China Ballistic Missiles and Nuclear Arms Thread

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Anlsvrthng

Captain
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Really puzzled by this statement. Ambient air on the ground is a heat sink, so is the air in the cave. The heat on ground pass through air, while the air in the cave pass to the rock which is even better serving as the heat sink. Besides that, the sipping water from the rock would serve as better heat sink than the air in the cave, the heated water will then be allowed to continue sip into the rock on the floor of the case. But whatever I say, I think you will refuse to consider.

I GWt equivalent with the burning of 125 tonns of coal in every hour.

You want to remove that energy with natural airflow, or with the water dripping out of walls?

It can evaporate 1000 tonns of water in every hour.
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
I GWt equivalent with the burning of 125 tonns of coal in every hour.

You want to remove that energy with natural airflow, or with the water dripping out of walls?

It can evaporate 1000 tonns of water in every hour.
In your ground plant, don't you remove that energy with natural airflow (the air around your plant)? If you can do that, why can't you do it even better through water and rock? You know water and rock is many times (tens to hundred) more efficient heat conductors than air? In air of 30 degrees, you feel hot but not life threatening, but if you stay in 30 degrees of sea water without suit you will feel cold in half an hour and probably die in a few hours.

The water drips constantly through the mountain, they don't stay statically (which will evaporate eventually), that is how water cooling works, any type of cooling. When your plant on the ground, it still has to have the same amount of heat being removed by the surrounding air PASSIVELY, relying on natural circulation. That circulation is much less efficient than water and rock where the water ACTIVELY passthrough because of gravity, that is like constant wind that you may not have on the ground.

To get what I am talking, you can search for video report about China building a highway tunnel through mountain of the same region. Watch and listen to the water flooding trouble they faced. The water comes from the mountain before the tunnel was drilled, so it goes out of the tunnel back to the mountain, that is natural water circulation that I am talking about.

In a simplistic analogue, your ground plant is an ordinary fan based air-cooling PC, my plant is a pumped water-cooling gaming station.
 
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montyp165

Senior Member
You can't use the Pu from commercial plants to make ICBM grade warheads.

At a minimum, commercial nuclear fuel can be used to generate bomb grade materials, otherwise the notion of countries with nuclear powerplants but no weapon systems weaponizing their Pu stockpiles wouldn't even exist. Separation of Pu-239 from reprocessed spent commercial fuel may require greater processing to achieve ICBM grade material, but it is still doable. In any event however, such a capability is only intended to be complementary to dedicated Pu generation plants and not a pure substitute.
 

vincent

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
At a minimum, commercial nuclear fuel can be used to generate bomb grade materials, otherwise the notion of countries with nuclear powerplants but no weapon systems weaponizing their Pu stockpiles wouldn't even exist. Separation of Pu-239 from reprocessed spent commercial fuel may require greater processing to achieve ICBM grade material, but it is still doable. In any event however, such a capability is only intended to be complementary to dedicated Pu generation plants and not a pure substitute.

Japan has a huge stockpile of Pu. I don't think they produced them using a dedicated reactor

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Japan has about 47 tons of the radioactive element -- enough to produce around 6,000 nuclear warheads. Foreign and domestic critics have pointed to these reserves as a ready source of bomb-making material should Japan choose to become a nuclear weapons state.
 

Anlsvrthng

Captain
Registered Member
At a minimum, commercial nuclear fuel can be used to generate bomb grade materials, otherwise the notion of countries with nuclear powerplants but no weapon systems weaponizing their Pu stockpiles wouldn't even exist. Separation of Pu-239 from reprocessed spent commercial fuel may require greater processing to achieve ICBM grade material, but it is still doable. In any event however, such a capability is only intended to be complementary to dedicated Pu generation plants and not a pure substitute.
You can make bomb from commercial grade Pu, but it will be heavy, and inefficient.

Additionally the reprocessing needs expensive machines, and very difficult ( the weapon Pu reactors output can be handled with gloves).

It means the delivery of such weapons not possible with missiles, or bombers.

Maybe with ships. Or these can be used as mines.
 

antiterror13

Brigadier
You can make bomb from commercial grade Pu, but it will be heavy, and inefficient.

Additionally the reprocessing needs expensive machines, and very difficult ( the weapon Pu reactors output can be handled with gloves).

It means the delivery of such weapons not possible with missiles, or bombers.

Maybe with ships. Or these can be used as mines.

or as a dirty bomb :)

Perhaps just better to use U-235 than commercial grade Pu
 

Anlsvrthng

Captain
Registered Member
or as a dirty bomb :)

Perhaps just better to use U-235 than commercial grade Pu

Perfect material for dirty bomb is the Cs137, if someone reprocessing fuel anyway.

It can be obtained from dismantled gamma sources, like radiotherapy machines, maybe RTGs?


Soluble in water, very strong gamma emitter, and has 30 years of half life.

The biggest contamination from Fukushima (and Chernobil) is the Cs137.

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Anlsvrthng

Captain
Registered Member
Separation of Pu-239 from reprocessed spent commercial fuel may require greater processing to achieve ICBM grade material, but it is still doable.

Theoretically doable, but in practice impossible.

It is hard to separate the U235 from the U238, but there is only one neutron difference between the Pu-239 and Pu-240.

Means it is extremely difficult to separate them from each other.
 
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