SUZNV + 1,197 February 2, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: Poland's "geostrategy" has been like this for hundreds of years. Sibling rivalry - Russia got in a way of a competing Empire-building project of their own. Does get them partitioned once in a while. Somebody enlisted with US military gets like $1000/month stipend. Not much of a tourist by German standards. Poland apparently had high hopes for those budget tourists, but all they got is a huge pile of empty armor in desert camo. Sources allegedly in the know say those be US AFRICOM, not NATO. Not only the wages for US military support, but US soldiers will spend there as well and the possibly supplying and maintenance contracts + infrastructure would contribute much much significant to local economy than simply taxes than wages alone. From my Asian perspective, I don't really understand how nation of Europe can have many countries share the same culture, for example Russia, Ukraine and Belarus all claims Kievan Rus origin. Or Germany, Austria and Belgium. Or Lithuania or Poland. It seems like European nationalism is different on the same Eastern Slavic or Germanic with the exception of old countries like Italy, Greece, UK, France (another Germanic name) etc, Edited February 2, 2022 by SUZNV Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 On 1/30/2022 at 5:28 PM, Andrei Moutchkine said: It is far from obvious that uranium based nukes work at all, even if highly enriched. The real explosive yield of Hiroshima was under 1%, making it a "dirty bomb" at best. The Chelyabinsk meteor was 10x the size of Hiroshima, yet only destroyed all the window glass in town. Even Nagasaki-style (solid Pu) is way tricky. The original design had a shelf life as low as 48 hours after being built. https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/604623/why-no-one-will-ever-build-another-nagasaki-type-bomb/ Only the "hydrogen" fusion nukes are real. You don't know beans about Nukes. I was a nuclear weapons qualified officer in the US Army in 1971and could d o the same duties on the US Navy 8" and 6" guns on cruisers. The W-31 was a boosted fission bomb with 2Kt, 20kt and 40KT warheads. All plutonium cores. Activation was inserting the beryllium core. For the 8", 175mm and the 6in/155mm guns There was the W-33. This a class of enhanced tactical weapon that could reach 240 kt. Shelf life on the Pershing II was about 8 years. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 26 minutes ago, nsdp said: Obviously you don't know US military pay scales. E-2 pay after basic training is $2055 +1455 . monthly for housing' + $406. /for meals both tax free. Then add $50/(tax free)if they are in a hazardous duty zone overseas and add $450/moth tax free specialty combat pay . So a E-2 can get $2055 taxable play monthly plus $2361 tax fee. You need to quit pulling statements out of your ass. If he lives in barracks and eats in the mess hall stateside he still get $2055 monthly and $12,500 is tax free under the standard deduction . So he pays about $110/month in tax. Chill, it simply grew by that much since I last bothered to look it up just a couple of years back, Or not. This says $1638 for E1 https://work.chron.com/average-salary-us-soldier-9060.html E2 is $1836, but is not the starting grade. I was not aware of the existence of the housing allowance, which is kinda dubious. Wouldn't a soldier just live in barracks at their base for free? If you don't have to pay rent+utilities, it is a borderline normal income in Germany. Still not that great of a tourist. In Poland though... In light of this, it is weird that they don't make any adjustments for the local PPP. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 24 minutes ago, SUZNV said: Not only the wages for US military support, but US soldiers will spend there as well and the possibly supplying and maintenance contracts + infrastructure would contribute much much significant to local economy than simply taxes than wages alone. From my Asian perspective, I don't really understand how nation of Europe can have many countries share the same culture, for example Russia, Ukraine and Belarus all claims Kievan Rus origin. Or Germany, Austria and Belgium. Or Lithuania or Poland. It seems like European nationalism is different on the same Eastern Slavic or Germanic with the exception of old countries like Italy, Greece, UK, France (another Germanic name) etc, Your map of Europe seems to be somewhat patchy Belgium is a sort of French/Dutch hybrid, not Germanic like Austria and Germany. Toss in most of Switzerland and region of Italy called South Tyrol to those. Italy is actually a very young country. Didn't exist before late 19th century. Technically, Kievan Rus' was supposed to be more of a time period than a place. Otherwise, it is just Rus' There were previously many more Rus' regions, most of which are now Ukraine, for example Chervona (Red) Rus' and Malaya (Little) Rus' (recently disputed Belarus means White Rus' and all those colors supposedly come from directions on the Mongol compass. The Medieval Duchy of Lithuania was also initially a largely Rus' principality, till they joined the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and got thoroughly polonized. The Baltic Lithuanians didn't have a writing system of their own, till much later, which is not a good recipe for keeping your national identity. