Nuclear

During his last Presidential address to the nation, Eisenhower warned of the danger of the acquisition of undue influence of the ______________.

"military-industrial complex"

1 megaton = ________ kilotons this is because the prefix "mega" means _________

1000, million

biggest conventional bomb in US arsenal Little Boy (Hiroshima) Fat Man (Nagasaki) Castle Bravo Tsar Bomba

11 tons of TNT 15 kilotons of TNT 20 kilotons of TNT 15 megatons of TNT (1,000 x powerful than Little Boy 50 megatons of TNT (roughly 10 to 30 times the total explosive power unleashed in all of World War Two

By the year ___________, both the ____________ had built the first ICBMs.

1959, US and USSR

The first common name for a thermonuclear weapon was the _________ bomb.

Hydrogen

Following the detonation of a nuclear bomb upwind of where you live, your subsequent exposure to high levels of localized nuclear fallout can cause _________________, which causes ______________.

acute radiation sickness, severe illness and death

A "dirty bomb", as often described in today's media, would be a ___________ bomb that would ___________ radioactive materials.

conventional; scatter

The amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive substance to "decay" or break down and change into another chemical element is called its ______________.

half-life

In a conventional weapon using chemical high-explosives, the individual atoms in the reaction _____, only the ____between them are broken.

remain unchanged, chemical bonds

A mass fire or "firestorm" is fire of great size and intensity, in which hundreds or thousands of fires are _____________ over a very large area (many square miles). These fires then coalesce to become _____________.

set simultaneously, a single gigantic fire.

One ton (in the US) is equal to:

2000lbs

Nuclear reactors were first designed to make plutonium for nuclear weapons. They were not designed to produce power (nuclear power plant) until after World War II.

True

The process of "enriching" uranium proved to be extremely difficult, expensive, and energy intensive. During the Manhattan project, the total power consumption of the Oak Ridge (K25) facility was equal to about 10% of the electrical energy used in the United States.

True

By definition, the lowest or minimum yield of a strategic nuclear weapon is equal to ____________ tons of TNT.

100,000

Weapon-grade uranium-235 (U235) Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU) is 20% U235 or greater (greater than or equal to 20% U235) Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) 0.7% to 20% U235 99.7% of Uranium found in Nature

85-95% enriched U235 Can be made into an explosive, (fuel) Cannot be made into explosive (fuel) 0.7% U235

The three commonly discussed effects of nuclear weapons include Blast effects, Thermal Effects, and Ionizing radiation. Which two of these effects are also produced by conventional weapons?

Blast & Thermal

An extremely serious short-term effect of acute exposures to ionizing radiation include leukemia and cancer; these diseases often appear in the weeks and months following exposure to high doses of radioactive fallout.

False

On July 16, 1945, the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb detonated a plutonium bomb with a force of 20 tons of TNT.

False

Once a mass fire has been ignited by a nuclear weapon, such as the one that destroyed Hiroshima, it can be substantially altered by seasonal and daily weather conditions.

False

In the PBS documentary we watched, entitled "Three Men go to War", the three men were _________, __________ , and __________ .

Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro

Plutonium is extracted from "spent" or used fuel rods by dissolving it in nitric acid, a process that must be done with remote-handling equipment because of the high levels of radioactivity in the spent fuel rods. This process resulted in the creation of tens of millions of gallons of highly lethal liquid high-level nuclear waste.

True

In a nuclear weapon, a nuclear chain reaction takes place in _______________, whereas in a nuclear reactor, a nuclear reaction takes place in _____________.

an uncontrolled process, a controlled process

A conventional weapon uses_______________ in which _________ are broken, in order to create its explosive power.

chemical high-explosives, chemical bonds

When you "enrich" uranium, you are ___________ the isotope ____________.

concentrating or increasing the total percentage of, Uranium-235 (U235)

The prompt effects of a nuclear detonation include the ________, ___________, and ___________ .

thermal effects (heat), blast, radioactive fallout (deposited locally and also distributed by the winds regionally)

According to the illustrations of firestorms posted on our Blackboard website, a "standard" sized Russian strategic nuclear warhead, with an explosive yield of 550 kilotons of TNT, will under average weather conditions ignite a massive firestorm over an area of about ___________ square miles (if detonated over a city, or forest, or area where there are enough flammable materials to produce a fire). An atomic bomb that detonates with the explosive power of 15 kilotons of TNT. will under average weather conditions ignite a massive firestorm over an area of ___________ square miles.

