DALTON G. BARROSO Book

greekoid

Hi there.Does anybody know where I can get an English copy of the book “A Física dos Explosivos Nucleares” by Dalton G. Barroso?The original is in Portuguese and its title translates as “The Physics of Nuclear Explosives” .

greekoid

OK so it appears nobody knows of an English Translation of this book.Could someone please recommend a similar book? Basically a text that goes into detail of the Physics and technicalities of Nuclear devices.

jim hardy

in this country there is agreement among book publishers to not make such information available to general public.

i doubt you'll find it here.

etudiant

The nearest thing publicly available to your wishes are probably the various writings on the US nuclear weapons history and the series by Arkin on the industry in the late 1980s.
I'm unaware of any more numeric treatment of the issue in an unclassified public document.
Moreover, given the proliferation concerns, I believe less is available today than was the case 20 years ago.

greekoid

Which country is that?

greekoid

Do you have Arkins full name please?

etudiant

It is The Nuclear Weapons Data Book published by Ballinger Publishing in 1987.
It was a series of 7 volumes, with Thomas B Cochran and William M Arkin the lead authors.
The book was produced under the aegis of the Natural Resource Defense Council, Inc.
It covers the then industry and history, including some decent data on Soviet facilities and test history.
It is of course out of print and you would probably need to go to a University library to get a copy.
Do note it does not go into the details of the physics, the explosive processes or the mathematical models that are involved.

greekoid

Thanks for replying.Well it looks like Barroso is the best book on the subject.Shame I cant read Portugese and even if I could the book is VERY expensive (circa $200 inc. shipping) from Brazil.Thanks anyway.

etudiant

It should in fact be a pretty language neutral book.
The math reads the same in any language.
That said, it is difficult to understand where a Portuguese author would gather in depth expertise on nuclear explosions.
My guess is that you would get more insight from serious study of reactor dynamics, along perhaps with some grad level fusion papers.
Nuclear explosions per se are pretty well understood, so much so that the Hiroshima bomb was never tested before being used, unlike the Nagasaki device. The latter design was proof tested beforehand mostly because the compression implosion was a novel design feature.

greekoid

I believe Barroso is a Brazilian scientist and may have been involved in Brazils attempts to develop nuclear weapons during the Military Dictatorships of the 1970s-80s.

jim hardy

I hope you're just building a Mr Fusion for your Flux Capacitor !!

greekoid

Hehe.Always interested in how things work-from microwave ovens to Hydrogen Bombs-I'm just a nosey little git.

jim hardy

as an interested civilian you'll enjoy John Mcphee's "the curve of binding energy" and Richard Rhodes' "dark sun"

latter has pictures of the actual hand drawn sketches Fuchs sent to Stalin.

former is tales of Taylor's work miniaturizing weapons - he got them from a B-29 bellyfull to a 4 inch artillery shell

old jim

etudiant

Taylor was clearly a genius in nuclear design, a man who had an intuitive feel for how the reactions went.
His Super Oralloy Bomb, a 600kt fission device, was one truly spectacular illustration of his art.
He was also I believe involved in Project Orion, along with other luminaries such as Freeman Dyson.
That said, his insight that nuclear devices could be configured with a directed blast is probably that aspect of his work which is now getting the most attention, as it addresses the problem of striking deeply buried facilities without using enormous bombs.

The self published document 'Atom Bombs' by John Coster-Mullen is probably the most detailed early bomb discussion available, along with 'Critical Assembly' by Lillian Hoddesen and Paul W Henriksen.

jim hardy

Thanks et.. those sound interesting !

Dyson is my hero, he's still going strong.

etudiant

Mine also. Note his daughter, Ester Dyson, is an internet luminary.

greekoid

Read Dark Sun and the other Rhodes book on Nuclear Energy, both great reads,thanks for the other recommendation, will get it ASP.Still would love to read the Barroso book though.