I have a question about nuclear weapons. Anyone here know much about them?

[PamW]

80. WRONG!!!! WRONG!!! WRONG!!!

You are just plain flat out WRONG about this.

Evidently, you didn't read the article I posted from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory written by Principal Associate Director Goodwin who oversees the nuclear weapons program at LLNL. Dr. Goodwin states in his article:

https://str.llnl.gov/JulAug10/comJulAug10.html

"For example, in a scientific tour de force, Livermore and Los Alamos researchers in 2006 announced that the plutonium aging inside modern U.S. nuclear weapons should not be a concern for nearly a century. "

In 2007, the US Congress asked the prestigious group of scientific advisers called the "JASONS" to review the studies done by the weapons labs with regard to the longevity of the Plutonium in the US nuclear weapons. The part of the weapon that contains the Plutonium is called the "pit" which is part of the "primary". The JASONs CONFIRMED the long-life of Plutonium claimed by Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore.

Courtesy of the Federation of American Scientists, here is the report from the JASONS:

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/jason/pit.pdf

which states in the Executive Summary on page 1 the following:

"Most primary types have credible minimum lifetimes in excess of 100 years as regards aging of plutonium; those with assessed minimum lifetimes of 100 years or less have clear mitigation paths that are proposed and/or being implemented."

Evidently you also didn't read one of the other reports I cited from Lawrence Livermore:

https://str.llnl.gov/JulAug10/allen.html

For several years, a key thrust of enhanced surveillance centered on studying the properties and aging of plutonium pits found in every modern nuclear weapon. In 2006, the two NNSA nuclear design laboratories—Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos—issued a joint report stating that “subtle age-induced changes in the atomic structure and composition of plutonium do not, in themselves, limit the lifetime of U.S. weapon pits” and “the majority of plutonium pits for most nuclear weapons have minimum lifetimes of at least 85 years.” That finding has permitted Livermore stockpile stewards to shift the focus of their attention to obtaining a better scientific understanding of how other weapon materials and components age and interact during the decades they remain in the stockpile.

It's NOT the Plutonium and Uranium that age in weapons. It's OTHER parts.

Quit pretending you know about nuclear design and nuclear testing. You don't have the clearance to know what you claim to know.

PamW