Can someone explain the feared runaway nuclear reaction that Oppenheimer presented Einstein in the film? The one where detonating a nuke would’ve exploded the whole world?
Wouldn’t that scenario require many orders of magnitude more energy than the output of the what the first (or current) nuclear weapons were capable of?
In: Physics
Edward Teller and Enrico Fermi were both top physicists who were involved in the Manhattan Project as well as other physics projects. Rumors abound that the two clashed frequently, and that Fermi considered Teller to be something of an “idea man” whose work was not rigorous.
Teller did calculations that suggested that it was possible that a fission blast could trigger fusion of nitrogen in the atmosphere, creating enough energy that more such fusion would occur in a chain reaction. This, he said, showed the possibility that the explosion could be far more devastating than believed, or even could ignite the entire atmosphere.
Other scientists, most notably Fermi, disagreed and even scoffed at this idea. It was suggested that Teller’s work was mathematically flawed, even poorly done, and that the idea had no real merit.
However, there were plenty of people who thought that Teller’s concerns should be addressed, especially as Teller was widely respected. In particular, the non-scientists, not being able to judge for themselves, were concerned that someone with Teller’s reputation said this could happen. This is quite reasonable, as they had no way of knowing who was right, and they were naturally reluctant to risk fusing the entire atmosphere.
As a result, Teller’s work was turned over to other scientists for review to see if there was anything to be concerned about. This review took months and delayed the project.
The result of the review was, “No way. It won’t get within orders of magnitude of happening. We may not know enough to be certain how much energy the bomb will put out, but it can’t possibly be close to doing this. This can’t happen.”
Because of this, the project was allowed to continue. Enrico Fermi thought it was funny to take bets on whether or not the bomb would ignite the atmosphere. Rumors, again unsubstantiated, have arisen that Fermi did it, at least in part, as a way of taunting Teller for his earlier fears.
Latest Answers