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In 1938 Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann made the first nuclear fission with uranium.
With this they laid the foundations for the nuclear bomb.
The development went forward very fast and so the USA finally carried out the
"Manhatten Project":
In New Mexico they built a town for 6000 inhabitants:Los Alamos. There they produced the plutonium for the bombs.
Finally, in the night between 15th and 16th of July 1945 the first nuclear bomb was tested in the desert of New Mexico.
The bomb was developed for use against Germany but when they finished the bomb, the war with Germany was already over and so the USA dropped the bombs on Japan.
On 6th august 1945 at 8.15am a uranium-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima:
It was a 14000t bomb and it exploded 650m over the towncentre of Hiroshima.
130 000 peolple died immediately by pressure and heat. 70 000 people died later by radiation and because of their burns. 3 days later a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
After that Japan capitulated.
During the cold war the developing of nuclear weapons went forward with big steps.
Rockets with nuclear warheads were developed and today there are rockets with up to three warheads. Each warhead has an explosive force of 20Mt.
With the nuclear weapons which we have today everything all over the world could be destroyed 12 times.
Test-areas of nuclear bombs:
- USA: Nevada, New Mexico, Bikini Atoll
- Russia: Sibiria
- France: Mururoa Atoll
The H-bomb:
A hydrogen-bomb is based on nuclear fussion.
This type of bomb needs a "normal" nuclear bomb to begin the fussion-process
(because a temperature of 15 million degrees is needed).
An H-bomb leaves no radiation but the explosive force is many times bigger than that of a uranium- or plutonium bomb.
The Udssr tested a H-bomb in the atmosphere and the shockwave went around the earth 3 times !!
Vocabulary:
explosive force Explosionskraft
H-bomb Wasserstoffbombe
nuclear bomb Atombombe
nuclear fission Kernspaltung
nuclear fussion Kernverschmelzung
second-degree-burn Verbrennung zweiten Grades
shockwave Druckwelle
vaporize verdampfen
warhead Sprengkopf
© T_M 1998
20 Megatons nuclear-bomb:
The bomb is dropped on Bregenz...
5
4 ...Konstanz / Arlberg
3 ...Bludenz
2 ...Götzis/Langenargen
1 ...Dornbirn-Hohenems
1 Up to 14 Km everything is vaporized.
100% of the living beings die immediately. Windspeed: 512 Km/h
2 Up to 22,5 Km every building is destroyed.
90% immediately dead. Windspeed: 464 Km/h
3 Up to 43 Km all big buildings are destroyed.
65% immediately dead. 30% wounded. Windspeed: 416 Km/h.
4 Up to 50 Km everything which could burn, burns.
The most living beings die because the oxygen is burned.
50% immediately dead. 45 % wounded. Windspeed: 224 Km/h
5 Up to 56 Km most buildings are damaged.
Second- and Third-degree burnings.
15% immediately dead. 50% wounded. Windspeed: 157 Km/h
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