Image:Gadget-schematic-crosssection.png

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gadget-schematic-crosssection.png (11KB, MIME type: image/png)

Schematic cross-section of the first atomic bomb, which was tested at the Trinity site in the framework of the Manhattan Project, and was nicknamed the gadget

  • made from Nuclear Weapon Archive's description
  • about 630 pixels/metre
  • thickness of casing not given (It may not have been very thick. If I understand high explosive--which I don't claim to do--a casing rupture would not have mattered after a few microseconds. And notice, for instance, that half the bolts may have been left out of Gadget's one flange.[1])
  • the lens based on 78:47 detonation-speed ratio ([2] pg6) and 10 cm between EBW and Baratol
  • thickness of amplifier layer not given

[edit] Caption

Layers go from left-to-right:

  • ██ dural casing, ~140 cm inner diameter
  • ██ exploding-bridgewire detonator (allows for instantaneous detonation of explosives)
  • ██ faster explosive, Composition B: 60% RDX, 39% TNT, 1% wax
  • ██ slower explosive (Baratol)
  • ██ faster explosive, "amplifier"
  • ██ aluminumboron "pusher" (absorbs stray neutrons and widens/smooths implosion pulse)
  • ██ natural-uranium "tamper" (neutron reflector, inertial containment, improves efficiency, reduces the amount of fission material needed)
  • ██ the "pit"; plutonium-239–plutonium-240–gallium delta-phase alloy (96%–1%–3% by molarity)(fissionable material); sphere with a diameter of 9 cm, with a 2.5 cm cavity and a plutonium plug to allow initiator insertion; mass 6.2 kg
  • ██ air gap
  • ██ berylliumpolonium-210 "initiator" (the "urchin"), neutron source

[edit] License

This image was created by User:Kwantus.

GFDL

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Subject to disclaimers.

File history

Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version.
Click on date to download the file or see the image uploaded on that date.


The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed):