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Ultimately, polonium-based neutron initiators were used in both the gun-type Little Boy and the implosion-type Fat Man used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. The fact that polonium was used as an initiator was classified until the 1960s, but George Koval , a technician with the Manhattan Project's Special Engineer ...
'Urchin' was used in early U.S. weapons; subsequent U.S. weapons utilized a pulse neutron generator for the same purpose. [44] Much of the basic physics of polonium was classified until after the war. The fact that a polonium-beryllium (Po-Be) initiator was used in the gun-type nuclear weapons was classified until the 1960s. [45]
The initiator used in the early devices, located at the center of the bomb's plutonium pit, consisted of a beryllium pellet and a beryllium shell with polonium between the two. The pellet, 0.8 cm in diameter, was coated with nickel and then a layer of gold .
Weapons-grade nuclear material is any fissionable nuclear material that is pure enough to make a nuclear weapon and has properties that make it particularly suitable for nuclear weapons use. Plutonium and uranium in grades normally used in nuclear weapons are the most common examples.
These reactors were also required for the production (by irradiation of bismuth-209) of polonium-210, which was used in the initiators, a critical component of the nuclear weapons. Some 62 kilograms (137 lb) of bismuth-209 had to be irradiated for 100 days to produce 600 curies of polonium-210, a little over 132 milligrams (2.04 gr).
Pure fission weapons are the simplest, least technically demanding, were the first nuclear weapons built, and so far the only type ever used in warfare, by the United States on Japan in World War II. Boosted fission weapons increase yield beyond that of the implosion design, by using small quantities of fusion fuel to enhance the fission chain ...
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Extensively used in bombs, shells, depth charges and naval mines Baronal: Barium nitrate, TNT and powdered aluminium: Baratol: Barium nitrate and TNT: Used in British hand grenades. Also used as the low velocity explosive lens in the implosion type nuclear weapon, Fat Man: Composition A: 88.3% RDX and 11.7% plasticizer: Composition B: RDX, TNT ...