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 47 minutes ago, nsdp said: You don't know beans about Nukes. I was a nuclear weapons qualified officer in the US Army in 1971and could d o the same duties on the US Navy 8" and 6" guns on cruisers. The W-31 was a boosted fission bomb with 2Kt, 20kt and 40KT warheads. All plutonium cores. Activation was inserting the beryllium core. For the 8", 175mm and the 6in/155mm guns There was the W-33. This a class of enhanced tactical weapon that could reach 240 kt. Shelf life on the Pershing II was about 8 years. Hey, it is all in the article. We were not talking about 1971 nukes, but about Nagasaki-style Fat Mans, which they only built between 1945 and 1949. Or tried too. Obviously, they were trying to build enough to nuke the Soviets while they still could, and failed. I wouldn't be here talking to you if they didn't. AFAIK, they never again tried to build a Hiroshima-style uranium nuke. Which was really the main point. Why would the Iranians be stupid enough to pursue this obvious dead end? Also note that 8 years also ain't so great a shelf life if you want a large stockpile. Lithium deuteride fusion nukes ought to have an indefinite one. PS Your own shelf life is not too bad. Have you retained any interesting glow-in-the-dark properties to this day? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 33 minutes ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: Chill, it simply grew by that much since I last bothered to look it up just a couple of years back, Or not. This says $1638 for E1 https://work.chron.com/average-salary-us-soldier-9060.html E2 is $1836, but is not the starting grade. I was not aware of the existence of the housing allowance, which is kinda dubious. Wouldn't a soldier just live in barracks at their base for free? If you don't have to pay rent+utilities, it is a borderline normal income in Germany. Still not that great of a tourist. In Poland though... In light of this, it is weird that they don't make any adjustments for the local PPP. You didn't bother to look very hard. You used the 2018 pay scale not 2022. You also have to include quarters and subsistence allowance plus $75 for hazardous zone. This is a private and when he hits one year of service he goes to E-2 at 2160 plus allowance/ So a private in Germany on the economy has $4000 /month. or more Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 (edited) 22 minutes ago, nsdp said: You didn't bother to look very hard. You used the 2018 pay scale not 2022. You also have to include quarters and subsistence allowance plus $75 for hazardous zone. This is a private and when he hits one year of service he goes to E-2 at 2160 plus allowance/ So a private in Germany on the economy has $4000 /month. or more I have not bothered to look very hard, because I have no specific number to defend. All that I was saying is that a US private is a lower income induhvidual in Germany and I still insist it is the case. Leave it at two grand. Germany is no hazardous zone and the good Uncle is obviously not interested with doubling the outlays on every enlisted man. Otherwise would he not build giant bases complete with barracks and mess halls and works commissaries full of nostalgic goodies from back home, providing an all-included five-star travel experience. Note that the rent on the land the base is built on and misc. services like plumbing tend to be provided for a token fee of one EUR (previously, one DM) so the net balance is not really clear. Edited February 2, 2022 by Andrei Moutchkine Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 9 minutes ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: Hey, it is all in the article. We were not talking about 1971 nukes, but about Nagasaki-style Fat Mans, which they only built between 1945 and 1949. Or tried too. Obviously, they were trying to build enough to nuke the Soviets while they still could, and failed. I wouldn't be here talking to you if they didn't. AFAIK, they never again tried to build a Hiroshima-style uranium nuke. Which was really the main point. Why would the Iranians be stupid enough to pursue this obvious dead end? Also note that 8 years also ain't so great a shelf life if you want a large stockpile. Lithium deuteride fusion nukes ought to have an indefinite one. PS Your own shelf life is not too bad. Have you retained any interesting glow-in-the-dark properties to this day? You don't know about the USS Indianpolis which transported Little Boy to Guam for transfer to Titian. That took 10 1/2 days and the bomb was dropped 11 days later. That does not count transport by train from Los Alamos to San Francisco. The W-31 is a pure U-235 fissile weapon with a P-239 jacket and tritium gas to enhance the blast. Produced from 1948 -1982. Tritum was the limit on shelf life not the Uranium or the plutonium. Tritium is not known to be stable. You want your bomb to go boom not fizzle like Pakistan's first attempt. