Dawn of the Second Nuclear Age

A. Introduction
1. For the past 7 decades, “tactical” or “low-yield” nuclear weapons have formed part of
arsenals of the nuclear powers. The vast majority of these were eliminated in the nuclear-
arms reductions that followed the end of the Cold War.
2. The extreme destructive power of the high yield nuclear weapons made it impossible to only
target combatants, which was morally not acceptable to rationally thinking humans. Even
a single/ accidental use of these weapons could ignite an inevitable chain of nuclear
escalations whose end point was mutually assured destruction. Absence of genuine
scenarios for their use was greeted with relief by battlefield commanders, who understood
their destructive absurdity.
3. However, that has changed now. In January 2019, the US announced that the first of a new
generation of strategic nuclear weapons that were “usable” due to their low yields. The
W76-2 warhead, will be a five kiloton bomb, about one-third of the bomb dropped on
Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. Having a smaller Size, Weight and Power (SWAP), the
weapon can evade enemy air defence and reach the target. The weapon is not designed
as a deterrent, but to be “actually” used.
4. Some argue that this warhead is a response to Russia’s “escalate to de-escalate” strategy,
which states that, deterrence of mutually assured destruction had kept the war “cold”.
Experts state that adversaries like Russia might use nuclear weapons against the US after
assuming that the US would be self-deterred from responding with nuclear weapons.
5. Deployment of low-yield warhead would convince the adversary that the US could respond
with a proportional and limited nuclear attack. By removing the moral inhibitions for using
a nuclear weapon, humanity is entering a second nuclear age.

B. Tactical Nuclear Weapons

1. During the Cold war period, nuclear weapons were packed into every form of delivery
mechanism that was available. From artillery shells to Ballistic missiles.
2. Special Atomic Demolition Mines (SADMs) were developed for employment by Soviet
special operations forces, known as Spetsnaz. These weapons were designed to have
between a 0.8 and 2.0 kiloton yield, and were man-portable. Soviets used "boosted
fission" technology to attain a yield of 98% for these weapons.
3. The W-54 Davy Crockett warhead was the lightest nuclear weapon ever deployed by the
US. With a mass of about 23 kg, the weapon had yields ranging from 10 tons up to 1
Kiloton in various versions. The warhead was egg-shaped with the minor axis of 27.3 cm
and a major axis of 40 cm. The bomb produced an almost instant lethal radiation dosage
within 150 m, and a fatal dose within 400 m.
4. Compare this to the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB or "Mother of All
Bombs"). Made from conventional explosives, the bomb delivers blast effect equal to 11
Tons of TNT and weighs about 9.8 Ton.
5. All the tactical nuclear weapons, mostly artillery shells, were discarded for higher yield
weapons after the signing of Strategic Offensive Reductions (START) Treaty between
the US and Russia in 1991.
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C. Russian Threat
1. On 1st March 2018, Russia’s President Vladimir claimed his country is working on a host
of new nuclear and other advanced weapons, that will give Russia a clear strategic edge
over it’s adversaries:
 Nuclear Powered Cruise Missile. This weapon will employ a nuclear-powered
ramjet along with conventional rocket boosters to kickstart the system. Once at
the appropriate speed, the system could operate for weeks or months on end.
 RS-28 Sarmat Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The RS-28 is fast and
can carry multiple warheads of some form, each capable of independent
movement. It might have a fractional orbital bombardment capability, in
which the re-entry vehicles enter low earth orbit briefly and "go cold," making it
hard to track their onward progress before they come hurtling down on a target.
 Avangard Hypersonic Boost-Glide Vehicle. Nuclear hypersonic boost glide
vehicle called Avangard, which he said would go on the future RS-26 Rubezh
ICBM. Avangard can reach speeds up to 20 Mach, hitting its targets "like a
meteorite.”
 Kanyon or Status-6 nuclear-armed unmanned undersea vehicle. The
underwater drone can make its way to the target area, avoiding any sensor
networks or other defenses, before detonating its dirty warhead. The drone
would be "100 times smaller" than traditional submarines and therefore be
difficult to detect. It would also be able to travel at "extreme depths" and at
speeds that "greatly exceeds the speed of all submarines, up-to-date
torpedoes and even high-speed surface ships,” making it near impossible to
spot and intercept.
 Dual-purpose nuclear and conventional air-launched hypersonic cruise
missile called Kinzhal. This missile has a range of approximately 2000 Km
and a top speed of more than 10 Mach. It can be launch from Mig-31 or
equivalent fighter jets.
2. The core capability of these weapons revolved around their ability to carry a nuclear
warhead and reach the target without getting intercepted. High speed, unlimited range
and small size make these weapons invincible.

