Who created the Plutonium Bomb?
The American physicist named Robert Oppenheimer created the plutonium bomb used on Nagasaki.
What was the Plutonium Bomb made of?
- 32 1773 EBW detonators inserted into brass chimney sleeves
- 32 Comb B component of outer lens
- 32 Cone-shaped Baratol component of outer lens
- 32 Comb B inner charge
- 2 Aluminum persher hemisphere
- Removable aluminum pusher trap-door plug screwed into upper pusher hemisphere
- Tub alloy (Uranium 238) two-piece tamper plug
- Tub alloy (Uranium 238) tamper sphere
- 2 Plutonium 239 hemispheres
- Cork Lining
- 7-piece Duralumin sphere
- 4 Aluminum cups holding pusher hemispheres together
- Polonium-beryllium initiator
- Boron plastic shell
- Felt padding layer under lenses and inner charges
How does the Plutonium Bomb work?
The plutonium bomb was more complex than the uranium bomb. Before, fissionable plutonium couldn't be brought together fast enough to start a reaction. So they used conventional explosives to compress the plutonium-239 causing it to detonate.