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Anon · 02-24-2006, 16:23 PM

Seer Stuart
The Prince of Darkness
Posts: 4591
(2/24/06 15:37 )
Reply

:eek

Dancing on eggs here.

Assuming by "suitcase bomb" you mean something that has an element of man-portability, the lower limit would be about 0.01 kilotons (explosive power equivalent to 10 tons of TNT). Its unlikely to get that low because its VERY hard to build low-yield devices.

The upper limit is harder to determine since it also depends on the sophistication of the producers. Technically, it could go up to 150 kilotons since it's posisble to build a sort-of man portable fusion or boosted fission device that small with that sort of yield.

By the way, sophisticated nuclear devices like those extremes have relatively short lives before they degrade to uselessness

As a personal guess, assuming the device is assembled by somebody without decades of experience in such things, the device would be somewhere in the 5 to 25 kiloton region, expanding out to the extremes as the experience of the builders grows.

Another by the way, sophistication (ie the ability to build small low-yield and small high-yield) devices goes roughly like this.

US
UK
Russia
India
France
Israel
China
Pakistan

India's anomalously high position is because a lot of device design at this level is mathematics and India produces a lot of world-class mathematicians (nobody knows why but the number of such maths experts in India is far above average). The Uk scores very high because there are few things the US does that the Uk doesn't get told about.

Nations do not survive by setting examples for others.
Nations survive by making examples of others
http://p076.ezboard.com/fhistorypoli...cID=2142.topic

02-24-2006, 16:23 PM	#1 (permalink)
Anon New Member Join Date: 08-03-03 Posts: 0	Stuart Slade on suitcase nukes. Seer Stuart The Prince of Darkness Posts: 4591 (2/24/06 15:37 ) Reply :eek Dancing on eggs here. Assuming by "suitcase bomb" you mean something that has an element of man-portability, the lower limit would be about 0.01 kilotons (explosive power equivalent to 10 tons of TNT). Its unlikely to get that low because its VERY hard to build low-yield devices. The upper limit is harder to determine since it also depends on the sophistication of the producers. Technically, it could go up to 150 kilotons since it's posisble to build a sort-of man portable fusion or boosted fission device that small with that sort of yield. By the way, sophisticated nuclear devices like those extremes have relatively short lives before they degrade to uselessness As a personal guess, assuming the device is assembled by somebody without decades of experience in such things, the device would be somewhere in the 5 to 25 kiloton region, expanding out to the extremes as the experience of the builders grows. Another by the way, sophistication (ie the ability to build small low-yield and small high-yield) devices goes roughly like this. US UK Russia India France Israel China Pakistan India's anomalously high position is because a lot of device design at this level is mathematics and India produces a lot of world-class mathematicians (nobody knows why but the number of such maths experts in India is far above average). The Uk scores very high because there are few things the US does that the Uk doesn't get told about. Nations do not survive by setting examples for others. Nations survive by making examples of others http://p076.ezboard.com/fhistorypoli...cID=2142.topic Last edited by Anon : 02-24-2006 at 16:27 PM.