A bomb treaty.
 

Don't know how effective this one will be but I'm curious. This may sound like a daft question, but can a nuclear warhead be dismantled and used as fuel for a nuclear reactor?

yes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/bu...t/10nukes.html

Poetic isn't it?

Regards,

D-Ray

Nuclear warhead is a broad term. If it's a "real" one like we have, I imagine you could at least use the fuel/uranium. It certainly wouldn't be the cheapest way to go, seeing how weapons grade Uranium involves a lot of material and time in a purification process that powerhouse fuel does not require.

Thanks for the information.
 

Much appreciated. It wasn't really a query about relative costs but if the stuff already exists I was curious about what's done with it. I grew up on an R.A.F. base; everyone apart from a few crazies knew it wasn't a matter of if, but when.

It's good to find sometimes the loonies really do rule the asylum.

You didn't grow up at Bentwaters, did you ? (Shudder...)

Bicester
 

No, I spent most of my childhood until I was about 10 at Bicester R.A.F. base in Oxfordshire. The U.S.A.F. base at Upper Hayford was just down the road from us. This was in the early 1950's when a lot of runways were the same as used in WW2. Bombers were just too big to use a short runway so to get them off the ground they used JATO bottles strapped under the wings.

Solid fuel boosters. Re-usable, they'd be dropped off when the plane reached take off speed. Not dissimilar to the solid fuel boosters used on the Space Shuttle and like them, if they misfired the airplane was in deep shit. Landing was something else. Again like the Shuttle, parachutes were deployed to slow the thing down, quite an impressive display for a small boy.

When you think back on it, putting aircraft like the Vulcan and B52 allegedly carrying an atomic bomb onto a runway that was known to be too short was kind of risky, wasn't it? The only major incident that the public are aware of was when a U.S.A.F. bomber (can't remember the type) carrying at least one atomic bomb (not a dummy) crash landed and caught fire. Fire crews attended and used all their water to cool the thing down; the crew were left to die.

I was an Air Force brat and spent some formative years in/around Upper Heyford. (My brother was born in Banbury.)

I always found it interesting that, other than the fight line, the base was -- essentially -- "open."

You've got F-111's, with tactical nukes, a thousand yards away, but anyone could walk darned near anywhere.

Odd... :eek:

It was the same when I worked at Bergstrom back in the 80's. If you had the card on your windshield you went right on in. Never once did they stop me and look in my van.

I would have thought the security would have been a little tighter, even back then.

Chas