D. Impact of 5 Kiloton Explosion

1. Nuclear explosions produce both immediate and delayed destructive effects. Immediate
effects (blast, thermal radiation, prompt ionizing radiation) are produced and cause
significant destruction within seconds or minutes of a nuclear detonation. The delayed
effects (radioactive fallout and other possible environmental effects) inflict damage over an
extended period ranging from hours to centuries, and can cause adverse effects in locations
very distant from the site of the detonation.
2. In case of Tactical nuclear weapons, the effects are limited and localized to ensure minimum
collateral damage. Some of the effects of the 5 Kiloton weapon will be as follows:

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D.1. The Fireball

 About 100 microseconds after the explosion, the fireball is about 10 meters
across. The shock wave initially moves at 30 km/sec (100 Mach). This
compresses and heats the air enormously, up to 30,000 degrees C. In about 10
milliseconds, the temperature drops to about 3000 degrees C. At this stage,
the fireball is about 50 meters across.
 "Breakaway" occurs at about 15 milliseconds when the shock front has
expanded to 100 meters and is travelling at 4 km/sec. By 300 milliseconds 50%
of the total thermal radiation drops to 40% of the peak.
 The burns caused by the sudden intense thermal radiation from the fireball are
called "flash burns". The more thermal radiation absorbed, the more serious
the burn. For a 5 Kiloton bomb, direct exposure will result in first degree burns
in a radius of 1 Km, second degree in a radius of 600 meters and third degree
burns in a radius of 300 meters.
D.2. Shockwave Damage
 Blast damage is caused by the arrival of the shock wave created by the nuclear
explosion. Shock waves cause a virtually instantaneous jump in pressure at the
shock front. The air immediately behind the shock front is accelerated to high
velocities and creates a powerful wind. The wind in turn, creates dynamic
pressure against the side of objects facing the blast.
 At the blast point, a 5 Kiloton bomb creates a pressure of 70 psi, resulting in
wind speeds of 1.5 Mach. As the blast sphere expands to 100 meters, the
pressure drops to 20 psi, the wind speed is still 800 kmph, higher than any
tornado wind. In a radius of 100 meters, heavily built concrete buildings are
severely damaged or demolished and fatalities approach 100%.
D.3. Radiation Effects
 Ionizing radiation produces injury primarily through damage to the
chromosomes. For a 5 Kiloton bomb, humans in a radius of 400 meters receive
lethal dose of radiation. The result is rapid cell death in the gastrointestinal
system causing severe diarrhea, intestinal bleeding, loss of fluids, and
disturbance of electrolyte balance. These effects can cause death within hours
of onset from circulatory collapse. Immediate nausea occurs due to direct
activation of the chemoreceptive nausea center in the brain. Upto 1 km radius,
radiation damage to the germ cells of the reproductive organs can cause
mutations that are passed on to subsequent generations.
D.4. EMP
 The formation of EMP begins with the very intense, but very short burst of
gamma rays caused by the nuclear reactions in the bomb. About 0.3% of the
bomb's energy is in this pulse, but it lasts for only 10 nanoseconds. This
creates a very strong electric current. The current generates intense
electromagnetic emissions over a wide frequency range (up to 100 MHz) that
emanate mostly horizontally. At the same time, the earth acts as a conductor
allowing the electrons to flow back toward the burst point where the positive
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ions are concentrated. This produces a strong magnetic field along the ground.
The charge separation persists for only a few tens of microseconds, making the
emission of 100 gigawatts power.
 High altitude explosions produce EMPs that are dramatically more destructive.
A pancake shaped ionization region is formed below the bomb. The zone can
extend all the way to the horizon, to 25 km for an explosion at an altitude of 5
km.
 The effects of these field on electronics is difficult to predict, but can be
profound. Enormous induced electric currents are generated in wires, antennas,
and metal objects. Commercial electrical grids are EMP antennas and will be
subjected to voltage surges far exceeding those created by lightning.
Modern VLSI chips are extremely sensitive to voltage surges, and would be
burned out by even small leakage currents. Military equipment is generally
designed to be resistant to EMP, but realistic tests are very difficult to perform
and EMP protection rests on attention to detail. Minor changes in design,
incorrect maintenance procedures, poorly fitting parts, loose debris, moisture,
and ordinary dirt can all cause elaborate EMP protections to be totally
circumvented.
 The ionized fireball can block radio and radar signals. Fireball blackout can
cause radar to be blocked for tens of seconds to minutes over an area tens
of kilometers across. High frequency radio can be disrupted over hundreds to
thousands of kilometers for minutes to hours depending on exact conditions.

