How Bomb Works Research Paper

How the bomb works?

Within a nucleus there are different forces the act between the particles. Between two or more nucleons (neutrons & protons when dealing with nuclear chemistry) a very strong force is present that binds together the protons and neutrons inside the nucleus. When this force is at its strongest is when the nucleus is minute and close together. The electromagnetic force causes repulsion between the like-charged protons (positively charged). Both the electromagnetic force and the nuclear force act as opposites which can result in an nucleus being highly stable or highly unstable. This result is affected by which force is dominant in the nucleus, the more dominant the nuclear force it the smaller the nuclei and more stable the

To prevent premature detonation the fuel had to be kept in separate sub critical masses which shall not support the fission reaction. The biggest challenge with designing the bomb was bringing together these subcritical masses to produce a supercritical mass which will provide more than required neutrons to sustain a successful fission reaction at the time of the detonation. The easiest way to bring the subcritical masses together was to develop a gun that shall fire one subcritical mass into the other. A small pellet of U-235 (subcritical mass 1) is removed from a sphere of U-235 (subcritical mass 2) that surrounds the neutron generator and placed at one end of a long tube in front of explosives, whilst the sphere will be placed at the opposite end. A barometric-pressure sensor will decide on an appropriate altitude for detonation that initiates a sequence of

These free neutrons were introduced by creating a neutron generator. The generator is a small pellet consisting of beryllium and polonium separated by foil within the fissionable fuel core.

Neutron Generator-

1. The foil is broken once the subcritical masses come together and polonium spontaneously emits alpha particles (ionizing radiation ejected by the nuclei of some unstable atoms)

2. These alpha particles clash then interact with the beryllium-9 producing beryllium-8 and free neutrons are released.

3. These free neutrons then initiate the nuclear fission chain reaction

Now before the bomb explodes the design must allow as much of the material as possible to be fissioned before the bomb explodes. They accomplished this by designing what is referred to as a tamper a dense material (usually consisting of Uranium-238) to confine the fission reaction for as long as possible. During the fission reaction the heat produce fission core will expand the tamper exerting pressure back on the fission core which slows the cores expansion. The tamper then further increases the efficiency of the fission reaction by reflecting neutrons back into the fission