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 1 minute ago, nsdp said: You don't know about the USS Indianpolis which transported Little Boy to Guam for transfer to Titian. That took 10 1/2 days and the bomb was dropped 11 days later. That does not count transport by train from Los Alamos to San Francisco. The W-31 is a pure U-235 fissile weapon with a P-239 jacket and tritium gas to enhance the blast. Produced from 1948 -1982. Tritum was the limit on shelf life not the Uranium or the plutonium. Tritium is not known to be stable. You want your bomb to go boom not fizzle like Pakistan's first attempt. I don't know what the shelf life on Little Boy was. What I do know is that it was largely a dud. Fat Man had a horrible shelf life. For example, due to Polonium-210 used in its initiator having a 136 day half-life? You'll have to read the Arms Control Wonk article for all the reasons how did it get to be as bad as 48 hours. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 2 minutes ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: I don't know what the shelf life on Little Boy was. What I do know is that it was largely a dud. Fat Man had a horrible shelf life. For example, due to Polonium-210 used in its initiator having a 136 day half-life? You'll have to read the Arms Control Wonk article for all the reasons how did it get to be as bad as 48 hours. Polonium was not used in Fat Man. It was Be-6 and Be-7. US has never used Polonium for fissile weapons material until after 1981. I can't speak to the second generation of weapons. I don't glow in the dark. My serious exposure was on Route 9 facing what Charlie Beckwith called the finest soldiers he had ever seen. Agent Orange was everywhere. I have had nonHodgkins twice and Squamous cell more times than I can count. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 16 minutes ago, nsdp said: Polonium was not used in Fat Man. It was Be-6 and Be-7. US has never used Polonium for fissile weapons material until after 1981. I can't speak to the second generation of weapons. I don't glow in the dark. My serious exposure was on Route 9 facing what Charlie Beckwith called the finest soldiers he had ever seen. Agent Orange was everywhere. I have had nonHodgkins twice and Squamous cell more times than I can count. Would you fucking read the original article I posted, already? Or this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulated_neutron_initiator#Design It used both beryllium and polonium, which only made it worse. I think I have (barely) been able to find what Route 9 was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Route_9_(Vietnam)#History Most Google hits on Route 9 is something related to Pokemons. Facing whose soldiers, yours or the Vietnamese? What were you doing there, if you were some kind of Navy ordnance guy? Seems like mostly Special Forces were there. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SUZNV + 1,197 February 2, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: Your map of Europe seems to be somewhat patchy Belgium is a sort of French/Dutch hybrid, not Germanic like Austria and Germany. Toss in most of Switzerland and region of Italy called South Tyrol to those. Italy is actually a very young country. Didn't exist before late 19th century. Technically, Kievan Rus' was supposed to be more of a time period than a place. Otherwise, it is just Rus' There were previously many more Rus' regions, most of which are now Ukraine, for example Chervona (Red) Rus' and Malaya (Little) Rus' (recently disputed Belarus means White Rus' and all those colors supposedly come from directions on the Mongol compass. The Medieval Duchy of Lithuania was also initially a largely Rus' principality, till they joined the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and got thoroughly polonized. The Baltic Lithuanians didn't have a writing system of their own, till much later, which is not a good recipe for keeping your national identity. Yet trace back to Roman time, France was originated as Frank which is a part of Germanic tribes but Romanized. French language is closer to Latin than Germanic. Germanic tribes and Slavic tribes history and movement were so complicated which make me confused for nationalism ideology even after reading their histories many times. It seems decentralized and move along with their royal families than cultures yet nationalism needs some strong identity than royal families alone. For the no written language I don't think it was such a big deal for nationalism. Yue (Viet) tribes in East Asia doesn't have a written language yet Vietnamese spoken language still can borrow Chinese (Figurative language) for literal written yet still have quite an old kingdom with unique verbal language and nationalism that could gain independent after 1000 year of China's occupation and then matched against Song, Yuan(Mongol) Dynasty, Min, Qing...until now. One country for ancient Yue people and language, same with Korean or Japanese. Vietnamese uses alphabetical nowadays yet the spoken language still the same. The bonds against foreign occupation is very strong with that long heritage otherwise Vietnamese would all speak Chinese now. There was Sinicized Yue tribes in Southern China now spoke Chinese just like France was Romanized but there is no country that could be considered as Vietnam's sibling and that where the Vietnamese strong nationalism came from. Mongol didn't officially to have a written language until the need of Mongol Empire administration, part