Nuclear weapons and the Federated Fire Territories
| Federated Fire Territories | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nuclear program start date | 1943 |
| First nuclear weapon test | May 6, 1951 |
| First thermonuclear weapon test | 1955 |
| NPT party | Signatory of STAPNA |
The Federated Fire Territories commonly known as Fyrland, was the third country after New Tyran and Hallia to develop and test nuclear weapons and is one of the signatories to the STAPNA agreement.
Although the Fyrish scientific community was aware of the global discourse on the feasibility of an atomic bomb throughout the 1930s, plans to develop such a weapon existed only in passing proposals by 1940, and an assessment programme was only initiated by 1943. The assessment programme was initiated due to the conspicuous lack of scientific publications regarding the study of nuclear fission by Anglian, Glasic, and Sieuxerrian scientists, as Fyrish physicists suspected that the Entente powers had secretly begun development of a "superweapon".
No practical effort was made to pursue the programme until the aftermath of the first use of atomic weaponry on Dongrŭng and Anchŏn in Menghe on November 9, 1945, which gave the impetus to initiate a nuclear weapons programme, codenamed Fenix.[1]
Early efforts
Accelerating feasibility
With the steady stream of scientific publications regarding nuclear fission abruptly tailing off with the start of the Pan-Septentrion War, Fyrish physicist Eadgar Tafari Desta promptly took it upon himself to raise concern over the fact, as he suspected a conspiracy by the Entente powers to develop a "superweapon". Intense lobbying efforts by Fyrish physicists and scientists, led by Desta at the start of 1940, managed to convince the government to set up an assessment programme by 1943, which was to address the "uranium issue", Isotope separation, and investigate the possibility of a chain reaction weapon.
Early efforts centred around the issue of isotope separation, as the properties of Uranium-235 (U-235) regarding its tendency to release two neutrons when undergoing fission, were theorised since 1935, which made it a prime candidate for a chain reaction. However, the primary issue with U-235 was that although it was naturally occurring, the abundance of U-235 in natural uranium was known to be approximately 0.7%, whilst being chemically identical to the main constituent of natural uranium, U-238. Furthermore, isotope-238 was known to be fissionable but not fissile, which made it incapable of supporting the slow neutron chain reaction bomb concept. With no progress being made on the separative work process by 1945, due to the programme's strictly assessment nature, sufficient quantities of uranium isotopes were never made available to the assessment programme, which was required in order to conduct tests to ascertain data as to the true nature of a chain reaction bomb.
The situation changed dramatically when the Federated Fire Territories learned of the atomic bombings of Dongrŭng and Anchŏn in 1945. Immediately after the atomic bombing, the assessment programme was moved to live project status, under Desta's lead, with the codename Fenix, and given top priority to national defence. From this point, the work on the programme was carried out quickly, resulting in the first nuclear reactor, known as the Britræᵹ Atomfīn (Britræᵹ nuclear pile), being constructed near Britræᵹ on February 5, 1946.
Isotope separation
Although the Britræᵹ nuclear pile was completed by the start of 1946, sufficient quantities of enriched uranium were still unavailable for weapons development, and the pile was far smaller than ideal. The Britræᵹ piles' primary purpose was to produce plutonium-239 from natural uranium, 10 micrograms (μg) of which had been produced via cyclotron, a recent Casaterran invention. Under the assessment programme, plutonium-239 was discovered to have 1.7 times the thermal neutron capture cross section of uranium-235. The assessment programme panel presented these findings to Fyrish physicist Eadgar Tafari Desta towards the end of 1944, who then discussed with theoretical physicist Oswald Uhtric how plutonium might be produced in a nuclear reactor. Desta submitted his report in December of the same year, which suggested the construction of a nuclear pile.
Continually bottlenecking the program, however, was the lack of industrial capacity for the separation of uranium isotopes, which was an issue that persisted through to 1947. At the time, a process known as thermal diffusion was providing the program with uranium enriched to almost 2%, with only one small research facility in operation at the time. Not until May 20th 1947 was further headway made into the process when the Lārhūs of Fæstēah (LoF)[2] Larstaþol for Atomfandian (Institute for Atomic Research)[3], managed to successfully modify a cyclotron to overcome the space charge limitation. Researchers had suspected that air molecules in the vacuum chamber would neutralise the ions and create a focused beam to be separated into a collector. This modified mass spectrometer, coined calutron in Casaterran circles, proved capable of performing isotope separation far more effectively than previous attempts, such as the trials by the Lārhūs of Britræᵹ (LoB) Institute for Atomic Research's attempts using a klystron. When the LoB calutron was first operated on May 20th, a uranium beam intensity of 5 microamperes (μA) was received by the collector, thus proving the researchers correct about the effect air molecules had in the vacuum chamber. Later improvements led to a twelve-hour run on June 30th, with a 50 μA beam producing 24 μg of uranium enriched to 25% uranium-235, which was about ten times as much as the klystron at LoB had produced. By August, further improvements in technique refinement allowed it to generate a 1,500 μA beam, with 80 μg samples enriched to 30% being sent to project Fenix's team in the same month. In combination with the existing thermal diffusion process, the calutron process enriched uranium from its natural 0.7% concentration of U-235 to the highest levels yet seen in Fyrland, up to 73.2% enrichment, albeit only in small quantities.
