WI Nukes invented earlier?

It would be very difficult--fission was only discovered in 1939 IOTL, although once that happens the concept of a nuclear bomb is reasonably obvious (unless you're Werner Heisenberg). Probably not impossible, but you'd need to advance a number of scientific and engineering fields a fair bit ahead of their OTL performance to do so, which would induce unpredictable changes in the outcomes of a number of events--WWI, for instance, or the Great Depression, could be heavily affected by (say) television becoming practical 10 years earlier due to you speeding up J.J. Thomson discovering the electron, or by the similar advances in certain engineering fields needed to produce centrifuges or gaseous diffusion systems to separate out U-235 from U-238. To say nothing of nuclear power plants being developed earlier!
 
Assuming they are invented earlier I doubt they would be used on the nazis. But could conceivably be used to end the war in the pacific by 1942 or earlier. If the Russians get their nukes at the same time as OTL then we have a 10 year headstart and probably do much better in the cold war.
 
There are three obstacles:

1. Knowing the basics. This means measuring the neutron absorption and fission cross sections of two different isotopes of uranium, as well as the neutron product of fission and the effects of internal moderation and initiation timing on the device. These are difficult tasks for pre-WWII.

2. Calculating the specifics. This would be quite skilled labor intensive to do with pencil and paper, but clearly possible.

3. Separating isotopes, if a uranium device is intended; if a plutonium device (i.e., more than a very few bombs) is intended, it is necessary to design, construct, and operate a nuclear reactor, measure the neutron reaction cross sections of various isotopes of plutonium, and design a complex implosion device. These things require time and major resources.

The probability of any of these things being done quickly, for a speculative and very radical project, without EXTREME pressure is dubious. In 1939 the only conceivable motive was weapons, and after all several nations possessed poison gas yet refrained from using it. The strategic value of nuclear weapons, especially primitive ones, can be overestimated: many conventional bomb raids did more damage than Little Boy.
 
There are three obstacles:

1. Knowing the basics. This means measuring the neutron absorption and fission cross sections of two different isotopes of uranium, as well as the neutron product of fission and the effects of internal moderation and initiation timing on the device. These are difficult tasks.

2. Calculating the specifics. This would be quite skilled labor intensive to do with pencil and paper, but clearly possible.

3. Separating isotopes, if a uranium device is intended; if a plutonium device (i.e., more than a very few bombs) is intended, it is necessary to design, construct, and operate a nuclear reactor, measure the neutron reaction cross sections of various isotopes of plutonium, and design a complex implosion device. These things require time and major resources.

The probability of any of these things being done quickly, for a speculative and very radical project, without EXTREME pressure is dubious. In 1939 the only conceivable motive was weapons, and after all several nations possessed poison gas yet refrained from using it. The strategic value of nuclear weapons, especially primitive ones, can be overestimated: many conventional bomb raids did more damage than Little Boy.
with a POD back far enough anything is possible.
 
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