100 ; 4

A nuclear chain reaction refers to a process in which neutrons released in nuclear fission produce and additional fission in at least one additional nucleus. After 58 generations the energy released from these fissions will equal _______ tons of TNT = 100 _______

100,000; kilotons

Simple atomic weapons, such as the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are roughly __________ times more powerful than a chemical high-explosive, conventional weapon, like the MOAB bomb that is the largest convenational weapon in the US arsenal today (11 tons high-explosive).

1000

Thermonuclear weapons can be created that are 1,000 times more powerful than atomic bombs. Since atomic bombs were about _____ times more powerful than the largest conventional (chemical high-explosive) bombs, this means that thermonuclear weapons (such as the first Hydrogen bombs) can be ______ times more powerful than the largest conventional bombs.

1000, one million (1,000,000)

1 ton 1 kiloton 1 megaton

2000 pound (England it is 2240 pounds) 1,000 tons one million tons (2 billion lbs)

The Soviet Union lost a total of between _________ soldiers and civilians killed during World War 2 compared to 414,000 Americans killed in the War.

24 million to 28 million

A thermonuclear weapon uses the ______ bomb as a type of "trigger" to create solar temperatures and pressures necessary to produce nuclear ______ .

Atomic, fusion

Conventional weapons include (more than one answer possible):

Bombs that use chemical high-explosives (TNT), rifles, bullets Bombs that use chemicals to produce fires that cannot easily be put out (incendiary weapons such as napalm and magnesium)

DEFCON 2=_____________ , which indicates the US is one step away from nuclear war, with its forces deployed and at peak readiness. DEFCON 2 has only been previously reached on one occasion, during _______________.

Defense Condition 2, the Cuban Missile Crisis

The first mass fire is considered to have occurred in _______ , following an Allied fire-bombing raid. An area of 4-5 square miles was set on fire in about 20 minutes. Wind speeds were of hurricane force, air temperatures were 400-500 degrees Fahrenheit. At least __________ people were killed in the attack.

Hamburg, Germany; 40.000

The site selected where the scientists were brought together to do the research on the atomic bomb was ________________; the scientist chosen to run the scientific project there was _________________.

Los Alamos, New Mexico; J Robert Oppenheimer

The bombing of cities was generally considered to be unacceptable before World War II. However, large fleets of modern bombers were constructed prior to World War II by all sides of the conflict. Shortly before World War II began, the _________ used modern bombers to destroy the Spanish city of ___________

Nazis, Guernica

Most nuclear weapons today contain a fissile trigger made of a hollow sphere of plutonium, which is called a ________, which must be imploded by concentrically placed charges of high-explosive on its exterior surface.

Pit

In a famous speech, ________________ stated that, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signfies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genuis of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

President Eisenhower

"Residual" radiation from a nuclear explosion comes from the weapon debris, fission products, and, in the case of a ground burst, irradiated soil.

True

Albert Einstein helped write and signed a letter to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), warning FDR that the Nazis might be working on an atomic bomb. FDR responded by authorizing work to begin on the Manhattan project, with the goal of producing a US nuclear weapon.

True

An atomic bomb could destroy an entire city, but a relatively few Hydrogen bombs threatened to destroy entire nations, and the threat of radioactive fallout from a war fought with Hydrogen bombs appeared to endanger most forms of complex life. Scientists were the first to realize this; in 1955. Lord Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein, along with some of the most famous scientists of the 20th century, published a Manifesto warning that nuclear war threatened continued human existence.