Industrial enrichment
By the start of 1948, the Britræᵹ nuclear pile had produced almost 60 kg of plutonium from natural uranium, the processing of which had initially been bottlenecked by lack of a dedicated site for the bismuth phosphate process. The construction of a dedicated site for this process was nearly complete by this time. The ability of plutonium-239 to be chemically separated from irradiated natural uranium fuel used in the Britræᵹ pile made its manufacture and enrichment process far easier than that for the enrichment process of uranium-235. As a result, Desta's team had managed to have the chance to work with substantial quantities of the isotope and had determined it to be unviable for the gun-type fission weapon concept. The scientists had discovered that the plutonium-239 was contaminated with plutonium-240 from the pile process, which caused a high rate of spontaneous fission due to the presence of isotope-240. This contamination meant that the speed at which the gun-type device would have to bring the two sub-critical masses together would be far more than what was achievable in the dimension restrictions of a bomb bay. Therefore the idea of gun-type plutonium fuelled fission weapons was shelved for the time being.
A dedicated thermal diffusion processing plant was completed by February of 1948 near Fæstēah, known as Steall-A (Site-A), which had been under construction since mid-1946. The site contained 2,500 columns, each approximately 15 meters long, and was the first truly industrial-scale nuclear facility in Fyrland. This facility would then provide lightly enriched uranium to the still incomplete calutron facility on the order of 1.8% U-235. The calutron facility, known as Steall-B (Site-B), had been under construction since July of 1947 and sought to expand upon the LoF's methodology in scale drastically. Each facility at the time was the single most expensive project undertaken by any Fyrish government. Site-B was fully operational by May of 1949 and had provided enrichment of small quantities of uranium from Site-A as early as April of 1948, which would be the first uranium to make it into a Fyrish atomic weapon test.
The path to a weapon
With Fæstēah Site-A and Site-B producing enriched uranium as early as mid-1948, weapon development began in earnest, with the intent to realise the now proven potential of the atom. A gun-type device was the most obvious candidate for a first weapons trial, as the critical mass of what was capable of being produced by Site-A and Site-B, was known through experimental trials. An ~80 kg cylindrical uranium core enriched to 73.2% U-235 would be sufficient for a gun-type fission weapon. However, due to the less than ideal level of enrichment and high quantity of enriched uranium required, production of the comparatively simple gun-type device would become rather laborious, with some 11.3 tonnes of natural uranium being processed to make the ~80 kg core. As such, the quantities for the most viable weapon concepts were not available for immediate testing as of May 1949.
Because of the apparent difficulty in uranium enrichment, especially in comparison to plutonium production, as early as February 1948, a second weapon concept was being explored. The concept called for a core made of plutonium, hollowed out, to be compressed into a state of criticality via an explosive compression wave. The plutonium produced by the Britræᵹ nuclear pile, contaminated with plutonium-240 which was prone to a high rate of spontaneous fission, could theoretically be kept sub-critical in this fashion. This concept was the brainchild of Fyrish theoretical physicist Berhane Osgar, who presented it to the team lead at the LoB Institute for Atomic Research towards the end of July 1949. The team lead, Norsatiran theoretical physicist Wilfrid Seble, had taken the idea to the Þēodale Neringfandian Gemōt (ThNG)[4], where he spoke to Reberiyan born Kazymir Karpowskyi and his team. Unfortunately, Seble and Karpowskyi's efforts from August to November at imploding tubes to produce cylinders tended to produce objects that resembled rocks, which severely damaged the credibility of Osgar's implosion concept. However, Osgar still believed that the implosion method was practical, and only his ardent determination kept the project alive. Seble proposed in November 1949 that rather than a hollow core be used, a solid core should replace it instead, while Karpowskyi implied the use of shaped charges might offer more control to the explosion. Seble was convinced by the idea that the plutonium core would be compressed under such pressures without the need for a hollow pit. Seble's knowledge of how dense metals behaved under heavy pressure was influenced by his pre-Pan-Septentrion war theoretical studies of Septentrion's core. The primary task for the compression of a solid core then was the shaped charge-driven compression, which Karpowskyi and his team began further experimenting with under project Glæs (Glas)[5].
