonPro and

      Uranium implosion has yielded up to 500 Kt (Super Oralloy Bomb / Mk-18)...

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
    3. Emerson Capuano‏ @emersoncapuano 2 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @GeorgeWHerbert @SpaceCat4NonPro and

      That' s awesome :) But which is more expensive to make: Uraniun or Plutonium? Plutoniun is get by irradiating Uranium in Fast reactor, by means of decay and chemical purity. In other words HEU requires more aparatus to bring it bot U233 and 235, both fissile.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    4. GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 2 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @emersoncapuano @SpaceCat4NonPro and

      Plutonium is more expensive. The Uranium enrichment process is simpler and easier than reactors plus isotope separation of Pu.

      2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
    5. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 2 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @GeorgeWHerbert @emersoncapuano and

      also just worth noting that if you have BOTH you can set up very efficient warheads — there can be a very economical "mix"

      1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
    6. Martin “Doomsday” Pfeiffer (⧖)  🏳️‍🌈‏ @NuclearAnthro 2 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @wellerstein @GeorgeWHerbert and

      Composite cores ftw! Historical example would suggest DPRK prob doing them too?

      3 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
    7. Emerson Capuano‏ @emersoncapuano 2 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @NuclearAnthro @wellerstein and

      Could a little amount of HEU ( about 1inch or less), in a boosted configuration be capable to produce fast neutrons making U238 undergoing fission? Is U238 explosion higher than U235, even Pu?

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    8. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 3 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @emersoncapuano @NuclearAnthro and

      A sphere of HEU with a 1 inch diameter is only 0.16 kg... that feels like a strong "no" to me (a couple orders of magnitude smaller than smallest U235 cores I have heard of). U238 fissioning releases approx. same energy per gram of fissioning as U235 and Pu (~18 kt/kg).

      2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
    9. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 3 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @wellerstein @emersoncapuano and

      If you're asking about 1 inch around a Pu core, I don't know how much that would help. It wouldn't be a good approach to a composite weapon (which usually use a little bit of Pu and a lot of HEU).

      2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
    10. Emerson Capuano‏ @emersoncapuano 3 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @wellerstein @NuclearAnthro and

      In another words Uranium continues to be the best choice in nuclear and thermonuclear weapons' design. isn't?

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 4 Mar 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @emersoncapuano @NuclearAnthro and

      There are tradeoffs. You need much more HEU in a core than Pu to get the reaction started — HEU has lower critical mass, etc. So for some purposes that is better, for some it is worse.

      7:31 AM - 4 Mar 2018
      • 1 Like
      • Emerson Capuano
      0 replies 0 retweets 1 like

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