The hell bombLaurence, William L. (William Leonard)
Philosophy
The hell bomb
Laurence, William L. (William Leonard)
Hydrogen bomb
Hence on the basis of two to four pounds of plutonium per ton of uranium
metal, it would require the mining and processing of only 2 tons of
Belgian and Canadian ore to obtain that amount as compared with 34 tons
for the ore from Czechoslovakia, and a larger amount for the Saxon ore.
To make a bomb containing 22 pounds of plutonium would thus require us
to mine and process from 11 to 22 tons of ore, whereas Russia would need
from 187 to 374 tons. For a bomb requiring 66 pounds, the amount, of
course, would be correspondingly tripled, reaching a possible figure of
1,122 tons of ore to produce one A-bomb, as compared with a maximum of
no more than 66 tons of the ores available to us. In a state employing
slave labor and heedless of the wastage of human lives, the production
cost does not count. But even Russia’s manpower is not unlimited, and
workers removed from other lines of production must inevitably hurt the
economy. This factor must put a definite limit to Russia’s capacity to
produce A-bombs and will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for
her to produce a large stockpile in a short time.
When it comes to producing an H-bomb, the disparity between ourselves
and Russia assumes astronomical proportions. It takes 80 pounds of
uranium 235 to produce one pound of tritium. Since, as we have seen,
there are only 14 pounds of U-235 in a ton of natural uranium metal,
this means that 5.7 tons of uranium metal would be required, assuming
one hundred per cent efficiency of utilization, which is out of the
question. On the basis of figures already given, it can be seen that we
would require the mining and processing of only 11.4 tons of ore whereas
Russia would have to use as much as 194 tons to produce that single
pound of the element which, as the facts cited earlier appear to
demonstrate, is vital for the construction of a successful H-bomb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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