looking for documentation for 1963 minuteman missile compute r

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Wed Oct 17 11:27:40 2001

> > (does the trick involve Tritium, or is that just a yield enhancer for
> > implosion types?)
>
> The tricks usually involve things like surrounding the implosion core
> with a neutron reflector which can reduce the critical mass by a factor
> of two (from 11 kg to 5 kg or so for Pu).
>
> For some reason I don't understand and haven't looked into, it's possible
> to get a critical mass as low as 1 kg using plutonium nitrate solution
> in a stainless steel implosion sphere. Yield would probably be a few
kilotons.
>
> Tritium is a yeild enhancer. Turns your A bomb into an H bomb.

I assume the tritium component is a modular part of the device, as
it has a rather short half-life (and IIRC, the last production facility
was closed down).

-dq
Received on Wed Oct 17 2001 - 11:27:40 BST