Umair Nawaz
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I'm sure that the statement of this guy has been misquoted and misunderstood. Let me highlight (bold & underlined) and rectify (red colored) the relevant part, and then I will present my argument:
Theoretically, 1 kilogram of weapons-grade plutonium boosted with 4-5 grams of tritium gives a 10-20KT yield, provided the trigger is sophisticated," Ahmed said. "However, the diameter size of Nasr suggests that the warhead would produce 1 kiloton explosion, and would be of sub-kiloton range, suitable for battlefield use and could be a fission boosted sub-kiloton fission device."
Why do I think that this statement has been misquoted? Because he first talked about a theoretical, perfect TNW. But then he acknowledged the practical limitations and estimated the weapon yield.
Now for the tactical nuclear weapon core part:
Can a TNW with a 1kg Pu core be made?
Yes, it can be. But it would require a very efficient detonation mechanism, such as the Flying Plate design, in which a flatter sort of implosion is done and a relatively larger hollow core is used. This arrangement increases the volume of the warhead, so it is not practical. Furthermore, The mass of the implosion system, and the tamper/reflector will result in greater overall mass even though the core weight is less.
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What if minimum size/diameter is the requirement?
In this case, practical limitations are high, for example for a 155mm artillery shell design. So tamper/reflector are best omitted from the design to reduce diameter, and a high mass core is used instead (10-13kg of Pu) to achieve a ~250 ton explosion. The reason for this low yield despite usage of a larger core is the Linear Implosion design, which HAS to be used in this case. Obviously, this design is very costly and impractical.
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So what type of warhead Nasr might be using?
Nasr has an estimated diameter of 300mm, which allows for a possible Spherical Implosion design (threshold is at ~260mm). This design has higher efficiency than the linear one, but still 4-5kg of Pu is required, because the thickness of tamper/reflector and the number of HE explosive lenses is very less due to limited diameter. Assuming that only weapons grade Pu is used in the core, a 4-5kg core could produce 0.3-0.5 kt yield. With tritium boosting, it could be further enhanced to 1kt.
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Ahaseeb sb mjhe pta shak ha k ap Dr Samar Mubarak hain
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