 In 1999, information came out implying that in some U.S. designs, the primary (top) is oblate, while the secondary (bottom) is spherical. The W88 is a United States thermonuclear warhead, with an estimated yield of 475 kt, and is small enough to fit on MIRVed missiles. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (502x1176, 162 KB) Diagram of a W88 nuclear warhead, showing its variation of the Teller-Ulam design. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (502x1176, 162 KB) Diagram of a W88 nuclear warhead, showing its variation of the Teller-Ulam design. ...
1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
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A megaton or megatonne is a unit of mass equal to 1,000,000 metric tons, i. ...
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Design revelations
Information about the W88 has implied that it is a variation of the standard Teller-Ulam design for thermonuclear weapons. The basics of the Teller-Ulam configuration: a fission bomb uses radiation to compress and heats a separate section of fusion fuel. ...
In 1999, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News reported that the U.S. W88 nuclear warhead, a small MIRVed warhead used on the Trident II SLBM, had an oblate (egg or watermelon shaped) primary (code-named Komodo) and a spherical secondary (code-named Cursa) inside a specially-shaped radiation case (known as the "peanut" for its shape). A story four months later in The New York Times by William Broad reported that in 1995, a supposed double agent from the People's Republic of China delivered information indicating that China knew these details about the W-88 warhead as well, supposedly through espionage. (This line of investigation eventually resulted in the abortive trial of Wen Ho Lee.) If these stories are true, it would indicate a variation of the Teller-Ulam design which would allow for the miniaturization required for small MIRVed warheads. (Stober and Hoffman 2001; Morland 2003; Broad 1999) 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
The Mercs sections vary by day of the week, but Business, Sports, and The Valley are standard daily fare. ...
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Ohio-class submarine launches Trident ICBMs (US Navy graphic) The Trident missile is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which is armed with nuclear warheads and is launched from submarines (SSBNs), making it a SLBM. The Trident was built in two variants: the I (C4) UGM-93A and II (D5) UGM...
Submarine-launched ballistic missiles or SLBMs are ballistic missiles delivering nuclear weapons that are launched from submarines. ...
Look up Egg in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Egg has multiple meanings: The term is used synonymously with ovum, the female sex cell in animals and plants. ...
Binomial name Citrullus lanatus (Thunb. ...
The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...
1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
A double agent pretends to spy on a target organization on behalf of a controlling organization, but in fact is loyal to the target organization. ...
Wen Ho Lee (李文和, pinyin: Lǐ Wénhé) (born 1939) is a Chinese American computer scientist who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory and was accused of stealing secrets about the U.S.s nuclear arsenal, though later acquitted. ...
The value of an oblate primary lies apparently in the fact that a MIRV warhead is limited by the diameter of the primary — if an oblate primary can be made to work properly, then a the MIRV warhead can be made considerable smaller yet still deliver a high-yield explosion — a W-88 warhead manages to yield up 475 kt with a physics package 68.9 in (1.75 m) long, with a maximum diameter of 21.8 in (0.55 m), and weighing probably less than 800 lb (360 kg).[1] Smaller warheads can allow a nation to fit more of them onto a single missile, as well as improve in more basic flight properties such as speed, mileage, and range. Physics package is a euphemism for the portion of a nuclear weapon that includes the actual explosive portion of the weapon: the detonator explosives, the fissile material, and (for fusion weapons) fusion fuel. ...
The calculations for an nonspherical primary are apparently orders of magnitude harder than for a spherical primary, which would likely be the reason they would be desirable for a country like the People's Republic of China (which already developed its own nuclear and thermonuclear weapons), especially since they were no longer conducting nuclear testing which would provide valuable design information. (Cox 1999) A nuclear test explosion is an experiment involving the detonation of a nuclear weapon. ...
References - William J. Broad, "Spies versus sweat, the debate over China's nuclear advance," New York Times (7 September 1999), p. 1.
- Christopher Cox, chairman, Report of the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China (1999), esp. Ch. 2, "PRC Theft of U.S. Thermonuclear Warhead Design Information". [2]
- Howard Morland, "The holocaust bomb: A question of time" (February 2003), available online at http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/morland.html
- Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman, A convenient spy: Wen Ho Lee and the politics of nuclear espionage (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001). ISBN 0743223780
September 7 is the 250th day of the year (251st in leap years). ...
1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
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