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on august 6 1945 an american b-29 bomber
flying low over the japanese city of
hiroshima dropped the world's first
atomic bomb on the city's unsuspecting
inhabitants
immediately killing 80 000 innocent
civilians
three days later a second bomb was
dropped in the city of nagasaki
killing a further 40 000 men women and
children in the aftermath of the bomb's
initial explosions
tens of thousands more people would die
excruciatingly painful deaths
due to radiation exposure while the
world may be familiar with the tragic
story of the first use of the atomic
bomb
we are less familiar with exactly how it
works the atomic bomb was a devastating
act of cruelty
but also a technological marvel that
would forever alter the face of war
the devastating bombing of japan was
enough to deter the use of nuclear
weapons for at least a few decades
but after world war ii increasing
tension between the us and russia
led to the cold war a nuclear arms race
between the two world powers
that saw both sides rushing to increase
their stockpile of nuclear weapons
ostensibly as a means to deter war
people built bunkers in their backyards
and stocked up on canned goods
schools ran nuclear war drills and the
world waited with baited breath for the
outbreak of nuclear war
and what felt like the imminent end of
the world but although the
existence of nuclear weapons was common
knowledge and despite the widespread
panic about the nuclear war
few people truly understood just how an
atomic bomb works
to understand how the atomic bomb works
we have to take a trip back to high
school physics class to revisit the
concepts of atomic structure and
radioactivity
an atom is one of the smallest units of
matter and is made up of three subatomic
particles
the nucleus at the center of the atom is
made up of protons which are positively
charged
and neutrons which have a neutral charge
negatively charged electrons orbit the
nucleus of the atom
when the ratio of protons to neutrons is
one to one the atom as a whole
will have a neutral charge but if the
number of protons in an atom is changed
an entirely different element will be
created if the number of neutrons
changes you end up with an isotope
for example the carbon atom has three
naturally occurring isotopes in its
common stable form
carbon 12 has six protons and six
neutrons
carbon 13 has six protons but seven
neutrons
and while rare it's still a stable
element carbon 14 with its six protons
and eight neutrons is both rare and
unstable or radioactive radioactive
nuclei emit particles called radiation
through a process called radioactive
decay
and it's this process that scientists
harness to create the powerful atomic
bomb
there are a few different ways to
destabilize a particle but for
understanding how nuclear bombs work
the most important processes to grasp
are fission and fusion
fission involves splitting the nucleus
of an atom in two
which scientists can do by bombarding it
with free neutrons
as the nucleus splits it ejects neutrons
along with bursts of electromagnetic
energy called gamma rays
fusion in contrast involves bringing
together the nucleus of two atoms
to form a single larger one this is
actually the process by which our sun
produces energy
through endless experimentation in a
process of trial and error scientists
eventually discovered that uranium
was the element that was most
cooperative in inducing a fission
reaction
the isotope uranium-235 is one of the
few materials
that can be forced to undergo fission by
bombarding its nucleus with neutrons
rather than waiting 700 million years
for it to decay naturally
u-235's nucleus will readily absorb the
neutrons
become unstable and split throwing off
two or three new neutrons in the process
those new neutrons can then go on to
collide with the nucleus of other u-235
atoms
starting a fission chain reaction the
splitting of the nucleus happens
incredibly quickly
in the order of picoseconds or
zero 0.000000 one seconds yeah that's
eleven zeros the scientific principles
underlying the atomic bomb had been well
known since einstein's days
but they wouldn't be successfully
applied and weaponized until the second
world war
in the 1930s italian scientists enrico
fermi successfully bombarded elements
with neutrons
transforming them into new elements and
shortly thereafter german scientists
otto han
and fritz strassmann were the first
division uranium by bombarding it with
neutrons producing the radioactive
barium isotope
these breakthroughs led the scientific
community to wonder if it would be
possible to create a fission chain
reaction that could release enormous
amounts of energy
that could be harnessed and weaponized
an idea that greatly intrigued the
world's governments
who were in the midst of fighting world
war ii at the time in an effort to be
the first to weaponize fission
and beat the nazis to the punch the us
government recruited the brightest minds
in physics from all over the world
and launched the secretive manhattan
project with the goal of creating the
world's first
functional atomic bomb in 1941
scientists at columbia university tried
to initiate a chain reaction
using uranium-235 but failed shortly
thereafter fermi now working for the u.s
at the university of chicago
successfully achieved the world's first
controlled nuclear chain reaction in his
lab
underneath the school's squash courts
also in 1941
berkeley scientists discovered a new
element element 94
with nuclear fuel potential which they
named plutonium
with these discoveries the race to
develop a nuclear bomb was on in earnest
and within just a few short years the
world's first nuclear bombs would be
used in war
understanding the concept of fission was
only part of the problem
figuring out how to weaponize it and
construct devices to harness atomic
power
with a whole other challenge critical
mass is the minimum amount of material