of them adopted Chinese culture and form Yuan dynasty. Japanese and Korean were invented much later as well yet their nationalism are much easier to understand. Ruling class/royal and kingdom changed a few times yet the heritage and nationalism is the same. Nationalism in East Asia countries are much more simple and easy to understand. In modern political correctness, Vietnamese culture can be considered racist and anti migration (inward not outward). Edited February 2, 2022 by SUZNV 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 (edited) 12 hours ago, SUZNV said: Yet trace back to Roman time, France originated as Frank which is a part of Germanic tribes but Romanized. French language is closer to Latin than Germanic. Germanic tribes and Slavic tribes history and movement were so complicated which make me confused for nationalism ideology even after reading their histories many times. It seems decentralized and move along with their royal families than cultures yet nationalism needs some strong identity. For the no written language I don't think it was such a big deal for nationalism. Yue (Viet) tribes in East Asia doesn't have a written language yet Vietnamese spoken language still can borrow Chinese (Figurative language) for literal written yet still have quite an old kingdom with unique verbal language and nationalism that could gain independent after 1000 year of China's occupation and then matched against Song, Yuan(Mongol) Dynasty, Min, Qing...until now. One country for ancient Yue people and language, same with Korean or Japanese. Vietnamese uses alphabetical nowadays yet the spoken language still the same. The bonds against foreign occupation is very strong with that long heritage otherwise Vietnamese would all speak Chinese now. There was Sinicized Yue tribes in Southern China now spoke Chinese just like France was Romanized but there is no country that could be considered as Vietnam's sibling and that where the Vietnamese strong nationalism came from. Mongol didn't officially to have a written language until the need of Mongol Empire administration, part of them adopted Chinese culture and form Yuan dynasty. Japanese and Korean were invented much later as well yet their nationalism are much easier to understand. Ruling class/royal and kingdom changed a few times yet the heritage and nationalism is the same. Franks from France are pretty much identical with today's Germans. Das Reich keeps creeping in the eastbound direction over time. The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drang_nach_Osten is much older than 19th century, like Wiki claims it is. Today's French are not them, but mostly Gauls, Celtic people who used to live in the Balkans where Bulgaria is now. Written Imperial Mongol is obviously synthetic, because it is suddenly Semitic. Edited February 2, 2022 by Andrei Moutchkine Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SUZNV + 1,197 February 2, 2022 5 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: Franks from France are pretty much identical with today's Germans. Das Reich keeps shifting in the eastbound direction overtime. The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drang_nach_Osten is much older than 19th century, like Wiki claims. Today's French are not them, but mostly Gauls, Celtic people who used to live in the Balkans where Bulgaria is now. Written Imperial Mongol is obviously synthetic, because it is suddenly Semitic. Middle Age was fish eat fish world. Vietnam has the civil war between Trinh-Nguyen between the original from North and new colonial &pioneer in the South. Under the pressure from the north, the colonial &pioneer to the south created South Vietnam nowadays with a different mindset where South Vietnam consisted 3 ethnics working together: Vietnamese, Khmer, and Southern Han-Sino Cantonese Chinese (ancient Sinicized Yue tribes descendants in South China that was the same race genetically, but Han-Sino culture, calling them Chinese is similar to call Holy Roman Empire or Third Rome was successors of Rome. No racist here as I am the descendent of Cantonese myself). Vietnam was not really innocent as we destroyed Champa Kingdom centuries earlier, kind of ancient enemy from the South but beyond that land to the south was kind of colonial & pioneer cultures of 3 ethnics above. What I found hard to wrap my head around is: -In Asia, nations formed first under some centralized Kingdoms since early feudal age, federations would not survive (normally will be absorb in Chinese culture), then they had nationalist and nationalism. In Germany case, it seems in the reverse, Nationalist first, then Nationalism made a Nation which is unique, in "let's unite, form a nation and go kick some asses" startup style, not some type of colonial nationalist forma nation then vs motherland. Yet that new nationalism to switch from decentralized federation to centralized nation style and is strong enough for causing 2 world wars and conservative enough for "in Germany do as the Germans do". I guess even I know the historical process (so you don't need to throw links to me :P), I don't really understand how decentralized federations and later on small nations can survive in Europe in the first place next to powerful centralized neighbors. The same with Ukraine, Belarus