#uranium-235

[stone-cold-groove]

Exxon nuclear fuel helps provide power and for millions of Americans. Ad promoting Exxon Corporation’s production of nuclear fuel pellets - 1979.

[doofus-named-delta]

I'm in the tumbler now, where's the rocks

[thepastisalreadywritten]

On 6 August 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.

Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.

Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”

The Manhattan Project

Even before the outbreak of war in 1939, a group of American scientists — many of them refugees from fascist regimes in Europe — became concerned with nuclear weapons research being conducted in Nazi Germany.

In 1940, the U.S. government began funding its own atomic weapons development program, which came under the joint responsibility of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the War Department after the U.S. entry into World War II.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with spearheading the construction of the vast facilities necessary for the top-secret program, codenamed “The Manhattan Project” (for the engineering corps’ Manhattan district).

Over the next several years, the program’s scientists worked on producing the key materials for nuclear fission — uranium-235 and plutonium (Pu-239).

They sent them to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these materials into a workable atomic bomb.

Early on the morning of 16 July 1945, the Manhattan Project held its first successful test of an atomic device — a plutonium bomb — at the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

No Surrender for the Japanese

By the time of the Trinity test, the Allied powers had already defeated Germany in Europe.

Japan, however, vowed to fight to the bitter end in the Pacific, despite clear indications (as early as 1944) that they had little chance of winning.

In fact, between mid-April 1945 (when President Harry Truman took office) and mid-July, Japanese forces inflicted Allied casualties totaling nearly half those suffered in three full years of war in the Pacific, proving that Japan had become even more deadly when faced with defeat.

In late July, Japan’s militarist government rejected the Allied demand for surrender put forth in the Potsdam Declaration, which threatened the Japanese with “prompt and utter destruction” if they refused.

General Douglas MacArthur and other top military commanders favored continuing the conventional bombing of Japan already in effect and following up with a massive invasion, codenamed “Operation Downfall.”

They advised Truman that such an invasion would result in U.S. casualties of up to 1 million.

In order to avoid such a high casualty rate, Truman decided – over the moral reservations of Secretary of War Henry Stimson, General Dwight Eisenhower and a number of the Manhattan Project scientists – to use the atomic bomb in the hopes of bringing the war to a quick end.

Proponents of the A-bomb — such as James Byrnes, Truman’s secretary of state — believed that its devastating power would not only end the war but also put the U.S. in a dominant position to determine the course of the postwar world.

'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' Are Dropped

Hiroshima, a manufacturing center of some 350,000 people located about 500 miles from Tokyo, was selected as the first target.

After arriving at the U.S. base on the Pacific island of Tinian, the more than 9,000-pound uranium-235 bomb was loaded aboard a modified B-29 bomber christened Enola Gay (after the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets).

The plane dropped the bomb — known as “Little Boy” — by parachute at 8:15 in the morning.

It exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city.

Hiroshima’s devastation failed to elicit immediate Japanese surrender, however, and on August 9, Major Charles Sweeney flew another B-29 bomber, Bockscar, from Tinian.

Thick clouds over the primary target, the city of Kokura, drove Sweeney to a secondary target, Nagasaki, where the plutonium bomb “Fat Man” was dropped at 11:02 that morning.

More powerful than the one used at Hiroshima, the bomb weighed nearly 10,000 pounds and was built to produce a 22-kiloton blast.

The topography of Nagasaki, which was nestled in narrow valleys between mountains, reduced the bomb’s effect, limiting the destruction to 2.6 square miles.

Aftermath of the Bombing

At noon on 15 August 1945 (Japanese time), Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender in a radio broadcast.

The news spread quickly.

“Victory in Japan” or “V-J Day” celebrations broke out across the United States and other Allied nations.

The formal surrender agreement was signed on September 2, aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.

Because of the extent of the devastation and chaos — including the fact that much of the two cities' infrastructure was wiped out — exact death tolls from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain unknown.