E. W76-2 Warhead Design

3. Predecessor to W76-2, the W76-1 warhead (quantity 3030 in service) is a thermonuclear
weapon with an explosive yield of around 100 kilotons. The warhead weighs about 164 kg.
The primary stage of the warhead is a fission bomb. The warhead has been compacted
after removal of the secondary stage assembly. The reduced weight of the warhead is about
50 kg. The Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, both in New Mexico, carried out
the modifications. The warhead has an option for radar airburst fuze or impact fuze.
4. With drastic reduction in SWAP, the warhead will be cheaper to maintain, which is a great
advantage considering the $1.3 trillion budget for maintenance and upkeep of US nuclear
weapons over 30 years. The reduced SWAP will also offer improved survivability and
penetration of sophisticated air and missile defenses.
5. Other high technology additives are given in following paragraphs:
E.1. Detonation System
 Creating a symmetric implosion wave requires synchronization accuracy of
100 nanosecond between detonators. The warhead probably uses sprytron
for triggering the laser detonating system. The sprytron, is a vacuum tube
relative of the krytron and has very high radiation resistance. Sprytrons are very
accurate with a jitter of 20-40 nanoseconds. They can be conveniently
triggered using a small capacitor, pulse transformer, and a thyristor. The power
source is capable of extremely fast discharge, to achieve accurate timing and
fast response.
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 The warhead most probably has a laser detonating system that uses a high-
power solid-state laser to deliver sufficient energy in the form of a short optical
pulse to initiate a primary or booster explosive. The laser and its power supply
is relatively heavy.
 Detonators are wired in parallel for reliability and to minimize inductance.
E.2. Explosive Lens
 The Plutonium core or pit needs a convergent shock wave of an implosion to
compress it by a factor of 2 to 3. The warhead uses the PBX-9501 explosive
for creating the Explosive Lens. This has a detonation velocity of 9110 m/sec.
The explosives are placed at 12 equidistant points on the Plutonium core,
corresponding to the 12 pentagonal facets of a dodecahedron.
 The compression time ranges from 1 to 4 microseconds.
E.3. Fission Initiation
 The highly compressed pit begins expanding soon after the shock wave dies
out. It is therefore important to initiate the chain reaction very soon after
maximum compression is achieved, or even slightly before. Neutron Pulse
Generator is used for this purpose.
 The warhead uses next generation of entirely solid-state neutristors that do
not require a vacuum for operation. These are fabricated using MEMS
(microelectromechanical systems) technology.
 The expanding core creates a radiation dominated shock wave. The pileup of
high density material at the shock front is called the "snow plow" effect.
 The basic structure of the early fireball consisting of a thin, highly compressed
shell is now formed. This shell travels outward at nearly the same velocity as
the shock front.
E.4. Boosted Fission
 By making use of beryllium as a neutron reflector and "boosting" the fission
reaction with additional high energy (14 MeV) neutrons from deuterium-tritium
fusion, it is possible to create a very compact nuclear weapon. Boosted fission
weapons have a few grams of a deuterium/tritium gas mixture included in the
center of the fissile core. When the bomb core undergoes enough fission, it
becomes hot enough to ignite the D-T fusion reaction which proceeds swiftly.
 This reaction produces an intense burst of high-energy neutrons that causes a
correspondingly intense burst of fissions in the core. This greatly accelerates
the fission rate in the core, thus allowing 100% increase in the material that
undergoes fission before it blows apart.
E.5. Fissile Material Requirements
 The W76-2 contains beryllium reflected Plutonium (Pu-239) core which has a
purity of 98% (Super Grade). The warhead requires approximately 1.5
kilograms of plutonium with a beryllium reflector.

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 Plutonium can be obtained from nuclear power reactors. A 100 megawatt

reactor can produce about 85 g of Plutonium a day.

F. Conclusion
1. On 1st November 1952, the first H-bomb, “Mike” was detonated on an island in the Pacific.
It had 500 times more lethal force than the bomb that obliterated Hiroshima. With a fireball
more than three miles wide, not only did it destroy the three-story structure built to house it
but also the entire island of Elugelab, as well as parts of several nearby islands. In this way,
the thermonuclear age began and the assembly line at that same Pantex plant really
started to purr. Less than 10 years later, the United States had 20,000 nukes, mostly H-
bombs; Moscow, fewer than 2,000.
2. Until now, it’s been an anomaly of the nuclear age that some of the fiercest critics of such
weaponry were drawn from among the very people who created it. This was primarily
because of the paucity of knowledge about the weapons and technology in the public.
3. In the face of their terrible possibilities, the question "What is to be done?" will never leave
us. How can we prevent their use? How can we keep them from evil men? Can we hope to
eliminate them entirely? Although these are really questions about human institutions, they
cannot be answered without a deep understanding of what nuclear weapons are, and
aren't. This article attempts to give a glimpse of the technology.
4. During the Cold War immense empires devoted to the development, manufacture and
potential use of these weapons developed in the United States and Soviet Union. Although
motivated by the natural desire for self-protection, much that occurred within these secret
enclaves was less than noble. Political posturing, personal ambition, profiteering, and plain
carelessness, all had their role in deciding the expenditure of staggering amounts of public
funds, the exposure of millions of people to risk and injury, and the creation of products and
by-products that will burden future generations.
5. It may seem counterintuitive to compare the manufacture of what’s called a “mini-nuke” to
the creation of the “super-bomb” almost six decades ago. As in 1952, so in 2019 another
era-shaping threshold is being crossed. Ironically, because the H-bomb was eventually
understood to be precisely what the dissenting scientists had claimed it was — a genocidal
weapon — pressures against its use proved insurmountable during almost four decades of
savage East-West hostility. Today, the Trident-mounted W76-2 can obliterate the long-
standing, post-Hiroshima and Nagasaki taboo against nuclear use. In other words, so many
years after the island of Elugelab was wiped from the face of the Earth, the “absolute
weapon” is finally being normalized.

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