I understand the technology is difficult. My question is more about how is it that some countries have achieved a nuclear arsenal and other countries are still trying? You’d imagine if the scientists and engineers of one country could manage it, those of another country would eventually get it too. Seems an odd convenience that the most dangerous weapons on earth are prohibitively difficult to make. So few humans are smart enough to make them that only 9 countries have achieved it?
In: Engineering
Similar to the dichotomy of the purpose and meaning of the race to the moon(accurate nuke of any size going to anywhere on earth, or space exploration, you decide!), it seems trivial in theory but is extremely complex in the heat of the moment. Plenty of countries have the raw resources and skill to take themselves to space but it is only a handful that actually makes the effort.
Any country at this point in history, which would be capable of generating a nuclear arsenal, would effectively know better than waste their finances on such a thing. radioactive heavy metals are tough material to mine and whilst chemistry can make it easy to purify, at some point you’re going to be working metals which are both extremely toxic and rough on your tools. Dialing in a design to an effective weapon requires tests, and tests are dirty. If you’re attempting to do such covertly, you lose the moment your enrichment facilities leak or your tests transport very obvious isotope signatures of specific reactions over anyone else. It’s not so much of an achievement as it is a money-sink.
To top it off, to get to the ‘top’ and build hydrogen bombs, you generally have to get a working knowledge of fission bombs which are used to trigger the fusion reaction in most cases. So you’d need to know how to get your bomb to lightly mega-boom inside itself for extremely tiny slices of seconds before fully mega-booming, which actually can be cleaner with less fallout since the fusion part isn’t made of enriched heavy metals for the most part.
Latest Answers