Why is Atom Bomb limited to certain countries?

Abdul Quadeer

Why can't every country make an 'Atom Bomb' ?
Everyone knows that we require a fissionable material and an explosive. What else is required that is to be invented (rather discovered) by other countries?

All comments are welcome.

inflector

You make it sound like getting the fissile material is easy.

Read up on the first atomic bomb effort, the Manhattan project, and you'll see that the primary obstacle was sufficient highly enriched fissile material, they tried Pu 239 and U 235. In the case of Pu 239, and all Plutonium, the material itself is synthetic and comes as a byproduct of nuclear reactors.

To be considered weapons-grade it must be 93% pure. Separating out the isotopes and impurities is the problem. That's why it requires huge expense and large-scale industrial effort to get enough for even one bomb. They isotopes cannot be separated chemically. This is why you generally hear of centrifuges in countries trying to develop nuclear weapons, the centrifuges separate the lighter and heavier isotopes. See here for other methods used in the Manhattan project: http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/p2s2.shtml

For U 235, it must be 85% pure but naturally occurs in Uranium only 0.72% of the time in U. So you still have the separation problem after the refining to pure U has been done.

There are other issues as well, but that's the big one. These other issues generally revolve around reliably getting a good symmetric explosion so that you achieve supercritical mass as quickly as possible. The good solutions to some of these issues are still classified top-secret or higher in the U.S.

Abdul Quadeer

We can seperate U-235 from U-238 by many methods such as thermal diffusion, gaseous diffusion, electromagnetic seperation etc. Do you mean that just knowing a method is different from getting the desired results?

NobodySpecial

Yes it's what we call engineering
Whats even harder is doing it in secret.

Mostly it's not worth it - the bomb is pretty much only useful if you are going to use it, which means you have more enemies that have the bomb and might use it on you than you have allies who might object.

So it makes sense for Iran, N. Korea etc to have one but no sense for S. Africa, Sweden, Brazil etc (who all had bomb programs that they abandoned)

Abdul Quadeer

I don't agree with you. Its just like saying that knowing Karate, Judo etc is useless unless some attacks you. We should be prepared for everything. If you have power, no one can overpower you. At the same time, you should not misuse your power.

NobodySpecial

But you don't have infinite power - you can relatively easily make a 10-15Kt U Hiroshima style. But then if doing this annoys the couple of countries that can drop 10,000 * 1Mt thermonuclear devices on you then you have lost.

Abdul Quadeer

Why should it annoy? Every country (according to me) should have freedom to advance in science and technology as long as it does not harm others.

Norman

The very purpose of a bomb is to hurt people...

Abdul Quadeer

Yes it is. Its purpose should be to hurt people who hurt you.

dav2008

At this point I think it's more diplomacy than anything. Pretty much every nation has signed the non-proliferation treaty.

The nations that haven't signed it are actively pursuing or have a nuclear program and I don't think there's anything technological that's holding them back. Obviously having less resources means they'll get there slower, but they'll still get there.

ErichB

Abdul, you have heard the saying that "the people who have the power make the rules", right? That's exactly the case with atomic/nuclear weapons issue with countries across the globe. Certainly not a fair rule, but relevant and applicable nevertheless.

You say that every country "should have freedom to advance in science and technology as long as it does not harm others." However, in the case with nuclear weapons, that reasoning does not apply as Norman already pointed out that the purpose of a nuclear weapon is to hurt people.

There is also a case regarding Iran building nuclear power plants, which seems to be a harmless application of nuclear technology, but it raises an issue: what will Iran do with all their nuclear waste byproducts? Unless Iran has a safe way of disposing nuclear waste byproducts, the nuclear waste byproduct has but only one "useful" application instead of sitting around and polluting the environment: developing nuclear weapons.

Abdul Quadeer

I already replied to this in my post number 9. If someone hurts you, you don't sit back and let others harm you.


I don't know what is Iran doing. If it is making nuclear weapons I don't have any problem as long as it does not harm others. Moreover, its not necessary that nuclear waste byproducts are created only due to developing of nuclear weapons.

jobyts

Even if Iran (or any other country) hurts others with nuclear weapons, you will not have a problem. Because you (humanity) do not exist.

Gokul43201

What happens if it does [harm others]? Bombing it back in retaliation doesn't save any lives.

Proton Soup

seems to require huge amounts of money and resources, even when you have the plans.

nismaratwork

This is the game a country that gets a nuke enters, and as others have mentioned, they do so at a massive disadvantage. In fact, as a defensive weapon you need enough bombs and deploy them in such a fashion that your "peace" is just peace at daggers drawn.




Other nations do care, and are afraid... what kind of fool scares a potential foe that can LITERALLY wipe your nation off the face of the earth? Life isn't fair, and international politics doesn't even PRETEND to be fair...

Abdul Quadeer

How can you say that? I think it should not harm others unless someone wages a war on it.
Other countries- India, Pakistan, N.Korea , Israel all have Nuclear Power. But they did not harm others ( till now ). Well they can (harm others) in the future - I don't know - nothing can be said about it. But again I think you should be ready for every thing. I am proud to say that my country (India) has Nuclear Power and is capable of retaliating against the toughest enemy. So should be any other country.


Yes I agree. Its all politics. NPT is flawed. Nothing is fair. Those who are in power make the rules.
I asked something else and this topic ended here. I don't understand why people here gave an example against Iran. There are other countries too which have nuclear power.