True

Arjun Makijhani stated in his lecture that the decision to bomb Japan rather than Germany was made in 1943, long before Germany surrendered. This fact was not know to the scientists doing the research at the Manhattan project.

True

At the beginning of World War II, most US military commanders and generals had no intention of bombing German cities. However, the US eventually participated with the British in massive bombing raids against German cities, which by the end of the war had killed 400,000 to 600,000 Germans, mostly civilians.

True

Babies in utero, infants, and children are especially vulnerable to exposure to ionizing radiation, because their cells are dividing so rapidly in their bodies. Female children are 5 to 7 times more sensitive to radiation then are males.

True

Before World War 2, the bombing of cities was generally considered to be completely unacceptable, and most of the officers in the US military rejected the idea that the US would bomb cities.

True

By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in 1962, both the US and the USSR had developed and manufactured a great number of nuclear weapons. The US had 3500 nuclear weapons capable of reaching the Soviet Union, and the Soviets had 350 weapons capable of reaching the US

True

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the intermediate range nuclear-armed missiles that the USSR had placed in Cuba were capable of hitting most US cities with nuclear weapons in roughly 30 minutes. This greatly upset US leaders because this was a much shorter time than it would take a Soviet bomber to fly from the USSR to the US (a matter of hours).

True

Emerging nuclear weapon states, such as India, Pakistan and North Korea, all have first built atomic bombs with about the same explosive force as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima (15 kt)

True

Enrico Fermi, considered on the best scientists of the 20th century, calculated there was a 10% chance that the detonation of the first atomic bomb would ignite all the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. Despite this concern, the test of the first atomic bomb was conducted.

True

In a nuclear reaction, the chemical element involved in the reaction (such as Uranium-235) itself is changed, when the nucleus of the atom is changed (such as when U235 fissions). The by-products of a nuclear fission are ususally radioactive (unstable) elements.

True

In the U.S., reprocessing for nuclear weapons (extracting plutonium from spent fuel rods) occurred at the Hanford Reservation, Washingtonand the Savannah River Site, South Carolina.

True

Most modern thermonuclear weapons use a hollow sphere of plutonium-239 (Pu239), called a "pit", as the atomic trigger. The US and Russia each currently have 15,000 to 20,000 plutonium pits in storage.

True

Plutonium is separated from "spent" or used uranium fuel rods, after the rods first undergo nuclear fission inside a nuclear reactor.

True

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) died on April 12. 1945. The new President, Harry Truman, had never been told of the Manhattan Project or the atomic bomb.

True

Prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and unknown to the US, the Soviets already had 50,000 troops in Cuba and tactical (short range) nuclear weapons in place and ready to use against invading US military forces and US cities. Thus, had the US invaded Cuba, nuclear war almost surely would have taken place.

True

Radioactive atoms continue to break down into progressively smaller atoms, releasing ionizing radiation in the process. This radiation, or radioactivity, is invisible to human senses, yet it is injurious to human tissues.

True

Radioactive fission products with short half-lives, which rise into the stratosphere, will mostly self-destruct in the stratosphere before they can return to the surface of Earth. However, longer-lived radionuclides, such as radioactive cesium (cesium 137, 30 year half-live) and radioactive strontium (strontium 90, 29 year half-life), and plutonium (14,400 year half-life) will continue to "fall out" of the stratosphere for many years.

True

Radioactive particles created by a nuclear detonation are carried aloft by the force of the explosion and the immense heat of the nuclear fireball formed by the nuclear detonation, and subsequent mushroom cloud that forms as the fireball rises into the atmosphere and cools.

True

Reactor-grade plutonium (that is, plutonium which is obtained from spent fuel rods used in normal nuclear power plant operation) can be used to make a nuclear weapon.

