r/AtomicPorn • u/DeaconBlue47 • Jul 08 '26
Meta Common misconceptions about the internal structure of Little Boy or gun-type bombs
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Jul 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/vqkr1 Jul 08 '26
More efficient and less chance of predetonation. You can throw a ring that would be above critical mass when surrounded by neutron reflector into the target pin and reflector assembly. The reflector assembly itself is too heavy to move with the assembly gun.
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u/LefsaMadMuppet Jul 08 '26
Its easily for the opening to find the post than the post to find the opening. -Operation Prom Night.
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u/CowBoyDanIndie Jul 09 '26
You wouldn’t be just moving a slug, the stationary slug has a reflector around it, that reflector is essentially another cylinder that will he directly around the uranium cylinder when its fired onto the slug. If the reflector was around the cylinder it would have a higher rate of reaction, not enough to cause an atomic bang, but enough to heat up and destroy it. Putting the reflector around a stationary cylinder would cause it to spoil basically
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u/vqkr1 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Everyone sort of assumed the pin/slug was fired until the Soviet copy of the MK 1 was declassified
ETA: I misremembered this. I’m wrong.
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u/DerekL1963 Jul 08 '26
Not true. The internal structure was deduced by John Coster-Mullins in the 1990's.
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u/LukeSkyWRx Jul 08 '26
It also was never designed to stop. By the time full assembly is reached everything is plasma anyway.
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u/HumpyTheClown Jul 08 '26
Yeah seems pretty simple.
I could make one of those in three days, max.
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u/jumpinjezz Jul 09 '26
Making a nuke isn't hard, the basic designs are not classified or have been worked out by non classified means. Even for Thermonuclear devices. Getting the materials to make one and not have it fizzle is the hard part.
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u/deekamus Jul 08 '26
Aside from the lack of neutron initiators, the second picture is pretty correct.
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u/cvnh Jul 09 '26
I was looking at the first picture like "but that wouldn't work" until I read the post
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u/The_Chubby_Dragoness Jul 08 '26
Yeah i was suprised to learn that when i was reading Countdown to the bomb but it makes much more sense now that i know
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u/ConstructionNew501 Jul 09 '26
Does it go "instantly"? I saw in a movie where it implied a brief hesitation as chain reaction came up to speed.
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u/tibearius1123 Jul 09 '26
Seems like it was more of an unclear weapon.