Explosive properties of reactor-grade plutonium

Science and Global Security

Volumn 17, Issue 2-3, 2009, Pages 170-185

  Mark, J Carson ^a   von Hippel, Frank ^b,c   Lyman, Edward ^b,d  

^a LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY   (United States)

^b Center for Energy and Environment Studies   (United States)

^c PRINCETON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^d Global Security Program   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EXPLOSIVE PROPERTIES; HIGH-BURN UP; NONPROLIFERATION POLICY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVES; POLICY MAKERS; PUBLIC DOMAINS; REACTOR FUELS; TERRORIST GROUPS; TERRORIST ORGANIZATION;

FLUORINE CONTAINING POLYMERS; NITRATION; NUCLEAR FUELS; PLUTONIUM;

EXPLOSIVES;

EID: 72449155679     PISSN: 08929882     EISSN: 15477800     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/08929880903368690     Document Type: Article

References (6)

1. Robert Serber, The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How to Build an Atomic Bomb (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1992). (Notes on lectures given by Serber in 1943 at the start of the Los Alamos Laboratory, declassified circa 1965.).
2. Quoted by Albert Wohlstetter in Foreign Policy 25, winter 1976-1977, p. 160.
3. Gerhard Locke, "Why Reactor-Grade Plutonium is Not Nuclear Explosive Suitable for Military Devices," prepared for Workshop on the Disposition of Plutonium, Bonn, 13-16 June 1992.
4. According to Egbert Kankeleit, Christian Küppers and Ulrich Imkeller, Bericht zur Waffentauglichkeit von Reaktorplutonium (IANUS Institute für Kernphysik, Techniche Hochschule Darmstadt).
5. Assuming an outer radius for the core of seven centimeters and an ambient temperature of 20°C.
6. Johan Swahn, "The Long-Range Nuclear Explosives Predicament" (Göteborg: Technical Peace Research Group, Institute of Physical Research Theory, 1992).