Quote:
Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Okay. What does uranium enrichment have to do with that?
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It is my understanding that because of their lack of Plutonium, the most likely bomb would constitute a Plutonium core surrounded by cloak of highly enriched Uranium.
Bombs can be made from Plutonium, Uranium or a combination of each. Plutonium does not exist naturally in nature, so it has to be made from Uranium.
In a nuclear power plant Uranium is used but the artificial waste material that is produced in the process is Plutonium. This waste material, Plutonium, can also be used to make power in a breeder reactor, but the only country I know that has a breeder reactor, because they are so dangerous, is Japan.
So if you are going to make a nuclear bomb you have to start with Uranium. The Nuclear power plants we sent to them were not supposed to produce Plutonium as waste, but highly enriched Uranium. This enriched Uranium itself can't be used to start a bomb but can be added to a Plutonium core to make a bomb much more lethal.
In other words, we sent them the TNT in the hope that they would get rid of the detonation cap. They kept the detonation cap and the TNT and now they can make a much bigger bomb.
Bombs can be made solely of Uranium (one of the bombs dropped in Japan) was only Uranium, but these bombs are much larger and harder to deliver. It is also more difficult to make these bombs. So the plants we sent them could be used to produce bomb grade material, it would just be much more difficult to make the bombs as it would be from Plutonium.
