Nuclear Pipe Bombs

[Tim May]

On Monday, November 19, 2001, at 12:37 PM, Tim May wrote:
>
> By the way, some calculations are still needed (by basement nuke 
> designers) on what the closing speed needs to be to get a reasonable 
> chain reaction yield. The rough calculations I saw said that a fall 
> from 40 feet, with good tamping behind and all on sides of the masses, 
> would work.
>
> But it would be easy enough to accelerate the falling mass even more. 
> An explosive charge, maybe even a rocket motor.
>

BTW, there's been a lot of recent work on electromagnetic launchers. 
Accelerating buckets in tubes, using electromagnets. (Outlined in 
Heinlein's "Moon is a Harsh Mistress," more than 35 years ago. Also 
outlined in several recent novels, and of course in technical papers on 
"mass launch" systems.)

An electromagnetic accelerator could accelerate small masses to speeds 
beyond what explosives could ever accomplish. Imagine the new designs 
using even less fissionable material (up to certain basic physics 
limits, of course).

Accelerate a small slug of Californium and splat it against a hard 
target...ah, now _that's_ a basement nuke!


--Tim May
"The State is the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the 
expense of everyone else." --Frederic Bastiat