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Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work Part 1/2

Belfer Center4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2018-2024
YouTube
2.6M views · 13 years ago · lecture · evergreen

Harvard Belfer Center lecture by Matthew Bunn explaining how nuclear bombs work, including fission and fusion weapons and which parts of bomb-making are hard. It is part 1 of 2 in the Nuclear 101 series.

HN recommends it as an entertaining, clear explanation of nuclear weapons basics from a policy expert.

Military history & warfareFundamental physicsUniversity lectures & courses#nuclearbombs#fission#proliferation#matthewbunn#belfercenter

5 comments from Hacker News

@nordsieck2024 · in “El Capitan: New supercomputer is the fastest”

> It's because of the way the weapons are designed, which requires a CNWDI clearance to know, so your curiosity is not likely to be sated. While that's true, the information that is online is surprisingly detailed. For example, this series "Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work" ▶ this video link

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@virgulino2024 · in “Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?”

For anyone interested in the basics of nuclear weapons, I highly recommend the "Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work" lectures by Matthew Bunn, a man heavily involved in nuclear arms control. His lectures are always highly entertaining, a real pleasure to watch. This is a clip from his lecture explaining the basics of thermonuclear warheads: link And the full “Nuclear 101” lecture, in two parts: ▶ this video link

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@verdverm2023 · in “Ask HN: What happens if a nuclear missile is air-destroyed before detonation?”

▶ this video has a good explanation of how nuclear weapons work. It may be possible that a missel is disabled and when it hits the ground, produces a much lower yield explosion than designed for, in particular a plutonium device, if I recall the video and extrapolate with sufficient accuracy

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@espeed2019 · in “Revolutionary Ideas in Science, Math, and Society [video]”

On US soil you'd have fallout from the soil getting sucked up into the atmosphere. See... "Why World War II Matters - Victor Davis Hanson" [video] link Harvard Belfer Center: "Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work Part 1/2" [video] ▶ this video

CitesView on HN
@shaqbert2018 · in “No Longer a Secret: How Israel Destroyed Syria's Nuclear Reactor”

In context, here is a great video from the Belfer center on nuclear bomb making and what are the hard parts [0]. Getting the fission material is the hard part, and in order to get plutonium nukes you need a enrichment plant, i.e. a reactor that is not meant to produce energy but breed plutonium. [0] ▶ this video (at min 47, he starts talking about the hard parts)

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