Surprisingly enough you could hold a nuclear primary core bare handed with no ill effects. The core is plated with gold and nickel and other than feeling about as warm as a mug of cofee, the only radiation from it would be enough neutrons to make a detector tick but not enough to get a real dose unless you slept with it under your pillow for a week or more. The explosives used are extremely insensitive, and even if you blow torched them they would simply burn like plastic with a smoky flame. The most dangerous part is the secondary that has lithium deuteride in it. The chemical is highly reactive with moisture in air and burns rather violently once going. It can only be handled under argon neon or helium atmosphere 😮
@@christopherleubner6633 man, that's both reassuring and terrifying too. Lithium deuteride. Does one carry around a box that produces such an atmosphere?
Yup they can be dismantled, they have been doing it for years. Pretty much they just remove the electronics bits, then open the can containing the physics unit, or store it whole. They remove the primary from the secondary assembly then cut the explosives free from the spherical charge weapons or pull the plane wave generation charges out of newer ones. Then the different pieces are stored for disposition. They usually keep the pit assembies cut in half in 30 gallon steel drums with neutron sbsorbers. The material is generally recycled as needed to make new cores. The secondary assembly is a bit trickier as it has some highly reactive lithium deiteride in it so it has to be disassembled in an inert gas glove box. These assemblies are rarely disassembled and simply put inside a steel drum purged with argon unless they want to extract HEU from them. The physics package from the last 4 of the 9Mt devices were saved whole because they might be needed to redirect a large asteroid in the future. What a plot twist that such a terrible weapon may one dsy save us all.😮
Can you please tell us a little bit what exactly are “ plane wave generation charges “? Are there ones that are not spherical ? Like in artillery shells
I did this job from 2009-2017. I got out of the air force after the minot incident where a few of my fellow airmen misplaced a couple live thermonuclear cruise missiles for around 12 hours. It was a training exercise where dummy nukes with check sources aboard to simulate live warheads were to be used but somehow someway the stars aligned just right for stupid is to do as stupid does. So i got out and went to work at a national lab taking these things apart. And it doesnt take nerves of steel, the plutonium implosion detonators are shielded and the conventional explosives used are difficult to detonate and the entire weapon requires some very specific things done to it to make it go boom. Nobody is smuggling out any plutonium spheres either as youre checked for anything "hot" on you before you enter and before you leave so a giant lead box would be noticed. Why i eventually quitwas because all that fissile material that cost billions to refine in dacades past is just stockpiled. We have enough fissile material sitting around giving off decay particles doing nothing, when it could run every operational nuclear reactor from now until .....? And if we down blended our enriched u235 and plutonium 239 into mixed oxide fuels and reprocessed our spent fuel we could eliminate fossil fuel burning electric plants very quickly. But no, politicians like biden, bush, hell even obama are bought and paid for andnwill stop at nothing to maintain the status quo. Oh and ps burning coal releases more ionizing radiation than any nuclear power plant save one. Fucking asteroid better hurry up
Man, the expertise and nerves of steel needed to do this is unimaginable to me. Hat's off to these people doing the job.
Surprisingly enough you could hold a nuclear primary core bare handed with no ill effects. The core is plated with gold and nickel and other than feeling about as warm as a mug of cofee, the only radiation from it would be enough neutrons to make a detector tick but not enough to get a real dose unless you slept with it under your pillow for a week or more. The explosives used are extremely insensitive, and even if you blow torched them they would simply burn like plastic with a smoky flame. The most dangerous part is the secondary that has lithium deuteride in it. The chemical is highly reactive with moisture in air and burns rather violently once going. It can only be handled under argon neon or helium atmosphere 😮
@@christopherleubner6633 man, that's both reassuring and terrifying too.
Lithium deuteride.
Does one carry around a box that produces such an atmosphere?
Yup they can be dismantled, they have been doing it for years. Pretty much they just remove the electronics bits, then open the can containing the physics unit, or store it whole. They remove the primary from the secondary assembly then cut the explosives free from the spherical charge weapons or pull the plane wave generation charges out of newer ones. Then the different pieces are stored for disposition. They usually keep the pit assembies cut in half in 30 gallon steel drums with neutron sbsorbers. The material is generally recycled as needed to make new cores. The secondary assembly is a bit trickier as it has some highly reactive lithium deiteride in it so it has to be disassembled in an inert gas glove box. These assemblies are rarely disassembled and simply put inside a steel drum purged with argon unless they want to extract HEU from them. The physics package from the last 4 of the 9Mt devices were saved whole because they might be needed to redirect a large asteroid in the future. What a plot twist that such a terrible weapon may one dsy save us all.😮
Can you please tell us a little bit what exactly are “ plane wave generation charges “? Are there ones that are not spherical ? Like in artillery shells
True I was there
Well I would assume because every menace has a weakness and a defeat
Wow, this works, thank you.
I did this job from 2009-2017. I got out of the air force after the minot incident where a few of my fellow airmen misplaced a couple live thermonuclear cruise missiles for around 12 hours. It was a training exercise where dummy nukes with check sources aboard to simulate live warheads were to be used but somehow someway the stars aligned just right for stupid is to do as stupid does. So i got out and went to work at a national lab taking these things apart. And it doesnt take nerves of steel, the plutonium implosion detonators are shielded and the conventional explosives used are difficult to detonate and the entire weapon requires some very specific things done to it to make it go boom. Nobody is smuggling out any plutonium spheres either as youre checked for anything "hot" on you before you enter and before you leave so a giant lead box would be noticed. Why i eventually quitwas because all that fissile material that cost billions to refine in dacades past is just stockpiled. We have enough fissile material sitting around giving off decay particles doing nothing, when it could run every operational nuclear reactor from now until .....? And if we down blended our enriched u235 and plutonium 239 into mixed oxide fuels and reprocessed our spent fuel we could eliminate fossil fuel burning electric plants very quickly. But no, politicians like biden, bush, hell even obama are bought and paid for andnwill stop at nothing to maintain the status quo. Oh and ps burning coal releases more ionizing radiation than any nuclear power plant save one. Fucking asteroid better hurry up
Really very informative. Thanks for the video great work
I have this question for all that have the real answer who was first to develop the main component of nuclear technology?
If was openheimer?.I dont know.
I'm not really sure what you mean but if you mean the man who invented nuclear technology then your answer is Enrico Fermi.
O
Of course you can-! Just a device w Electronics that can easily be deactivated.
I hope all nukes are going out.
Those who civilized South Africa dismantled their nukes before Mandala triumphantly lead them back to the septic tank.
According to Reagan you could call them back after you launched them😂
Just ask PANTEX.
This is messed up 😤🤬