Theory
See also: Nuclear weapon designThe hydrogen in uranium hydride (UH3) or plutonium hydride moderates (slows) the neutrons, thereby increasing the nuclear cross section for neutron absorption. The result would be a lower required critical mass, thereby reducing the amount of pure U235 or plutonium needed for an explosion. The result was that the slower neutrons delayed the reaction time too much, and reduced the efficiency of the weapon. It increased the time between subsequent neutron generation events necessary for rapid explosion. It creates a problem in the containment of the explosion; the inertia that is used to confine implosion type bombs will not be able to confine the reaction. The end result may be a fizzle instead of a bang. The predicted energy yield would be 1000 tons TNT equivalent.
Read more about this topic: Uranium Hydride Bomb
Famous quotes containing the word theory:
“... liberal intellectuals ... tend to have a classical theory of politics, in which the state has a monopoly of power; hoping that those in positions of authority may prove to be enlightened men, wielding power justly, they are natural, if cautious, allies of the “establishment.””
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“The theory [before the twentieth century] ... was that all the jobs in the world belonged by right to men, and that only men were by nature entitled to wages. If a woman earned money, outside domestic service, it was because some misfortune had deprived her of masculine protection.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)
“It is not enough for theory to describe and analyse, it must itself be an event in the universe it describes. In order to do this theory must partake of and become the acceleration of this logic. It must tear itself from all referents and take pride only in the future. Theory must operate on time at the cost of a deliberate distortion of present reality.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)