Nuclear weapons and beyond

[Supreme_Warlord]

Hi,
I am working on a piece of original universe fiction and am designing weapons for it. As part of my research, I read on the internet that Little Boy and Fat Man had efficiencies of 1.5% and 17% respectively, with corresponding yields of 14.5 KT and 23 KT. What is the state of play with regard to modern nuclear weapons and how far would a highly advanced society of the future be able to take this?
Also, would a similar concept apply to M/A-M reactions and if so, what would be a reasonable efficiency figure assuming the above mentioned technology.

Thanks.

[phongn]

What do you mean by "'state of play?" If you mean doctrine, that depends on the country and has changed over the years.

[RayCav of ASVS]

Well, all I can say is that the B-63 is in the kiloton range, and the B-81 just manages to be in the megaton range. you can find all the info you're looking for at www.fas.org

[Darth Wong]

The biggest nuclear warhead ever detonated was around 60 megatons, back during the huge-warhead era in the 1950s-60s. Plans were afoot for weapons in excess of 100 megatons, but they never carried through. I think it would be quite reasonable to imagine weapons in the high megaton range.

However, keep collateral effects in mind. In an atmosphere, any kiloton or megaton-yield weapon (even a beam weapon) will create all sorts of dangerous collateral effects when it hits the target, which is one of the reasons that techno-masturbatory TW-level hand weapons are a stupid idea. Even outside an atmosphere, a megaton-class nuclear explosion will ionize outer-atmosphere layers and create an enormous EMP which would disable much of the electronics on the continent facing the blast, not to mention creating a lot of thermal re-radiation (from the ionized upper-atmosphere layers) which might cause skin burns, blindness to people on the surface, and perhaps even fires.

A megaton-class laser might not have the same effect, depending on how it interacts with its target. But since you're talking about nukes, you've got to keep that in mind.

[Mr. B]

I heard a theory somewhere that the reason for the rise in cancer in America is because of the aboveground nuke tests.

[Sea Skimmer]

The biggest nuclear warhead ever detonated was around 60 megatons, back during the huge-warhead era in the 1950s-60s. Plans were afoot for weapons in excess of 100 megatons, but they never carried through. I think it would be quite reasonable to imagine weapons in the high megaton range.

The Russians super bomb actually was capable of a yield of about 100 megatons. However they decide to replace the third stage with a lead jacket. This made the worlds largest bomb also almost the cleanest. The amazing thing is that bomb was designed, built and exploded in a couple months..

[Howedar]

Unless you count all the shitload of lead they sprayed everywhere...

[phongn]

Unless you count all the shitload of lead they sprayed everywhere...

Cleaner than if the tamper was made out of U238.

[phongn]

The biggest nuclear warhead ever detonated was around 60 megatons, back during the huge-warhead era in the 1950s-60s. Plans were afoot for weapons in excess of 100 megatons, but they never carried through. I think it would be quite reasonable to imagine weapons in the high megaton range.

For anyone who might want to know about why such huge weapons weren't widely deployed, its because that as accuracy increased, the size of the warhead began to decrease. No need for a large, inaccurate 20MT warhead when a few well-placed 150kT devices will do the job.

Things like the SS-18 Mod 0's 25MT penetrator were the exception rather than the rule.