True

Short term radiation concerns (not to be confused with the initial radiation released from the detonation of the bomb), come from highly-radioactive isotopes in local fallout with short half-lives, which quickly decay and disappear (thus radiation levels in heavily contaminated areas will quickly drop in a matter of weeks). Exposure to high doses cause acute exposures, resulting in a variety of acute radiation sicknesses and sometimes death.

True

The Soviet Armies fought the largest battles against the Nazis, and had destroyed much of the Nazi war machine before the US and its allies launched their Normandy invasion in June of 1944. 80% of all Nazi soldiers who were were killed in World War 2 were killed on the Eastern front by Soviet forces

True

The US and Russia today no longer deploy large numbers of multi-megaton weapons. For example, experts believe that the largest US nuclear weapon today is the 1.3 megaton B83 gravity bomb carried by the B-2 bombers, which are based in Sedalia, Missouri.

True

The amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive atom to break down or change into a different atom is called its "half-life." In other words, a half-life is the amount of time it takes for a substance to self-destruct to the point where only half of it still remains.

True

The conversion of a few grams of matter into energy can release the equivalent energy that is produced by the explosion of ten thousand tons of chemical high-explosive.

True

The explosive power of a nuclear weapon refers primarily to its blast rather than its thermal effects, since the heat or thermal effects of a nuclear detonation are immensely greater than that of TNT

True

The first test of a deliverable hydrogen bomb was done in the South Pacific, on the Bikini Atoll. The inhabitants of the Bikini Atoll were moved to a neighboring island of Rongerik, more than 100 miles away. However the massive radioactive fallout from the test blanketed Rogerik; the natives recieved no warning and very many of them became very ill with radiation sickness (many died later from cancer and other radiation-related diseases), and they all were evacuated from Rongerik 2 days later

True

The heat of the atomic fireball was so great, that those Japanese who were very close to it (to the hypocenter or close to what is often called "ground zero"), were actually vaporized, and all that was left of some of them were "shadows" on the concrete sidewalks.

True

The news story entitled "The Atomic Plague" created a sensation because it was the first uncensored description of the gigantic destruction caused by the atomic bomb, especially since it included an account of the still mysterious phenomena of radiation sickness.

True

The surface of a nuclear fireball is about 16,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 4000 degrees F hotter than the surface of the sun.

True

There also can be another devastating effect when a nuclear weapon is detonated at high altitude: "Electro-Magnetic Pulse" (EMP), which is a pulse of electromagnetic radiation (something like what happens in a massive solar storm) that can destroy electric circuits, switches, electric motors, and most things electrical in a radius of hundreds or thousands miles beneath the detonation.

True

Thermal effects of a weapon refer to its production of light and heat, which result in fire.

True

Today a single modern thermonuclear weapon (such as the Russian weapon illustrated on the firestorm diagram) can instantly ignite fires over 100 square miles. No one can survive inside a nuclear firestorm, as the average air temperatures will be over 1800 degrees F; even those hiding in deep shelters cannot survive.

True

Unconventional weapons, such as nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons, are also generally considered to be Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

True

Acute radiation sickness is also called radiation syndrome. It comes from exposure to high-levels of localized radioactive fallout. High-level exposure can produce severe radiation sickness and death. This is what killed many of the Japanese who survived the blast and thermal effects, but then mysteriously (at that time, when radiation sickness was unknown) fell ill and died some weeks later.

True (The required conditions for Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) are: The radiation dose must be large The dose usually must be external The radiation must be penetrating The entire body (or a significant portion of it) must have received the dose The dose must have been delivered in a short time (usually a matter of minutes). The three classic ARS Syndromes are: Bone marrow syndrome The survival rate of patients with this syndrome decreases with increasing dose. The primary cause of death is the destruction of the bone marrow, resulting in infection and hemorrhage. Gastrointestinal (GI) syndrome: Death usually occurs within 2 weeks Cardiovascular (CV)/ Central Nervous System (CNS) syndrome: Extremely high dose, Death occurs within 3 days)

By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, both the US and the USSR had developed Hydrogen bombs so powerful that a single long-range strategic bomber could carry more explosive power (contained in its load of Hydrogen bombs) than was detonated during the entire World War II.

