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5
Principles of Nuclear
Explosive Devices
and Debris Analysis
We believe that the discussion that follows presents sufcient information about
n
uclear
e
xplosive
d
evices
t
hat
t
he
n
uclear
f
orensic
a
nalyst
ca
n
b
enet
f
rom
i
t.
F
or
o
bvious
r
easons,
t
his
i
s
a
s
ensitive
s
ubject.
T
he
r
eader
i
s
r
eferred
t
o
G
lasstone
[
1]
f
or
a
g
ood,
c
omprehensive
d
iscussion
o
f
t
he
p
erformance
o
f
n
uclear
e
xplosives.
F
urther,
i
f a suitable US security clearance is held, references [2,3] are quite good.
5.1 ONE-STAGE FISSION EXPLOSIVE (ATOMIC BOMB)
A nuclear explosive device can produce a large amount of energy from a small quan-
tity
o
f
a
ctive
m
aterial.
T
he
y
ie ...