A toy model for the yield of a tamped fission bomb

作者：Reed B Cameron^*

来源：American Journal of Physics, 2018, 86(2): 105-109.

DOI：10.1119/1.5009102

A simple expression is developed for estimating the yield of a tamped fission bomb, that is, a basic nuclear weapon comprising a fissile core jacketed by a surrounding neutron-reflecting tamper. This expression is based on modeling the nuclear chain reaction as a geometric progression in combination with a previously published expression for the threshold-criticality condition for such a core. The derivation is especially straightforward, as it requires no knowledge of diffusion theory and should be accessible to students of both physics and policy. The calculation can be set up as a single page spreadsheet. Application to the Little Boy and Fat Man bombs of World War II gives results in reasonable accord with published yield estimates for these weapons.

• 出版日期2018-2