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Former Truck Driver Reconstructs A-bomb

mdsolar writes "Coster-Mullen taught himself how to build an A-bomb. 'The secret of the atomic bomb,' he says, 'is how easy they are to make.' His findings are available in a book he continuously updates and publishes himself called Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man, which has received rave reviews from the National Resource Defense Council: 'Nothing else in the Manhattan Project literature comes close to his exacting breakdown of the bomb's parts.'"

4 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. It's a Little Boy gun-type bomb by Nimey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    which are a rather simple design; among other things, they don't have any safety features.

    Broadly, what you need is two correctly sized-and-shaped chunks of enriched uranium with enough U-235 to cause a chain reaction, a smoothbore gun barrel (IIRC Little Boy used one of 6" diameter), and some gunpowder in silk bags to drive one piece of uranium into the other. There are a few other parts to this, such as the tamper and the fuze, but the toughest part should be obtaining enough enriched uranium.

    Certainly the featured bomb is not a fully-working model. It'll be a reproduction with inert material standing in for the U-235, no gunpowder, and an inert fuze.

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  2. Re:In future news... by afidel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not really, everything including technical schematics from the Manhattan Project have been available for decades. The knowledge of how to make a simple gun design device isn't what keeps people from making nukes, it's the availability of highly enriched uranium.

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  3. Re:2004 by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently you missed this and this and this and this and this and and and and

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    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  4. Re:He hasn't actually built one by FaxeTheCat · · Score: 5, Funny

    So maybe this is a case for Mythbusters?