President Joe Biden says he won't support an Israeli attack on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program in response to Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
Even the relatively simple “gun type” fission bombs require a precisely sized core of nuclear material to be encased in a neutron reflector to get an explosion instead of just a ball of hot uranium.
An implosion type bombs is more powerful but requires conventional explosives to be set off in a sphere around the core at exactly the right time, this compresses the sphere, increasing reactivity, and making it explode.
If the shape or timing is wrong, you just get a nuclear meltdown, not an explosion.
So bombing a nuclear bomb isn’t likely to set it off, it’s only likely to make the area it’s stored in uninhabitable for a few thousand years.
Either way, not a very good idea. Also, pretty sure bombing any kind of nuclear facility is considered a war crime, as it will horribly wound or kill way more civilians than anything else.
Nuclear bombs are pretty precise affairs.
Even the relatively simple “gun type” fission bombs require a precisely sized core of nuclear material to be encased in a neutron reflector to get an explosion instead of just a ball of hot uranium.
An implosion type bombs is more powerful but requires conventional explosives to be set off in a sphere around the core at exactly the right time, this compresses the sphere, increasing reactivity, and making it explode.
If the shape or timing is wrong, you just get a nuclear meltdown, not an explosion.
So bombing a nuclear bomb isn’t likely to set it off, it’s only likely to make the area it’s stored in uninhabitable for a few thousand years.
Either way, not a very good idea. Also, pretty sure bombing any kind of nuclear facility is considered a war crime, as it will horribly wound or kill way more civilians than anything else.