Oh god, it's real! shadow@xxxxxx (01 May 2014 08:26 UTC)
Re: [TML] Oh god, it's real! Richard Aiken (01 May 2014 10:59 UTC)
Re: [TML] Oh god, it's real! Ian Wood (01 May 2014 11:12 UTC)
Re: [TML] Oh god, it's real! Phil Pugliese (01 May 2014 18:47 UTC)
Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (01 May 2014 19:59 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Craig Berry (01 May 2014 20:09 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (02 May 2014 00:24 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Ian Whitchurch (02 May 2014 00:26 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Jeffrey Schwartz (01 May 2014 20:16 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (02 May 2014 00:25 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Tim (02 May 2014 05:07 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (02 May 2014 13:29 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Tim (03 May 2014 00:34 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (03 May 2014 02:34 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Tim (03 May 2014 07:56 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... shadow@xxxxxx (04 May 2014 04:41 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Jeffrey Schwartz (02 May 2014 13:10 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Ian Whitchurch (01 May 2014 21:14 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (02 May 2014 00:26 UTC)
RE: [TML] Nukes... Anthony Jackson (01 May 2014 23:23 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Bruce Johnson (01 May 2014 23:30 UTC)
RE: [TML] Nukes... Anthony Jackson (01 May 2014 23:58 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (02 May 2014 00:30 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Richard Aiken (02 May 2014 04:27 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (02 May 2014 13:22 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Richard Aiken (04 May 2014 06:29 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Tim (02 May 2014 05:05 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (02 May 2014 13:27 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Jeffrey Schwartz (02 May 2014 14:11 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Greg Nokes (02 May 2014 18:33 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Grimmund (02 May 2014 13:26 UTC)
Re: [TML] Nukes... Kurt Feltenberger (02 May 2014 13:34 UTC)
Re: [TML]Nukes... Rob O'Connor (03 May 2014 09:47 UTC)
Re: [TML]Nukes... Phil Pugliese (03 May 2014 16:03 UTC)
Re: [TML]Nukes... Bruce Johnson (03 May 2014 20:23 UTC)
Re: [TML]Nukes... Ian Whitchurch (03 May 2014 22:00 UTC)
Re: [TML] Oh god, it's real! Mike Looney (02 May 2014 15:45 UTC)
Re: [TML] Oh god, it's real! Phil Pugliese (02 May 2014 19:03 UTC)
Re: [TML] Oh god, it's real! Ian Wood (09 Jun 2014 02:31 UTC)
Re: [TML] Oh god, it's real! Jerry Barrington (02 May 2014 01:09 UTC)
Re: [TML] Oh god, it's real! Grimmund (01 May 2014 12:47 UTC)

RE: [TML] Nukes... Anthony Jackson 01 May 2014 23:23 UTC

From: Kurt Feltenberger
>
> With the resources of a solar system similar to ours, how many nuclear
> weapons would it be possible to construct?

Well, the molar abundance of Uranium is about 1/10^12 that of hydrogen for a mass abundance that is somewhere around 1/10^10, most of it can in principle be processed into bombs via breeder reactors, the mass of the solar system is around 2e+30 kg, so there's around 10^20 kg of uranium that can be processed into Pu-239 and around 10^18 kg of U-235. Critical mass is 52 kg of U-235 or 10 kg of Pu-239, which can be reduced somewhat by compression, so figure a lower theoretical limit of around 10^19 nuclear weapons.

Of course, much of that is totally inaccessible. The fraction of U in asteroids and planetary crusts will be on the order of 1/10^8, the mass of the asteroid belt is maybe 10^20 kg, so asteroid mining might only allow building on the order of 10^11 weapons.

In any case, it's high enough to probably be a nonfactor; it's mostly an issue of 'how much money are you willing to spend/