and Russia historical relationship and therefore the conflicts. --------------------------------------- With that burden of history , in the scenario somedays USA have a peaceful president who wanted to stop being a hegemony, world police and went back to MYOB trading style. He persuades the voters and Congress that nothing is wrong with trading Taiwan for Soya Bean. Putting MYOB to the institution or simply public debt was too high and no-one outside of US would want USD. And remove the nuclear factor, WW3 would be guaranteed among EU (assume they would redirect historical internal conflicts outside), Russia and China to fill the vacuum of power and rush to the raw resources (Russia, Middle East, Central Asia, Africa) simply because lack of trust among super powers as the believe who don't have resources would be conquered, just like how WW1 occurred: Britain and France was afraid of new Germany nations growing powers, Germany was afraid giving Russia too much time to develop with their ample resources and the spark came from the assignation of an Austria Prince. All sides were confident in their advance warfare technologies and think they would win the war ASAP. I don't think Russia can be in the offensive side this time given it is sandwiched between EU and China both have a huge populations with limited resources, but they would need to take Ukraine back for defensive position from EU. otherwise the road to Moscow is broad, there is no good strategic defensive position for Russia without Ukraine. They need to secure this position to stop China moved up to Central Asia. South East Asia, Japan, India would be spare in short run because it is a race against time for resources in Russia, Middle East, Africa. The competitors would avoid the mistakes of Japan made in WW2. Sooner or later US would have to change the MYOB constitution and do the hegemony again after selling weapons and foods to all sides and take gold for payment (bitcoin or crypto would be doomed in this scenario). Where does the US hegemony, bullying and petrol dollar complains come from, lol. Other business model would give much more sustainable profits to common US people unlike current situations: low pay for general jobs, overpay for complicated one to create incentives, expensive healthcare, retirements, high student loan, high trade deficit, high public debt etc. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 9 minutes ago, SUZNV said: Middle Age was fish eat fish world. Vietnam has the civil war between Trinh-Nguyen between the original from North and new colonial &pioneer in the South. Under the pressure from the north, the colonial &pioneer to the south created South Vietnam nowadays with a different mindset where South Vietnam consisted 3 ethnics working together: Vietnamese, Khmer, and Southern Han-Sino Cantonese Chinese (ancient Sinicized Yue tribes descendants in South China that was the same race genetically, but Han-Sino culture, calling them Chinese is similar to call Holy Roman Empire or Third Rome was successors of Rome. No racist here as I am the descendent of Cantonese myself). Vietnam was not really innocent as we destroyed Champa Kingdom centuries earlier, kind of ancient enemy from the South but beyond that land to the south was kind of colonial & pioneer cultures of 3 ethnics above. What I found hard to wrap my head around is: -In Asia, nations formed first under some centralized Kingdoms since early feudal age, federations would not survive (normally will be absorb in Chinese culture), then they had nationalist and nationalism. In Germany case, it seems in the reverse, Nationalist first, then Nationalism made a Nation which is unique, in "let's unite, form a nation and go kick some asses" startup style, not some type of colonial nationalist forma nation then vs motherland. Yet that new nationalism to switch from decentralized federation to centralized nation style and is strong enough for causing 2 world wars and conservative enough for "in Germany do as the Germans do". I guess even I know the historical process (so you don't need to throw links to me :P), I don't really understand how decentralized federations and later on small nations can survive in Europe in the first place next to powerful centralized neighbors. The same with Ukraine, Belarus and Russia historical relationship and therefore the conflicts. --------------------------------------- With that burden of history , in the scenario somedays USA have a peaceful president who wanted to stop being a hegemony, world police and went back to MYOB trading style. He persuades the voters and Congress that nothing is wrong with trading Taiwan for Soya Bean. Putting MYOB to the institution or simply public debt was too high and no-one outside of US would want USD. And remove the nuclear factor, WW3 would be guaranteed among EU (assume they would redirect historical internal conflicts outside), Russia and China to fill the vacuum of power and rush to the raw resources (Russia, Middle East, Central Asia, Africa) simply because lack of trust among super powers as the believe who don't have resources would be conquered, just like how WW1 occurred: Britain and France was afraid of new Germany nations growing powers, Germany was afraid giving Russia too much time to