Not really. Ever heard of suitcase nukes?
I am almost certain this is a fake. This model I mean. If you look at the requirements for U-235, I don't think a 60+ kg carry is in the cards. That includes no shielding, remember. Also the way you do this, in a pipe bomb, is to create 2 perfect hemispheres, at slightly above, (not too much!!!) exactly 1/2 critical mass each. This hemisphere is 170 mm across for U-235. Not that picture, to be sure.
It has to be assemble so that the pieces can never even be near each other. A blue flash of death ray occurs.
The 2 pieces are then slapped together by explosives at each end of the pipe. Each surface must be mirror smooth, flat and parallel to each other at the instant of impact. The explosive pressure creates the tamper, and increases the instantaneous, density very dramatically, so the mass is now well over critical. BOOM.
[h=2]Critical mass of a bare sphere[/h]
Top: A
sphere of fissile material is too small to allow the
chain reaction to become self-sustaining as
neutrons generated by
fissions can too easily escape.
Middle: By increasing the mass of the sphere to a critical mass, the reaction can become self-sustaining.
Bottom: Surrounding the original sphere with a
neutron reflector increases the efficiency of the reactions and also allows the reaction to become self-sustaining.
The shape with minimal critical mass and the smallest physical dimensions is a sphere. Bare-sphere critical masses at normal density of some
actinides are listed in the following table.
Nuclide
| Half Life
(y) | Critical Mass
(kg) | Diameter
(cm) | Ref |
---|
uranium-235 | 704,000,000 | 52
| 17
| [SUP][2][/SUP] |