True (Approximately 3 million tons of explosives were detonated in World War II (I have read one estimate as high as 5 million tons). Many of the "standard" size multimegaton Hydrogen (thermonuclear) bombs carried by the strategic bombers in 1962 each had explosive yields of 15 to 20 megatons)

Nuclear weapons typically require a minimum of three to five kilograms of plutonium to fashion the "pit" that triggers the nuclear reaction. As of 1995, there were approximately 270 metric tons of separated plutonium in military inventories and roughly 180 metric tons of separated plutonium in civilian inventories worldwide.

True (True. 450 tons = 450 X 2000 pounds = 900,000 pounds. Since a 3 to 5 kilograms equals roughly 7 to 11 pounds, these stocks of plutonium could theoretically be made into roughly 90,000 nuclear weapons.)

One of the primary reasons that Khrushchev decided to place nuclear weapons in Cuba is because the ________ had placed nuclear weapons in _______, which could hit Soviet cities in a matter of 10-20 minutes.

United States, Turkey

There are two chemical elements that can be used as fissile material to create nuclear weapons. They are ______ and ______.

Uranium & Plutonium

The explosive power of atomic (nuclear) weapons is described as the __________ of the weapon.

Yield

During the time period when the Cuban Missile Crisis took place, a common type of training that took place in US schools was the " _____ and ________ " drill. Students were also warned not to look at the ________.

duck, cover, flash

Nuclear ______ refers to the splitting of large atoms, such as uranium and plutonium,, whereas nuclear _________ refers to the joining of two atoms (usually small atoms, such as radioactive forms of hydrogen), which produces a larger atom (helium); both processes produce/release enormous amounts of nuclear energy.

fission, fusion (Fission is when the nucleus of an atom (always a very large atom, i.e. uranium or plutonium) is split apart, making smaller and different atoms, which are almost always radioactive (unstable). Fusion is when the nuclei of two atoms (always the smallest atom, some form of Hydrogen) are joined together to form a new atom (helium, this is how the sun works).

If the fireball of a nuclear detonation comes in contact with the surface of Earth, this type of detonation is called a ___________ that would produce a great deal of ____________.

ground burst, residual ionizing radiation

After the Nazis bombed London for 57 days in a row, the English decided to retaliate with massive bombing raids against German cities. To do this, they devised special ____________ weapons, which were used in huge firebombing raids

incendiary

Plutonium was chosen as the most commonly used fissile trigger because it was easiest/cheapest to manufacture. This is done in two key facilities: First, plutonium is created inside a ___________ by bombarding uranium with neutrons. Then, the plutonium must be converted into a useable form in a __________ plant, where it is chemically separated from the now highly-radioactive uranium.

nuclear reactor, reprocessing

Plutonium exists only in infintesimal quantities in the biosphere, so it cannot be mined like uranium. In order to obtain, it is manufactured/created inside _______________.

nuclear reactors, when uranium fuel rods are bombarded by neutrons

Atomic explosive power is measured in kilotons of TNT. One kiloton equals _____________

one thousand tons of TNT

Countervalue

targeting an adversary's cities and industrial centers for nuclear strikes

counterforce

targeting military bases only

In 1961, ___________ detonated a 57 megaton bomb, called the ___________ .

the Soviet Union, Tsar bomba

Emerging nuclear weapon states, such as India, Pakistan and North Korea, all have first produced atomic bombs, which typically detonate with approximately the same explosive force as _______________.

the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima (approx 15 kilotons)

The material of choice for a nuclear terrorist, who can access only machine shop tools, would be ____________ instead of ______________.

weapon grade U235, plutonium

The engineering done on a bomb design, to make it small enough to be carried by a plane, and eventually a ballistic missile, is called ____________ (this is what an emerging nuclear weapon state has to do in order to get a workable design to use as a weapon . . . unless it is able to obtain the design elsewhere).

weaponization