• ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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    21 days ago

    The Montebello Islands disagree.

    You technically could build a nuke with enough enriched uranium. The recipe for a nuke is literally:

    • take half of the amount of the enriched uranium required
    • smash the other half into it
    • boom, Hiroshima.

    You need a particular kind of nuclear reactor to create the enriched uranium, though. But for example in Ukraine, the Chornobyl reactor was built exactly for that.

    That said, the US, the UK and France are the only three NATO countries allowed under international agreement to build nukes.

    • macarthur_park@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      You need a particular kind of nuclear reactor to create the enriched uranium

      *plutonium. Enriched uranium comes from taking natural uranium and enriching the content of a specific isotope (235U), typically with centrifuges, gaseous diffusion and/or magnetic separation in a synchrotron. The enriched uranium can be used in a weapon, or it can be used as fuel for a nuclear reactor to make 239Pu from 238U.