The metallurgists task was to work out how to construct the plutonium from the Britræᵹ pile into a sphere, the difficulties of which became apparent when attempts to measure the density of the plutonium gave inconsistent results. Contamination was originally believed to be the culprit, but it was soon determined that there were multiple allotropes of plutonium. Alloying the plutonium with aluminium was tried and found to be stable at room temperature, although aluminium emits neutrons when bombarded with alpha particles, which would increase the spontaneous fission problem. It was found that a plutonium–gallium alloy would stabilise the pit and could be hot pressed into the desired spherical shape. The first plutonium core was manufactured this way at Britræᵹ Efnefandian Larstaþol (BEfL) Steall-Æ (Site-AE)[6], originally constructed for the bismuth phosphate process, in February 1950. The core came in at 6.2 kg and 3.5 inches in diameter.
By March 1951, Karpowskyi and his team under project Glæs had managed to successfully and symmetrically compress a metal sphere using a form of shaped charge, known as an explosive lens. The experiment measured changes in the absorption of gamma rays by the sphere's metal as it underwent compression and, through extensive iteration, produced the desired results. In order to control the precise detonation of the array of explosive lenses, Karpowskyi's team had created what was simply known as the Arc (Ark)[7], which weighed some 300 kg and contained everything needed to control the sequence. The "Arc" would send signals to the 32 exploding-bridgewire detonators arranged around the truncated icosahedron explosive lens array. The project results were handed back to Seble and his team, which managed to convince both Seble and Osgar about its viability. These findings were presented to the head of project Fenix, Desta, in a meeting at Site-B on April 2nd, 1951.
The first weapon
The culmination of years of development and billions in taxpayer funds was represented by the first viable nuclear device produced in the Federated Fire Territories. The weapon code name given by Desta, Ælf (Elf)[8], was used to refer to the construction and testing of the device — which began on April 14th 1951. The core for the device was 6.2 kg of 93% plutonium-239, the third such core produced from the Britræᵹ pile, and was delivered to the test site known as Steall-1 (Site-1)[9], on April 29th. Under the watch of Desta and Seble's team, the core was loaded into the Glæs array, sealed shut, and transported to the test stand at Steall-0 (Site-0). The test stand was a wooden tower, 30 meters (98 feet) tall. The device was hoisted to the top of the tower and suspended for detonation. The "Arc" was atop the tower, where Karpowskyi's team connected it with the "Elf" to complete the device. Upon completing the setup, Desta, Uhtric, Seble, Osgar, and Karpowskyi, shared a bottle of whiskey in celebration; the day after, May 6th 1951, they would test the device.
Ælf-1
The projected yield of the device was 5 kilotons of TNT (21 TJ), which weighed 3,810 kg (8,400 lbs) and was 1.29 meters (51 inch) in diameter. The core was 8.9 cm (3.5 inch) in diameter and was warm to the touch, emitting about 15 Watts of heat. The tamper, serving as a neutron reflector to capture stray neutrons from the reaction and as mass to provide inertia to contain the reaction for longer, was made of depleted uranium and 20.6 cm (8.1 inch) in diameter. The tamper had a removable 10 cm (4 inch) cylinder section in which the pit was located, which enabled the device's transport without a core. This was surrounded by a 0.7 cm (0.27 inch) thick shell of boron-impregnated plastic, also with a removable section 11.4 cm (4.5 inch) in diameter. The aluminium pusher then encased these assemblies, which was 41.1 cm (16.2 inch) in diameter, with a 13 cm (5.1 inch) plug to allow access to the removable components.
The Glæs array of explosive lenses then surrounded this assembly and the explosion generated would symmetrically compress the plutonium to over twice its normal density — initiating a fission chain reaction.
- The exploding-bridgewire detonators simultaneously initiate a detonation wave in each segment of the truncated icosahedron.
- The resulting detonation waves are intially convex in the faster explosives, Cyclonite, where the wavefronts are rearranged to become concave in the...
- ...slower explosives, 31% TNT and 69% barium nitrate. The rearranged waves then converge into the...
- ...inner layer of explosives, Cyclonite, forming a single spherical implosive shock-wave.
- The unified wavefront then transfers the imploding shock-wave to the aluminium pusher and onto the depleted uranium tamper, which minimizes turbulence. The shock-wave then compresses the components within, passing through a...
- ...boron-plastic shield intended to prevent stray neutrons causing a pre-detonation. The shock-wave then reaches the center of the device, where the...
- ...pit of plutonium-239 (93%) and gallium alloy is compressed. A fission chain reaction then begins, where the fissioning pit starts to blow itself apart prematurely, which is curtailed by the inward momentum of the...
- ...depleted uranium tamper. The tamper also reflects neutrons back into the pit, accelerating the unfolding chain reaction.
The device managed to achieve the fission of around 0.66 kg of the plutonium in the core, which equated to an efficiency of 10.6%. This would exceeded the projected yield considerably, as later radiochemical analysis of the site would indicate that the yield had been around 12 kilotons of TNT.
Subsequent tests
Following the success of the first nuclear test under project Fenix, the government announced its program to the world on May 30th 1951, along with its intentions to not be overshadowed through nuclear blackmail by the Casaterran nuclear powers, New Tyran and Hallia. The success of the project was underpinned further when on August 20th of the same year, a uranium device known as Hleapere-1 (Courier-1)[10] was successfully tested. The gun-type device was originally intended to be the first weapon, but due to complications in the early uranium enrichment infrastructure, it was not ready before the plutonium device, Ælf-1. The final test under the Fenix series was the test of Ælf-2, which was an improved version of Ælf-1 and resembled the final weapon package, rather than the Arc and Glæs equipment.
| Early nuclear tests of the Federated Fire Territories | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project | Test | Date | Location | Yield | Type |
| Fenix | Ælf-1 | May 6, 1951 | HpAH Steall-0 | 12.2 kt | Plutonium implosion-type |
| Hleapere-1 | August 20, 1951 | HpAH Steall-0 | Uranium gun-type | ||
| Ælf-2 | January 15, 1952 | HpAH Steall-0 | 25.7 kt | Plutonium implosion-type | |
| Gūðhafoc | Dweorg-1 | HpAH Steall-0 | |||
| Dweorg-2 | HpAH Steall-0 | ||||
| Dweorg-3 | HpAH Steall-0 | ||||
| Tysca | Wēdehund-1 | HpAH Steall-0 | Uranium implosion-type | ||
| Wēdehund-2 | ErAH Steall-13 | Uranium implosion-type | |||
| Wēdehund-3 | ErAH Steall-13 | Deuterium-tritium boosted uranium implosion-type | |||
| Wēdehund-4 | ErAH Steall-13 | Deuterium-tritium boosted uranium implosion-type | |||
Hleapere-1
Originally intended as the forerunner nuclear weapon project, Hleapere-1 was a gun-type device named sarcastically (Courier-1) for its late nature. Although the simplest of the weapon concepts, delays in the newly constructed uranium enrichment infrastructure meant that insufficient quantities of weapons-grade uranium were ready for testing. The discovery of plutonium-240 contamination exacerbated the issue further, effectively leaving the gun-type device temporarily dead in the water.
The issues with weapons-grade uranium supply were eventually overcome by 1951. However, by this time, the Ælf plutonium implosion bomb had taken precedence, and even with sufficient quantities of enriched uranium available by April, Ælf-1 was tested first. Despite being late Hleapere-1 was still the more viable weapon for military use up to January 14th 1952, due to the package resembling that of a flyable weapon. However, the Hleapere-1 would be the first and only gun-type weapon tested in the Federated Fire Territories.
Ælf-2
Improvements to the Ælf-1 concept were continually worked on after its test, with primary efforts going towards presenting the weapon in a deliverable package, as the Ælf-1 weapon resembled a collection of scientific equipment, more so than a military weapon. Efforts were also made to increase the efficiency of the device through additions such as a modulated neutron initiator, and an improved Glæs array, which greatly increased the burnup fraction of the weapon. These changes meant the Ælf-2 device, with a core of the same mass as Ælf-1, achieved the fission of ~1.38 kg of its 6.2 kg core. Ælf-2 yielded around 26 kilotons of TNT (109 TJ), which was more than twice that of the Ælf-1.
Ælf-2 was tested at Steall-0 on January 15, 1952 and officially hailed the beginning of an era of Fyrish military atomic weapons and the end of the Fenix project.
