![the pilot of enola gay flying out of the shockwave the pilot of enola gay flying out of the shockwave](https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3247/2987330585_f45a4e8794_b.jpg)
You'll need several factions which, when combined, have the intellectual ability to crunch through those numbers. You'll need to have a large number of factions, each with its own particular strengths. Without a writer crafting the entire universe to create this bomb, it wont happen. My advice would be to design the entire book and the entire world around accomplishing the goal. How could you do it with swords and shields? It won't be easy. So that's how hard it is to make an atomic bomb. Grover was in charge of the logical side of the Manhattan Project, so his point of view is refreshingly absent of technical details and shows just how much of a logistical marvel the effort was. If you want a great book on the management side of the bomb, I highly recommend Retired General Grover's book, Now It Can Be Told. All of this, of course, is based on reams of paperwork defining the theory behind everything they did. I could go on and on, but the point is, building these bombs requires a vast dynamic range of capability, from the subtle enrichment to the immaculately precise application of high explosives. While normal initiators can give you millisecond precision in your timing, a nuclear bomb calls for microsecond precision!
![the pilot of enola gay flying out of the shockwave the pilot of enola gay flying out of the shockwave](http://s3-origin-images.politico.com/2014/07/29/theodore_vankirk_enola_gay_ap_605.jpg)
I don't know the particulars for the Fat Man, but I know there is a type of initiator called "exploding bridgewire initiator," which is only used in nuclear weapons. These initators are typically connected with thick, high current wires. It is known that more advanced nuclear bombs have upwards to at least 96 initiators, trying to get as much yield as possible. The more initiators you have, the more spherical the explosion, and the less creative lensing is required. Why? Because they put 32 initiators around the body. There were 32 of these lenses on Fat Man. The Baritol is slower burning, so careful shaping of the layers could create a lensing effect. Fat man had 3 layers: Composition B, Baritol, and Composition B. They were shaped carefully to have a lensing effect, focusing the shockwave down to a spherical shape. To manage this, Fat Man had several layers of different high explosives wrapped around it (did I mention you need high explosives, not just gunpowder?). The perfectly spherical requirement is not an overstatement: if the shock wave is not spherical, the implosion event is not symmetrical enough, and will "blow out" like a baby's diaper before the real power of the bomb ever comes to bear. To make a bomb like the Fat Man, you need a perfectly spherical shock wave, from conventional explosives, crushing two or three pieces of uranium into one critical mass. While enrichment is a very subtle art, the bomb is a precision work worthy of the finest watchmakers ever.įirst off, a bit of information on how a nuclear bomb works. If I may cite information from this page on the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Obviously much of this is classified for good reason, but some details about the bombs are known. However, there is another side, which is the opposite of subtle: the creation of the bomb. And, of course, you have to do this at the atomic scale, so lots of easy mass based techniques fall through. Zippie type centrifuges spin so fast that the only way to keep the friction from turning the entire device into slag is magnetic bearings! Why all of this? The art of enriching is subtle: you have to separate two groups of atoms whose only distinguishing factor is that one is 1.2% heavier than the other. The spinning parts of a gas centrifuge are spinning so fast that they are approaching the tensile strength capabilities of single crystal titanium. He mentions gas centrifuges are out of the question due to aluminum not being available, but it goes even deeper than that. King-Ink pointed out the subtle task: enrichment. The creation of a nuclear bomb requires an astonishing dynamic range of skills. The ability to make a nuclear bomb is sufficiently far from the technology of swords and shields that they really don't fit.
![the pilot of enola gay flying out of the shockwave the pilot of enola gay flying out of the shockwave](https://airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow_basic/public/images/slideshows/SI-99-42697.jpg)
You will need to stretch a lot to make this a cohesive book.