develop with their ample resources and the spark came from the assignation of an Austria Prince. All sides were confident in their advance warfare technologies and think they would win the war ASAP. I don't think Russia can be in the offensive side this time given it is sandwiched between EU and China both have a huge populations with limited resources, but they would need to take Ukraine back for defensive position from EU. otherwise the road to Moscow is broad, there is no good strategic defensive position for Russia without Ukraine. They need to secure this position to stop China moved up to Central Asia. South East Asia, Japan, India would be spare in short run because it is a race against time for resources in Russia, Middle East, Africa. The competitors would avoid the mistakes of Japan made in WW2. Sooner or later US would have to change the MYOB constitution and do the hegemony again after selling weapons and foods to all sides and take gold for payment (bitcoin or crypto would be doomed in this scenario). Where does the US hegemony, bullying and petrol dollar complains come from, lol. Other business model would give much more sustainable profits to common US people unlike current situations: low pay for general jobs, overpay for complicated one to create incentives, expensive healthcare, retirements, high student loan, high trade deficit, high public debt etc. Gold stockpile is also a great radiation shielding! About as good as lead 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 16 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: Would you fucking read the original article I posted, already? Or this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulated_neutron_initiator#Design It used both beryllium and polonium, which only made it worse. I think I have (barely) been able to find what Route 9 was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Route_9_(Vietnam)#History Most Google hits on Route 9 is something related to Pokemons. Facing whose soldiers, yours or the Vietnamese? What were you doing there, if you were some kind of Navy ordnance guy? Seems like mostly Special Forces were there. I read it and it applies to a type of trigger that the US has never used. Trigger for Fat man was Be-6 and Be-7. The only people using Polonium is Russia to kill dissidents. In 1955 the US went to a different design called the fission -fusion -fission trigger. Polonium was tried at Los Alamos and rejected in favor of the beryllium pit and explosives designed to crush the the Plutonium casing. More reliable and stable. Just because you found it on Wikipedia doesn't make it gospel. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Starschy + 211 PM February 2, 2022 10 minutes ago, nsdp said: I read it and it applies to a type of trigger that the US has never used. Trigger for Fat man was Be-6 and Be-7. The only people using Polonium is Russia to kill dissidents. In 1955 the US went to a different design called the fission -fusion -fission trigger. Polonium was tried at Los Alamos and rejected in favor of the beryllium pit and explosives designed to crush the the Plutonium casing. More reliable and stable. Just because you found it on Wikipedia doesn't make it gospel. That is nonsens https://nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-spy-helped-soviets-with-polonium-production Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 From your same article :"Urchin was the code name for the internal neutron initiator, a neutron generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs such as The Gadget and Fat Man, once the critical mass had been 'assembled' by the force of conventional explosives. " No polonium as experiments at Los Alamos proved to not be "soldier proof" in the field". It was tried and found to be logisitically not feasible. When the fission-fusion-fission design was tested and was successful, there was no point in pursuing polonoium or radium neutron generation enhancements. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 21 minutes ago, nsdp said: I read it and it applies to a type of trigger that the US has never used. Trigger for Fat man was Be-6 and Be-7. The only people using Polonium is Russia to kill dissidents. In 1955 the US went to a different design called the fission -fusion -fission trigger. Polonium was tried at Los Alamos and rejected in favor of the beryllium pit and explosives designed to crush the the Plutonium casing. More reliable and stable. Just because you found it on Wikipedia doesn't make it gospel. This is stupid. Bond, James Bond kills some worthless Russians in British custody not earning their keep that way. Only than do they become famous dissidents, nobody cares about them before. The Rube Goldberg mechanism never used before or since is used to attract the tabloid press' attention. First incident known to me is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_umbrella device. The whole "Novichok" assassination plot actually debuted on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Back_(TV_series) back in 2010. The hypothetical GRU would simply shoot who they don't like. