Why is it so hard to build a nuclear bomb? #shorts
50,421Why is building an atomic bomb almost impossible?
On June 13, 2025, Israel bombs Iran's nuclear facilities.
The goal: to prevent Iran from obtaining an atomic bomb.
But wait...
Iran's nuclear program dates back to the 1950s. Why haven't they managed to build a bomb yet?
The technology is 80 years old. They should be able to find the tutorial on YouTube, right?
Well, actually, developing an atomic bomb is probably the most complex and least profitable military project in history.
And you'll better understand why only nine countries in the world possess nuclear weapons.
Okay, let's imagine a country wants to build a bomb.
The first ingredient to acquire is uranium.
The problem is that natural uranium can't be used in an atomic bomb. In nature, uranium is composed of 99.3% uranium-238, and only 0.7% uranium-235. And obviously, it's the small quantities we need.
Anyway, I've never liked cooking.
To obtain this reactive uranium, you have to increase the percentage of uranium-235 in it. This is called "uranium enrichment."
To separate these two isotopes, they must be spun very quickly in centrifuges.
The heavier uranium-238 is ejected from the edges, while the lighter uranium-235 is collected in the middle.
The problem is, we can't enrich by just a few percent.
To make a bomb, we need to isolate at least 90% uranium-235!
For a nuclear power plant, that's about 3 to 5%...
So that requires thousands of centrifuges in gigantic, multi-billion-dollar facilities.
So, let's imagine that's it, you have your enriched uranium.
Now what? You can't just light a fuse.
For a bomb to explode, you need to trigger a chain reaction.
How does it work? It's simple. A neutron strikes a uranium nucleus. The nucleus breaks in two, releasing a lot of energy as well as two or three more neutrons.
These new neutrons will in turn strike other nuclei, which split and release more neutrons.
The process is repeated, the energy builds up, and...
To trigger this reaction, either two blocks of uranium are projected toward each other, or a plutonium nucleus is compressed.
And all of this must be miniaturized and placed in a missile, which requires a level of expertise that only a handful of nations have mastered.
This is why only nine countries have managed to obtain it.
But things could change! Several of them could develop the technology.
The first is Iran... The country has uranium enriched to more than 60%.
And for its part, Saudi Arabia has announced that it will acquire a bomb if Iran succeeds.
Another region: Asia. Faced with North Korea and the rise of China, Japan and South Korea is considering expanding its arsenal.
Finally, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, and Turkey could also develop bombs to face the Russian threat.
But if these countries want the bomb, they'll have to spend billions and complete all the necessary steps.
All this for a weapon designed... never to be used.
And ultimately, this may be very good news for all of us.