DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - chernobyl: steam explosion or self contained nuclear explosion?

**etdgxcnc** · 04-12-2010, 10:35 PM

"Critical mass" implies 100% purity. In a chain reaction, the density of the fissile material greatly influences the actual mass needed. If you could compress the 235U with enough force from a conventional explosion, to reduce the volume in half, you'd need less than 1/2 the mass.

The relative abundance of fissile material 235U/238U in nuclear reactors precludes a nuclear explosion from occuring. It's not physically possible.

I think you're getting two different things confused, 'critical mass' is that required for a sustained reaction, not always an explosion.
Explosives are used to bring the material fast enough together and, most important, hold it together long enough for the explosive reaction to occur. Getting the timing of all the charges to go off at virtually the same instant was one of their biggest problems as any variation would allow the pressure to 'squeeze out' and reduce the effectiveness of the explosion.

04-12-2010, 10:35 PM	#26
etdgxcnc Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 431 Senior Member	"Critical mass" implies 100% purity. In a chain reaction, the density of the fissile material greatly influences the actual mass needed. If you could compress the 235U with enough force from a conventional explosion, to reduce the volume in half, you'd need less than 1/2 the mass. The relative abundance of fissile material 235U/238U in nuclear reactors precludes a nuclear explosion from occuring. It's not physically possible. I think you're getting two different things confused, 'critical mass' is that required for a sustained reaction, not always an explosion. Explosives are used to bring the material fast enough together and, most important, hold it together long enough for the explosive reaction to occur. Getting the timing of all the charges to go off at virtually the same instant was one of their biggest problems as any variation would allow the pressure to 'squeeze out' and reduce the effectiveness of the explosion.
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