Trident warheads unreliable
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Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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From: Peripatetic
Trident warheads unreliable
Daily Telegraph: West's submarine nuclear warheads flawed, say scientists.
British and American nuclear warheads carried by submarines are so poorly designed that they may fail to detonate if fired, scientists have said. The news emerged after interviews with a group of American scientists with ties to the Los Alamos nuclear research facility, where the first atomic weapon was manufactured.
One of them, Richard Morse, of the University of Arizona and a former Los Alamos weapons designer, said the casing of the W76 nuclear warhead was so thin that it would probably fail if used. The British Trident warhead, the country's sole nuclear weapon, is based on the W76. Mr Morse said: "What is out there on those boats is at best unreliable and probably much worse."
The claims have been vigorously denied by US officials, who say that the warhead "looks like a pretty good weapon". They say the warheads have not been tested for 13 years because of the global moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons but were successfully detonated before then. Everet Beckner, the head of the nuclear arsenal at Los Alamos, said there were no plans to redesign the W76 but admitted to the New York Times that that could change.
The story emerged after what was described as "acrimonious" exchanges between worried scientists and the leadership of America's nuclear weapons programme. That led four scientists, three of them former Los Alamos employees and one still working there, to seek a secret meeting with weapons officials to discuss their fears. They met in March last year. Dr Morse said: "It was a verbal mud-wrestling match. Officials from Los Alamos and the government would not be candid with us. We told them things they did not know.".......
Britain's nuclear weaponry, thought to number about 190 warheads, is carried exclusively aboard the four Trident submarines, Vanguard, Vigilant, Vengeance and Victorious. While America still has air-launched nuclear weaponry, it too has become more dependent on its submarine missiles. Dr Morse said the growing reliance on submarine weaponry had revived his long-standing worries about the casings of the W76.
During the 1970s there was pressure to make warheads as light as possible to allow more to be fitted on top of a relatively thin missile. Although the radiation casing was made of uranium, which is double the weight of lead, it was to be super-thin - in places only as thick as a beer tin. The casing is critical because it has to hold together for nanoseconds as the nuclear chain reaction begins, releasing temperatures hotter than the surface of the Sun. If the case fails, the bomb can fail too or explode with less than its intended force.
British and American nuclear warheads carried by submarines are so poorly designed that they may fail to detonate if fired, scientists have said. The news emerged after interviews with a group of American scientists with ties to the Los Alamos nuclear research facility, where the first atomic weapon was manufactured.
One of them, Richard Morse, of the University of Arizona and a former Los Alamos weapons designer, said the casing of the W76 nuclear warhead was so thin that it would probably fail if used. The British Trident warhead, the country's sole nuclear weapon, is based on the W76. Mr Morse said: "What is out there on those boats is at best unreliable and probably much worse."
The claims have been vigorously denied by US officials, who say that the warhead "looks like a pretty good weapon". They say the warheads have not been tested for 13 years because of the global moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons but were successfully detonated before then. Everet Beckner, the head of the nuclear arsenal at Los Alamos, said there were no plans to redesign the W76 but admitted to the New York Times that that could change.
The story emerged after what was described as "acrimonious" exchanges between worried scientists and the leadership of America's nuclear weapons programme. That led four scientists, three of them former Los Alamos employees and one still working there, to seek a secret meeting with weapons officials to discuss their fears. They met in March last year. Dr Morse said: "It was a verbal mud-wrestling match. Officials from Los Alamos and the government would not be candid with us. We told them things they did not know.".......
Britain's nuclear weaponry, thought to number about 190 warheads, is carried exclusively aboard the four Trident submarines, Vanguard, Vigilant, Vengeance and Victorious. While America still has air-launched nuclear weaponry, it too has become more dependent on its submarine missiles. Dr Morse said the growing reliance on submarine weaponry had revived his long-standing worries about the casings of the W76.
During the 1970s there was pressure to make warheads as light as possible to allow more to be fitted on top of a relatively thin missile. Although the radiation casing was made of uranium, which is double the weight of lead, it was to be super-thin - in places only as thick as a beer tin. The casing is critical because it has to hold together for nanoseconds as the nuclear chain reaction begins, releasing temperatures hotter than the surface of the Sun. If the case fails, the bomb can fail too or explode with less than its intended force.
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From: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
Never mind - I'm sure a bit of HM's black bodge tape would hold it all together for long enough for it to achieve fusion and make a loud enough bang rather than a sub-critical fizzle.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
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From: Lincolnshire
Mike Jennvey,
Come on Mike. I liked that ammunition. Very friendly. It often had a nice soft kick and you could almost watch the bullets on their way to the target.
Wonder if it would have been better only selecting the bullets that didn't have loose powder?
You might even have said it was the first \'green munition\' attempt with a reduced chemical effect.
Come on Mike. I liked that ammunition. Very friendly. It often had a nice soft kick and you could almost watch the bullets on their way to the target.
Wonder if it would have been better only selecting the bullets that didn't have loose powder?
You might even have said it was the first \'green munition\' attempt with a reduced chemical effect.
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From: Just behind the back of beyond....
From Hansard, thanks to someone whose finger is more on the pulse than mine....
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 15 March 2005, Official Report, column 189W, on Trident, if he will estimate the number of potential casualties which would arise from a malfunction of a Trident nuclear warhead at the base on the Clyde. [223301]
Mr. Hoon: It is highly unlikely that a malfunction of a nuclear warhead resulting in a nuclear explosion would occur at the Naval Base on the Clyde. There are no plans to make assessments of potential casualties.
As my learned friend added: "(I say, what was that noise?)"
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 15 March 2005, Official Report, column 189W, on Trident, if he will estimate the number of potential casualties which would arise from a malfunction of a Trident nuclear warhead at the base on the Clyde. [223301]
Mr. Hoon: It is highly unlikely that a malfunction of a nuclear warhead resulting in a nuclear explosion would occur at the Naval Base on the Clyde. There are no plans to make assessments of potential casualties.
As my learned friend added: "(I say, what was that noise?)"
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Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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From: Peripatetic
The point always came during major AD exercises when a shack or a nimrod would be cast as a defecting Bear loaded with instant sunshine. The team hovered to see where I decided to send it and the reasoning for the choice (remote from AD airfields, cities blah blah.. just in case it crashed or dropped a weapon).
I always chose Leeds/Bradford. When asked why I responded that, if the worse came to the worst, it would at least cause millions of pounds worth of improvements.....
I always chose Leeds/Bradford. When asked why I responded that, if the worse came to the worst, it would at least cause millions of pounds worth of improvements.....
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
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From: Lincolnshire
Mike Jennvey, it was you was it .
I used to fire the sterling every chance I got. I had one case where the bullet came out through the extractor together with fragments of casing. The previous round then hit the target having had a kick up the jacksie.
The case for that round was an interesting shape too. It was a few mills shorter and had a fat ring around the middle.
Fortunately I was on the right spot when firing.
.I used to fire the sterling every chance I got. I had one case where the bullet came out through the extractor together with fragments of casing. The previous round then hit the target having had a kick up the jacksie.
The case for that round was an interesting shape too. It was a few mills shorter and had a fat ring around the middle.
Fortunately I was on the right spot when firing.
