Going Nuclear Trivia Quiz

Answer: University of Chicago, Illinois, United States

Chicago Pile-1 was located in a squash/racketball court under the stands at Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Cal-Poly has no nuclear history, Collegia Pisa does not exist, and in 1942 Los Alamos was a disused children's summer camp.

Answer: fissile material

Fissile is defined as capable of self-sustained fission, and applies to less stable isotopes of uranium and transuranic elements. Fissionable material can be made to fission if sufficient energy is applied. Outside of a laboratory, that generally means a fission bomb. The clue you hopefully got is that fissile and missile rhyme.

Answer: Sustained reactions created plutonium, a new fissile element.

The greatest technical challenge confronting the Manhattan Project was isotope separation, requiring the creation of the gigantic Oak Ridge facility. Plutonium, which was created when stable uranium 238 was bombarded by particles from fissioning uranium 235,was a different element, and could be extracted using conventional chemistry.

Answer: Two pieces of uranium 235 were shot together in a gun barrel.

The "gun design" was a brute force assembly of two subcritical masses of uranium 235 by shooting one down a cannon barrel into the other. It could not be used with plutonium, requiring the development of the Fat Man implosion bomb.

Answer: It was more efficient and safer.

Making implosion work was second only to isotope separation on the Manhattan Project difficulty list. The design had huge advantages, however. It can be used with both plutonium and uranium, each weapon would carry less than a critical mass (saves costs) and accidental combinations creating critical mass became impossible (safer). Plutonium was slightly more available than uranium, but not enough to impact the decision.

Answer: Jornada del Muerto, New Mexico, United States

The appropriately named Jornada del Muerto (Dead Man's Journey, in English) is a desert area about 230 miles/370km from Manhattan Project headquarters in Los Alamos. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the targets of atomic bombing less than a month later. Padre Island, Texas, was on the list of possible test sites. The design tested was the "Fat Man" implosion bomb.

Answer: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands

The capture of the Northern Mariana Islands in August, 1944, put the Japanese home islands within range of the B-29s. Luzon was too distant, Adak had no facilities and bad weather, and Iwo Jima, while designated for emergency landings, had only been in US hands about four months.

Answer: Soviet Union

On 30 October 1961, the Soviet Union exploded a device designated RDS-220. It was called "Tsar Bomba" in ironic Russian in the West, meaning "the King of Bombs". The yield of 50 megatons TNT equivalent was a staggering 3,333 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

Answer: over half

Both of the Soviet missile types in Cuba were operational or nearly so. Each type carried a megaton yield warhead, and both types had a range in excess of 2,000 km/1,200 miles. Nearly all of the US mainland east of the Rocky Mountains was within range, including the bulk of population and industry centers.

Answer: under two kilograms

The "gun design" or "Little Boy" bomb was an inherently inefficient design. While estimates vary, the consensus indicates that just over one percent of the 180 pounds of U235 contained in the 240 pound uranium mass in the bomb actually fissioned. That was still enough to yield an explosion equivalent to 15,000 to 18,000 tons of TNT.