Nuclear weapons: India keeps pace with Pakistan, but focuses on China

[CorporateAffairs]

Madness, pure madness. Wished countries spent this money for better nutrition for their citizens, infrastructure, upliftment of the downtrodden. However, when rougue states are around you need to double the expenditure on nukes

 

[Zarvan]

I was thinking the same. Does that mean Pakistan making them cheaper?

How much a nuke warhead costs anyway? lol

Yes one of the reason is that we have Uranium found in our Baluchistan a lot of it

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Thanks to the nuke deal in the long run India can produce more nukes.

 

[li0nheart]

Thanks to the nuke deal in the long run India can produce more nukes.

That's not correct. As the nuclear fuel (U238) imported under this deal can only be used in Indian reactors that are placed under IAEA safe guards. Even the spent fuel cannot be processed by India to extract Plutonium.

 

[li0nheart]

Yes one of the reason is that we have Uranium found in our Baluchistan a lot of it

Major chunk of the budget is spent on deploying, maintaining and guarding the nuclear arsenal, rather than producing it.

According to this source the fraction of total budget spent on N bomb for production is only 7%.
http://www.ippnw-students.org/NWIP/pdfs/costs.pdf

Another interesting article on US spending on Nuclear weapons
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2012_06/Resolving_the_Ambiguity_of_Nuclear_Weapons_Costs

Simplified breakdown of US budget

You can see only 6.9 billion of total 53 Billion $ is spent on weapons activities (and that includes the maintenance also).. Hops this clears the confusion!

 

[Tshering22]

As long as this pathetic regime is in power, we won't be able even raise a finger.

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

That's not correct. As the nuclear fuel (U238) imported under this deal can only be used in Indian reactors that are placed under IAEA safe guards. Even the spent fuel cannot be processed by India to extract Plutonium.

I meant the Indian reserves of uranium not uranium imported.

For India's power needs we can import Uranium, hence diverting scares uranium reserves we have for weapons development.

 

[genmirajborgza786]

We have more plutonium based weapons,which are more complex and costly.Missiles need plutonium weapons,uranium for aircraft delivery.

Also our miniature nuke delivery system is brahmos.Unlike pakistan it doesn't need huge range,because 300 km covers all important industrial and population centres of pakistan.

Pakistan is also building nukes from plutonium, the table you are quoting is from 1994-1997 its almost 19 to 16 years old

here check again

 

[Yeti]

That's not correct. As the nuclear fuel (U238) imported under this deal can only be used in Indian reactors that are placed under IAEA safe guards. Even the spent fuel cannot be processed by India to extract Plutonium.

But it will free up our domestic supply as we can import for our civilian program and use what we have in India for our military program.


BBC News - India: 'Massive' uranium find in Andhra Pradesh

There is no restrictions on using our own reserves for the military and the good thing is we can now import from countries such as Nambia and soon to be Australia for the civilian side.

 

[Broccoli]

Hmm we posses more plutonium weapons than pakistan acc to this article then?Uranium based weapons can't be used on missiles anyway.

China's first fission and thermonuclear weapons had U-235 pits, and their new warheads could be using U-235 too. Only real disadvantage in U-235 weapons is that such weapons weight too much for solid-fueled missiles (Agni, DF-31, Topol, Minuteman III, etc) to carry more than few.

Uranium Reliable Replacement Warhead (URRW)
Bob Peurifoy

In an e-mail to multiple addressees, dated June 29, 2005, I suggested that because of the Bush/Putin handshake, the RRW programs could take advantage of the use of uranium 235, rather than plutonium 239, in the redesigned primaries. The advantages of uranium pits could include the following:

-Replacing plutonium pits with uranium pits will eliminate the need for a Modern Pit Facility and a refurbishment of TA-55.

-Y-12 has expertise in the fabrication of uranium parts based on 60 years of experience. I suggest that Y-12 can be upgraded to handle the fabrication of uranium pits at a fraction of the cost estimated for a modern pit facility.

-The half-life of uranium 235, due to radioactive decay, is 700 million years versus 25,000 years for plutonium 239. Therefore, the radioactive hazards associated with uranium pit fabrication would be reduced.

-The radioactive hazards of weapon handling by DOE and military custodians could be reduced.

-Plutonium is pyrophoric. Uranium is not.

-With a 700 million year half-life, there should be no pit aging problems.

-Given an accident and a uranium spill, decontamination could be less demanding.

-The larger critical mass required by the use of uranium will result in thicker pit shells, thereby reducing machining

-problems during fabrication and resulting in higher yields and lower fabrication costs.

-With the use of uranium, perhaps IHE will be less important.

-The use of uranium pits will meet the NNSA objectives of a less expensive, easier-to-manufacture, longer-lasting, and less hazardous product.

In modern thermonuclear weapons, the blast from the implosion “primary” first stage acts as a spark plug to ignite the even more powerful second stage hydrogen nuclear fusion that puts the “H” in “H-bomb.” It takes less plutonium to make such a bomb, which makes it ideal for the modern weapons. Weight is at a premium for military planners who want to pack as many warheads as possible atop a single missile. But uranium has also been used over the years in implosion weapons.

Jeffrey Lewis • Uranium Reliable Replacement Warhead (URRW)

 

[tranquilium]

Noticed that too... But wonder why

Numbers can be deceiving. A kiloton range tactical device and a 10 megaton ICBM both counts as 1, but their maintenance cost is going to be very different.

 

[li0nheart]

I meant the Indian reserves of uranium not uranium imported.

For India's power needs we can import Uranium, hence diverting scares uranium reserves we have for weapons development.

What you failed to consider is- U238 is used for energy production in nuclear reactors. and U235 is used in nuclear bomb. So, one cannot interchange them. Anyway Indian nuclear program is plutonium based. only source is from used nuclear fuel. So, we will have to first use the domestically procured uranium in reactors before we can get plutonium.

But it will free up our domestic supply as we can import for our civilian program and use what we have in India for our military program.


BBC News - India: 'Massive' uranium find in Andhra Pradesh

There is no restrictions on using our own reserves for the military and the good thing is we can now import from countries such as Nambia and soon to be Australia for the civilian side.

See above post.

 

[Aka123]

Kuch bhi karlo na to indian pm ki gand me dum ki woh isse use kar sake aur na indian army me

Abey kaun hain be tu ? Dum hain to samne ake baat kar.

 

[Omega007]

What you failed to consider is- U238 is used for energy production in nuclear reactors. and U235 is used in nuclear bomb. So, one cannot interchange them. Anyway Indian nuclear program is plutonium based. only source is from used nuclear fuel. So, we will have to first use the domestically procured uranium in reactors before we can get plutonium.



See above post.

You are a certified moron-do you know that??Where do you learn physics buddy??I mean who told you that U 238 is used as fuel in nuclear reactors??!!I mean how can one use this as reactor fuel when it's a non-fissile isotope.

 

[Kloitra]

What you failed to consider is- U238 is used for energy production in nuclear reactors. and U235 is used in nuclear bomb. So, one cannot interchange them. Anyway Indian nuclear program is plutonium based. only source is from used nuclear fuel. So, we will have to first use the domestically procured uranium in reactors before we can get plutonium.

Wrong. U-238 is not fissile, so not used in energy production directly. It is U-235 which is used as fissile material, while U-238 is used to breed Pu.

India would just redirect some of the domestically mined fuel currently used as nuclear fuel towards weapons development. This gap would be filled by imported fuel, and thus have no affect on energy production.