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: This is stupid. Bond, James Bond kills some worthless Russians in British custody not earning their keep that way. Only than do they become famous dissidents, nobody cares about them before. The Rube Goldberg mechanism never used before or since is used to attract the tabloid press' attention. First incident known to me is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_umbrella device. The whole "Novichok" assassination plot actually debuted on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Back_(TV_series) back in 2010. The hypothetical GRU would simply shoot who they don't like. Lets use some one more authoritative like the Radiation Laboratory at MIT. Wikipedia is loaded with bullshit. https://nuclearweaponsedproj.mit.edu › sites › default › files › documents › nukeearly.pptx And the reason why we never used the polonium trigger was this accident. tungsten carbide. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-chilling-story-of-the-demon-core-and-the-scientists-who-became-its-victims-plutonium-bomb-radiation-wwii This happened in May 1945 before the the Alamogordo test that there was a better way. Edited February 2, 2022 by nsdp spelling errors. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 43 minutes ago, Starschy said: That is nonsens https://nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-spy-helped-soviets-with-polonium-production What is nonsense is you thinking the National Post knows more than the Radiation Lab at MIT. it also shows that you are unable to conduct qualify research. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 56 minutes ago, Starschy said: That is nonsens https://nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-spy-helped-soviets-with-polonium-production This article is a fairy tale. Polonium-210 was never that difficult to make, because it is a part of the decay sequence of the naturally occurring radon gas http://www.ccnr.org/radon_chart.html (Originally known as "daughters of radon" on the account of being surprisingly benign (girly) for elements this radioactive, all being strictly alpha emitters) US' Oak Ridge and the equivalent Russian lab in Sarov make it straight from bismuth to spare the nuisance of continuously reshuffling the inventories of variously transmuting "daughters" They've all got extremely short half-lives. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 36 minutes ago, nsdp said: Lets use some one more authoritative like the Radiation Laboratory at MIT. Wikipedia is loaded with bullshit. https://nuclearweaponsedproj.mit.edu › sites › default › files › documents › nukeearly.pptx And the reason why we never used the polonium trigger was this accident. tungsten carbide. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-chilling-story-of-the-demon-core-and-the-scientists-who-became-its-victims-plutonium-bomb-radiation-wwii This happened in May 1945 before the the Alamogordo test that there was a better way. This one was the Rufus core, not Fat Man. I don't see the claim of them ever building more than one of those? There is also no connection between polonium and tungsten carbide whatsoever. The guy slipped and dropped a brick into the plutonium, causing it to go critical. The role of the tungsten carbide is not that of initiator, but of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_reflector Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nsdp + 449 eh February 2, 2022 1 minute ago, Andrei Moutchkine said: This one was the Rufus core, not Fat Man. I don't see the claim of them ever building more than one of those? There is also no connection between polonium and tungsten carbide whatsoever. The guy slipped and dropped a brick into the plutonium, causing it to go critical. The role of the tungsten carbide is not that of initiator, but of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_reflector Rufus was never built. Polonium experiments were abandoned by June 1945. After the Rosenbergs, Greenglass and Fuchs sent their info to Moscow. Too unstable. Manhattaan Project knew that Tungsten Carbide/beryllium was a better neutron trigger than Polonium due to the accidents. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 February 2, 2022 3 minutes ago, nsdp said: Rufus was never built. Polonium experiments were abandoned by June 1945. After the Rosenbergs, Greenglass and Fuchs sent their info to Moscow. Too unstable. Manhattaan Project knew that Tungsten Carbide/beryllium was a better neutron trigger than Polonium due to the accidents. Moscow also only ever tested a nuke based on American blueprints just once. From this https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/604623/why-no-one-will-ever-build-another-nagasaki-type-bomb/ again, we could infer that perhaps the Be-Po initiator was a feature of the Mark 3 prototypes only? (that is, Trinity and Fat Man actually dropped on Nagasaki) It does say that later Fat Man were variously improved, but does not say how exactly. They also say the design was chosen for expediency of manufacture, not quality. Having said that, I do not see a way to replace an initiator which goes into the center to be squeezed (as Be-Po does), with better/more neutron reflector mounted statically (as tungsten carbide does) Arms Control Wonk is a known watering hole of actual international nuclear arms control professionals. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites