Putting off Nuclear Weapons?

Hey Guys,

I'm not sure if a thread like this has been done but I'm going to post it anyway.

How long could the discovery of using Nuclear Fission (and Fusion) as a Weapon of Mass Destruction be put of for? The use of Nuclear Fission can still be used as a source of energy, and there can still be radiation used in small amounts as a form of poison, but not a large scale weapon.

How could this happen? And how would this affect the world? What would both the short and long term affects be?
 
Well, I'd doubt that, bar some kind of ridiculous retentiveness, people would use nuclear power without trying to weaponise it early on. It's somewhat easier to apply nuclear energy in the form of a big explosion than to use it as a power source.
 
Well, I'd doubt that, bar some kind of ridiculous retentiveness, people would use nuclear power without trying to weaponise it early on. It's somewhat easier to apply nuclear energy in the form of a big explosion than to use it as a power source.
It doesn't need to be used as a power source, I just said it can be used as an energy source in case anyone with an idea might have it [nuclear fission] still discovered.
 
There is always the ASB's turn all Uranium into U238. Without U235 no radioactive Uranium, no trans uraniums. :p:p
However the OP said delay, not totally stop.:rolleyes:

A more deadly and widespread Flu in 1920 Europe, Rutherford, Einstein, Oppenheimer, and lots of others [You know the Names] die.
This pushes the envelope back one/two generations, till a new crop of Physicists reach Eminent Status.
 
My suggestion:

Delay the accidental discovery of PTFE ("Teflon"). Chemists won't be looking for it, since it wasn't thought possible to polymerize Freon. If Roy Plunkett is lazy and throws the mystery substance away, it might be another decade or three before someone else rediscovers it.

Without PTFE, it will be very difficult to make industrial amounts of uranium-235 via gaseous diffusion or gas centrifuging; uranium hexaflouride vapor will eat any other material you'd want to use for a sealant. Mass spectroscopy is too slow and energy intensive.
 
I somewhat hazy on the entire area I freely confess, but wouldn't that idea just delay the Uranium bomb and not the Plutonium one?
 

Sachyriel

Banned
I have one contribution, which you've all heard from me before: The Quebec Agreement. It combined the Canadian, American and British Nuclear research programs into the American one and if you don't do this you might put it off another few years.
 
I have one contribution, which you've all heard from me before: The Quebec Agreement. It combined the Canadian, American and British Nuclear research programs into the American one and if you don't do this you might put it off another few years.

How about if you had Germany defeated quickly, say war over the Sudatenland in 1938. That means relative peace in Europe and no great crisis so less likelihood that any power will invest a huge amount of resources and money in developing a possible new super-weapon for quite a while. Possibly if you have some mad attack by Japan on the allied powers which distracts resources for the western powers and increases dislike of war further.

Won't delay things for more than a couple of decades I suspect and could be very dangerous if either the Soviets get the bomb 1st or several powers each think they have a monopoly.

Steve
 
Top