needed to sustain a chain reaction
so to harness the nuclear power the
nuclear fuel has to be kept in separate
subcritical masses
that won't support fission when it's
time to detonate the subcritical masses
are brought together
to form a supercritical mass and three
neutrons are introduced to jump start
the fission process
a small pellet made of the elements
polonium and beryllium
serves as the neutron generator and the
entire reaction is confined within a
dense material called a tamper
usually made of another uranium isotope
u-238
to reflect the neutrons back into the
core and slow the core's expansion
to ensure that as much vision as
possible happens before the bomb
explodes
scientists developed two trigger systems
for the first atomic bombs
little boy the bomb dropped on hiroshima
was a gun triggered bomb
with a 14.5 kiloton yield equal in power
to 14
500 tons of tnt little boy was one and a
half percent efficient
meaning that one and a half percent of
the material fission before the bomb
exploded
in a gunfire nuclear weapon a bullet of
uranium-235
is placed in one end of a long tube
packed with explosives
which will fire the bullet down the tube
where it collides with the neutron
generator
initiating fission and starting the
chain reaction that'll lead to the
bomb's explosion
in contrast fat man the bomb that was
dropped in nagasaki
was an implosion device with a 23
kiloton yield
and 17 percent efficiency much more
effective
but also much more complicated to make
than little boy
implosion bombs feature a sphere of
radioactive u-235 as the tamper
around the plutonium-239 core the entire
sphere is surrounded by high explosives
which when detonated create a shock wave
that compress the core
and initiates the fission chain reaction
in the wake of world war ii
scientists recognized that fission bombs
were wildly inefficient and turned their
attention to fusion next
fusion bombs also called thermonuclear
or hydrogen bombs rely on the hydrogen
isotopes
deuterium and tritium as fuel and can
yield up to 10
000 kilotons making them up to 700 times
more powerful than the little boy
fission bomb
hydrogen bombs combine fission and
fusion to achieve a more powerful and
more efficient explosion
within the bomb's casing is a tamper
made of u-235
which is packed with hydrogen isotope
fuel and surrounds a hollow rod of
plutonium-239 at the core
an implosion fission device detonates
first compressing the fuel
and causing the plutonium core to
fission the fissioning rod in turn gives
off heat and pressure which initiates
fusion in the hydrogen isotopes
and causes the bomb to explode the
entire process takes just 600 billionths
of a second
not only have the bombs themselves
improved drastically but the delivery
methods have come a long way since world
war ii
philip morrison a former member of the
manhattan project told scientific
american in 1995
that all three bombs of 1945 the trinity
test bomb and the two bombs dropped on
japan
were more nearly improvised pieces of
complex laboratory equipment
than they were reliable weaponry today
nuclear weapons come in many forms from
ballistic missiles that can exit the
atmosphere
and travel thousands of miles before
reentering and detonating
to cruise missiles shorter range
missiles with smaller warheads that are
harder to detect and intercept
to a range of tactical nuclear weapons
like artillery shells and landmines that
can target a smaller area
nuclear weapons are terrifying because
of their immense destructive power
relative to their size
the most severe damage happens at the
blasts hypocenter
or ground zero where everything is
immediately vaporized
outward from the center most of the
damage is the result of flying debris
intense heat a powerful shock wave and
acute exposure to high radiation
beyond the immediate blast area death
and injury can result from heat and
resulting fires
as well as from radiation the physical
destruction caused by a nuclear
bomb is no doubt catastrophic but the
most dangerous part of a nuclear bomb is
the radiation and radioactive fallout
after the initial explosion clouds of
fine dust made of radioactive particles
are carried away by the wind and fall
back to the ground
poisoning the water supply and getting
ingested and inhaled by people
even miles away from the blast we now
know that radiation affects the cells in
our body that readily divide
like hair and gut cells bone marrow and
reproductive organs
leading to nausea vomiting and diarrhea
and long-term health consequences like
cataracts hair loss
loss of blood cells and an increased
risk of leukemia cancer
infertility and birth defects at the
height of the cold war in the 1980s
scientists warned about the danger of a
nuclear winter
in a worst-case scenario so many nuclear
bombs could explode
that great clouds of radioactive dust
could travel high into the atmosphere
blocking out sunlight and lowering
surface temperatures this could lead to
a major disruption in the food chain
and mass extinctions of species
including humans
the cold war may be over but the threat
of nuclear war is by no means gone
countries around the world have signed
treaties agreeing to limit their
stockpile of nuclear weapons
and prohibiting them from using them
against other countries but still the
number of nuclear weapons around the
world continues to grow
and not all countries have agreed to use
them responsibly
at least nine countries currently have
ballistic nuclear weapons
and three of those countries the us
russia and china
have weapons powerful enough to hit any
target anywhere in the world
and then there's north korea in 2009
they tested a nuclear bomb as powerful
as the bomb dropped on hiroshima
and the underground test explosion
caused a magnitude 4.5
earthquake there's no doubt that nuclear
warfare still presents a huge threat to
world peace
not to mention the continuation of the
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