re: nuclear device components for sale
Getting enriched Uranium 235 is the hard part.
For a nuclear bomb, the bomb's designer wants the mass of uranium to be very supercritical so that all of the U-235 atoms in the mass split in a microsecond. In a nuclear reactor, the reactor core needs to be slightly supercritical so that plant operators can raise and lower the temperature of the reactor. The control rods give the operators a way to absorb free neutrons so the reactor can be maintained at a critical level. The amount of uranium-235 in the mass (the level of enrichment) and the shape of the mass control the criticality of the sample. A sphere is the optimal shape. The amount of uranium-235 that you must collect together in a sphere to get a critical reaction is about 2 pounds (0.9 kg). This amount is therefore referred to as the critical mass. For plutonium-239, the critical mass is about 10 ounces (283 grams).
You have to get two sub-critical segments containing together the critical mass, but not when separated or else the thing goes off during manufacture. You have to have them shaped so when they are forced together by the explosive trigger, they are tightly engaged over the full mating surface. They use a cone shape that they force into a corresponding female cone on the main mass sphere.
That's the atom fission bomb. A hydrogen bomb has nuclear fusion of small atoms instead of fission of large ones. They put an atom bomb inside a container of compressed hydrogen - they need the fission bomb to 'start' the fusion bomb.
Neither one is at all easy to achieve unless you have enriching and precision fabrication facilities, but the concepts are widely known. I sure wouldn't want to be building one.