However, it's estimated roughly 70,000 to 135,000 people died in Hiroshima and 60,000 to 80,000 people died in Nagasaki, both from acute exposure to the blasts and from long-term side effects of radiation.

[ahaha-ahahaha]

hey time sensitive question

can someone answer pls

[nerdeas]

Uranium-235

[peacemore-springs]

Bungle & Zippy Meet Mr Science

So good natured and community spirited folks, I suppose your thinking is beginning to wonder why, why have Bungle & Zippy from the series Rainbow suddenly decided to direct their quizzical natures towards the shelf life of nuclear energy and its reactors? The reactor is the part of a nuclear power plant that holds the nuclear energy in a relatively predictable and contained place by the way. Well the answer to the question your thinking is now beginning to wonder about is simple. Nuclear energy is big business. Out in the big wide world nuclear energy makes the companies involved in its supply very wealthy. Big wealthy business contracts like the ones associated to nuclear power supply turn lots of heads, not for fortune telling reasons of course, but simply because its a great way to get fat from having an involvement in energy supply. But nuclear energy also generates lots of negative interest within public perception because nuclear energy is a volatile substance and is very dangerous to produce and keep safe. In fact its use threatens the good health and survival of every species on the planet. So Bungle & Zippy are gonna let the implications of nuclear energy and its use get known.

Here's a little Q&A on what they totally found out for you.

Q1) What is the half shelf life of nuclear energy?

A) It looks like you might be mixing up two concepts Bungle and Zippy. 'Nuclear energy' doesn't have a half-life because it's a type of energy generated through nuclear reactions, like fission and fusion. Half-life is a term used to describe the time it takes for half the atoms in a radioactive substance to decay.

Q2) Yes, of course Mr Science. That's our mistake and we're totally willing to acknowledge that it took place for you. So why don't you get on with telling us all what the half-life of a radioactive atom is really all about?

A) Well, Uranium-235, a common fuel used in nuclear reactors, has a half-life of about 703.8 million years. Another example is Plutonium-239, which is used in both nuclear reactors and weapons, and has a half-life of about 24,110 years.

Q3) Ok. That is mega information. We're really starting to get the big picture loud and clear. That is an enormous amount of time for a dangerous radioactive substance to be alive for. Please, can you tell us how long the casings for the dangerous radioactive material are expected to remain of a safe and reliable quality?

A) The structures that contain uranium-235, such as those used at nuclear reactors and storage facilities, are designed to last for several decades. Generally speaking, the lifespan of a reactor vessel is designed to be between 40 and 60 years, but with proper maintenance and periodic upgrades, it can be extended to 80 years or maybe even longer.

Q4) Thank you Mr Science. That is very comforting information. Thank you for allowing all of us to know this. So, if you don't mind Zippy & Me would like to recap and reassemble your information into layman's terms for our readers and listeners at home. Mr Science is basically saying that experts in the scientific field are categorically stating that a volatile and dangerous radioactive substance, with a half-life of 703.8 million years, is being housed in structures and casings that last a possible 80 years.

A) Yes. That is precisely correct Bungle and Zippy. That is exactly what our top level scientific experts have achieved and know to be true.

Well thank you Mr Science. What a great meeting Bungle & Zippy had with you today. Let's hope George doesn't find out about it. He'll be cross to have decided to nip out for a quick bit to eat at the deli. He really did miss out on a great opportunity to learn something excellent about misappropriation and life threatening government spending. Ugh well, at least he'll be filled up with his meal and ready for a snooze when he gets back Bungle & Zippy. Thank you once again Mr Science. You really do know your stuff.

[dollitalaleczka]

How to make a nuke

1. Get bomb

2. Get uranium/other radioactive elements such as plutonium (I prefer to use uranium-235)

3. put them in a crafting table

4. Find a city

5. "Now, I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." -the guy from oppenheimer