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
Essentially the conditions required to sustain a nuclear chain reaction are extreme. To quote a [paper](https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/doe/lanl/docs1/00329010.pdf) contemporary to the first tests:
>It is shown that, whatever the temperature to which a section of the atmosphere may be heated, no self-propagating chain of nuclear reactions is likely to be started. The energy losses to radiation always overcompensate the gains due to the reactions.
As the blast radius expands into the atmosphere (or even other mediums like water) the losses through various factors inevitably begin to outweigh the energy generated by the thermonuclear reaction.
Anything that implies any serious scientists with a knowledge of the project thought atmospheric ignition was remotely possible prior to the first test is misleading. I think it stems from a unwillingness for people who live their lives in maths to talk about there being a “zero” possibility of anything, and also the oft mentioned gallows humour that was required to cope with knowing what they were trying to achieve.
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