Timeline
| November 1949 Seble and Karpowskyi present core compression concept | April 2, 1951 Project Glæs results shown to Seble and Desta's teams | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1940 Physicist Eadgar Tafari Desta begins lobbying | 1943 Government agrees to setup assessment program | December 1, 1944 Desta and Uhtric submit plutonium production plans | November 9, 1945 Atomic bombing of Dongrŭng and Anchŏn | 1946 Atmomic bombing of Takena and Nakazara | May 20, 1947 LoF LfAF manages to separate U-235 using a calutron | January 21, 1948 Plutonium-240 contamination discovered | July 27, 1949 Osgar presents implosion concept | March 1951 Project Glæs successfully implodes test pit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1943 Assessment program starts | November 9, 1945 Project Fenix starts | February 5, 1946 Britræᵹ nuclear pile completed | February 1948 FAfS Steall-A thermal diffusion plant completed | May 10, 1949 FAfS Steall-B calutron plant completed | February 1950 BEfL Steall-Æ produces 1st plutonium pit | May 6, 1951 Ælf-1 successfully tested at HpAH Steall-0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| April 25, 1948 BEfL Steall-Æ bismuth phosphate plant completed | November 1949 Project Glæs starts | March 1951 Arc control device created | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Atomic Weapons Board
The Atomic Weapons Board, Atomwǣpnu Bord (AwB) in Fēþisc, was formed after the Ælf-2 weapon test on January 16, 1952. The AwB is responsible for all nuclear weapon production facilities in the Federated Fire Territories, as well as overseeing and directing research, development, testing, and production efforts.
Weapons production complexes
| Location | Complex | Site | Functions | Status | Built / nuclear contributor since |
Retired / fate |
Notes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R&D | Pit production |
Material production (U) |
Material production (Pu) |
Component production |
Nuclear testing |
Weapon assembly |
Weapon disassembly | |||||||
| Fæstēah | FAfS | Steall-A | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | Active | February 3, 1948 | Still operational | Constructed as uranium enricher through thermal diffusion process. Converted to more efficient gaseous diffusion process. |
| Steall-B | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | Not active | May 10, 1949 | 1979 | Constructed as uranium enricher through calutron process. Shutdown due to expense after STAPNA treaty. | ||
| LoF | LfAF | ✓ | ✕ | − | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | − | − | Active | 1943 | Still operational | Contributed enriched uranium from thermal diffusion process in small amounts early in the nuclear program. Responsible for calutron process. | |
| Britræᵹ | BEfL | Steall-Æ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | Active | April 25, 1948 | Still operational | Constructed to separate plutonium from the Britræᵹ nuclear using bismuth phosphate process. Converted to REDOX and PUREX process. |
| LoB | LfAB | ✓ | ✕ | − | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | Active | 1943 | Still operational | Site of the Britræᵹ nuclear pile. Contributed uranium hexafluoride early in the nuclear program. | |
| Hacedaspinca | HpAH | Steall-0 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | Active | November 15, 1945 | Still operational | Now used as a test site for non-nuclear weaponry, such a depleted uranium penetrators. |
| Steall-1 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | Active | November 15, 1945 | Still operational | Remains the staging ground for Steall-0. Old facility used for nuclear disarmament. | ||
| Eāræsdenu | ErAH | Steall-13 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | Not active | 1951 | 1979 | Closed after STAPNA treaty. |
| Steall-14 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | Not active | 1951 | 1979 | Closed after STAPNA treaty. | ||
| Geoirēlandes | ĒbAH | Steall-7 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | Not active | 1955 | 1979 | Meridian ocean islands test site, used for thermonuclear tests. Closed after STAPNA treaty. |
| Steall-8 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | Not active | 1955 | 1979 | Meridian ocean islands test site staging grounds, used for thermonuclear tests. Closed after STAPNA treaty. | ||
| Key | |
|---|---|
| Symbol | Meaning |
| ✓ | Fully capable |
| − | Somewhat capable |
| ✕ | Incapable |
Notes
- ↑ Project codename Fenix translates as Phoenix.
- ↑ Lārhūs of Fæstēah translates as the The University of Fæstēah.
- ↑ Larstaþol for Atomfandian translates as the Institute for Atomic Research.
- ↑ Þēodale Neringfandian Gemōt translates as the National Defence Research Council.
- ↑ Glæs translates as Glass.
- ↑ Britræᵹ Efnefandian Larstaþol translates as the Britræᵹ Material Research Institute.
- ↑ Arc is what the electronics package used to control the Glæs array of explosive lenses was called and translates as the Ark. The term was often used to refer to the core package as a whole.
- ↑ Ælf translates as Elf, was the name given to the first nuclear weapon produced in Fyrland.
- ↑ Steal-1, or Site-1, was the assembly site for the first Fyrish atomic weapon.
- ↑ Hleapere-1 was the second nuclear device tested, its name translates as Courier-1 which was satirical.