Considering Israel and the US are bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities because they have “weapons of mass destruction”, if Iran really did have such weapons, wouldn’t bombing the facilities they’re held in cause them to explode, or cause an evident ripple at least? I may be imagining this in a way cartoonier way than military weapons actually work, but I’m preparing myself for some incredibly annoying debates.

  • db2@lemmy.world
    87·
    7 months ago

    No. That’s not how it works. It could spread nuclear material though.

    Edit: if it existed where they’re claiming, which it doesn’t.

  • [deleted] in lemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    7 months ago

    Nuclear weapons require extremely specific events to successfully detonate, blowing them up with explosives will destroy the mechanisms that make it possible. It will most likely spread the nuclear fuel out though by breaking the shielding and structure that was keeping the radioactive material on the inside.

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
    19·
    7 months ago

    Nuclear bombs are not like conventional bombs. It is very difficult to make them explode. They aren’t volatile. The way the ones dropped on Japan detonated was something like two halves of a core hit each other super super hard and were propelled by a bunch of shot gun shells. Compare that to things like black powder where it’s just fire.

    I don’t think fires or bombs on nuclear sites are good, nor do I necessarily believe there were nuclear weapons, but I don’t think they’d detonate like what you’re thinking. Like how a fire at a fireworks factory causes a horrible chain reaction where everything blows up. Nothing like that.

  • CameronDev@programming.dev
    19·
    7 months ago

    Not necessarily. Nuclear weapons generally require fairly precise timing in order to go critical and properly explode.

    If the timing is off, it’ll still spread nuclear material around, but it won’t make the large mushroom cloud style explosion.

  • Lasherz@lemmy.world
    18·
    7 months ago

    Reminder that the US accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on itself but since it wasn’t armed it didn’t explode.

    But also the most qualified nuclear inspectors on the planet say Iran doesn’t have nukes.

  • solrize@lemmy.ml
    13·
    7 months ago

    1. No it likely wouldn’t make them explode if they hypothetically were there.

    2. It’s reasonably certain that Iran didn’t and doesn’t have any usable nukes at the moment. The claim is that they were working on building them and that the bombing was to stop them from completing any such projects.

    3. There are conflicting opinions about whether they were really working on building nukes. One might reasonably also say that if they weren’t working on it before, they are NOW.

    4. IIRC there was some kind of religious fatwa against Iran building nukes, which made the claim somewhat credible that they weren’t building them. It looked to me like they were instead getting the precursor materials together without doing the final refining and assembly, so that if the fatwa was lifted and the clerics said build the nukes, they could do so relatively quickly. That’s just me though, and I don’t have any special sources of info.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    11·
    7 months ago

    Nukes are actually extremely hard to set off. H-bombs even moreso. It requires extremely, extremely precise explosively-driven compression.

    Gun-type firing mechanisms are simpler, but by no means “simple”.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
    11·
    7 months ago

    Nuclear weapons require very precise detonators to explode, unlike conventional exposives which generally require only heat (and can blow up in the way you describe).

    It’s unclear, but most international experts agree that Iran has not yet actually put the nuclear material into any detonators. The problem is that Iran has been refining and stockpiling nuclear payloads, which could fairly easily be put into a bomb. That’s what most of the world wants to prevent.

  • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
    10·
    7 months ago

    From my understanding, Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons yet. What they destroyed is essentially a factory that creates one of the key ingredients required for making nuclear weapons. It’s not a weapon yet, and it’s not explosive yet. Iran’s still a ways away from making that.

    I super highly recommend William Spaniel on YouTube. He hasn’t covered this bombing yet (I’m sure he will within a few hours tomorrow), but a few days ago he did briefly go over the process of making nuclear bombs, you should check it out: https://youtu.be/XA1CQp_oJ90?t=480

    Either way it’s an amazing channel for understanding world affairs, I really can’t recommend it enough. Go watch any of his recent videos, they’re short and well worth it.