Considering Israel and the US are bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities because they have “weapons of mass destruction”, if Iran really did have such weapons, wouldn’t bombing the facilities they’re held in cause them to explode, or cause an evident ripple at least? I may be imagining this in a way cartoonier way than military weapons actually work, but I’m preparing myself for some incredibly annoying debates.
If there were nukes in those bunkers, they would have moved them as soon as Israel attacked. Sauce: journalist who works in the Middle East.
Nope. Exploding a nuclear bomb/warhead is a complicated and fickely thing. Everything must happen in the right speed and order, or it will be a dud. It will be a radioactive thing, yes, and might spread some seriously bad stuff around, but thats “just” some radioactive stuff in a few ten meters radius instead of blowing up a city.
Not necessarily. Nuclear weapons generally require fairly precise timing in order to go critical and properly explode.
If the timing is off, it’ll still spread nuclear material around, but it won’t make the large mushroom cloud style explosion.
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They are bombing precisely because they haven’t got any weapons. If they had weapons, their nuclear weapons programme wouldn’t be attacked. This is how N Korea gets away with its shit. The attack is because they almost have nuclear weapons, and is intended to ensure the programme doesn’t bear fruit.
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Nuclear weapons need a very precisely placed and timed set of shaped explosions within the device in order to ram the material together in such a way as to achieve fission. Nuclear weapons cannot be detonated by exterior explosions, fire, earthquake, hurricane or anything else other than its own detonation system.
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You can read IAEA’s press releases for each attack. They go through the precise function and nature of each building and access the potential danger. Though they haven’t updated for the US’s latest bombing.
Most likely not, I’d be more worried about local ground contamination from enriched uranium now being exposed.
Nuclear bombs have many safety features built in just for these reasons, enemy bombs you, you don’t want your own nukes going off on your land.
For 30 years Iran was do close to having a bombs…
Most likely not, I’d be more worried about local ground contamination from enriched uranium now being exposed.
Nuclear bombs have many safety features built in just for these reasons, enemy bombs you, you don’t want your own nukes going off on your land.
You can explode a nuclear bomb by activating the firing mechanism. This will make the mushroom cloud. If you blow something up NEXT to a nuclear bomb, you can scatter the bomb components and create a dirty bomb, which is just a regular explosion plus SOME radiation.
Nuclear bombs are extremely stable when not armed. If you blow one up with external explosives it will just break.
I do wonder though, if they had enough uranium to make a few nukes and it just got all exploded, wouldn’t there still be some fallout/spread over time?
Inside a bunker?300 meter underground?
Yes, that’s one of the primary concerns. The nuclear material isn’t likely to actually explode, but the material can easily get spread by an explosion. Essentially turning a bunker buster bomb into a giant dirty bomb.
That’s how dirty bombs work - an explosion deliberately blasts radioactive material in as wide an area as it can.
Nah I stuck a screwdriver in there, it’s fine
Uh oh spaghetti-o’s
Cherenkov radiation blue light INTENSIFIES
Nukes are actually extremely hard to set off. H-bombs even moreso. It requires extremely, extremely precise explosively-driven compression.
Gun-type firing mechanisms are simpler, but by no means “simple”.
No they won’t
Nukes are extremely hard to build and ensure they can explode. You’re talking extremely precisely timed explosives that with even a mili second off, will make your heavy nuke turn into a dud. Throwing a bomb right on top of one will not make it go off.
What CAN happen is that an explosion like that ruptures the nuke had throws the fissile material around, effectively making your nuke a dirty bomb.
Also, since they’ve been bombing nuclear facilities I can guarantee you that they have boat loads of very shitty (radioactive) chemicals laying around there which with these bombings now will also be spread around everywhere
Also, since they’ve been bombing nuclear facilities I can guarantee you that they have boat loads of very shitty (radioactive) chemicals laying around there which with these bombings now will also be spread around everywhere
So far no radiation was detected, so perhaps it was stored more securely (or somewhere else).
Even more concerning. This indicates that either:
1.: The radioactive material hasn‘t been destroyed
2.: Israel & USA completely made up Iran‘s nuclear capabilities
3.: Nuclear warheads have already been made and transported. Unlikely but nothing to joke about.
Excellent response.
I’m just commenting to say that they’ve determined that there is no rise in radiation around the sites they struck, so either there was no radioactive material stored there, or they didn’t impact the sites as badly as they are claiming. If there was radioactive material, it remained contained. They may still have to rebuild their facilities, but they still have the most important element, the uranium.
Some nuclear bombs are so hard to make explode that they need another nuclear bomb to ignite them.
