QA问答：如果原子弹是一种40年代的技术，为什么伊朗或伊拉克等其他国家不能在一天内制造出原子弹呢？
If the atomic bomb is a 40s technology, why didn’t any other country like Iran or Iraq for example manage to make one in a matter of one day?
译文简介
我们用20世纪60年代的技术把人送上了月球，但这并不意味着你当地的童子军今天也能做到这样的事情。
正文翻译
If the atomic bomb is a 40s technology, why didn’t any other country like Iran or Iraq for example manage to make one in a matter of one day?
如果原子弹是一种40年代的技术，为什么伊朗或伊拉克等其他国家不能在一天内制造出原子弹呢？
如果原子弹是一种40年代的技术，为什么伊朗或伊拉克等其他国家不能在一天内制造出原子弹呢？
评论翻译
很赞 ( 13 )
收藏
Uranium 235 is the magic stuff that makes nuclear weapons possible. It’s not the most common isotope of Uranium though, not by a long-shot. You can order a chunk of Uranium ore on Amazon. Generally speaking, when we’re talking about Uranium ore we’re talking about pitchblende — Uranium Dioxide.
铀235是使核武器成为可能的神奇物质。不过，它不是铀最常见的同位素，远非如此。你可以在亚马逊上订购一大块铀矿石。一般来说，当我们谈论铀矿石时，我们谈论的是沥青铀矿——二氧化铀。
Assuming you have a literal ton of pure pitchblende — so no contaminants of any other sort — that means it’s 88.14% uranium by weight.
Your ton is down to 1762.99 pounds.
But now you need to get the U-235 out. The problem is that U-235 is chemically identical to U-238 and the 238 doesn’t do you much good at this stage. Separating one set of Uranium atoms from another is thus a physical process. To give you an idea of the scope of this process, this is the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge — one of the steps in the American Uranium enrichment program towards the end of WWII. Note, not the only step.
假设你有一吨纯沥青铀矿，并且没有任何其他的污染物在其中，这意味着它的铀重量为88.14%。
你的一吨减少到了1762.99磅。
但现在你需要取出U-235。问题是U-235的化学成分与U-238相同，而238在这个阶段对你没有多大好处。因此，需要一个物理过程将一组铀原子与另一组分离。为了让你了解这一过程需要多大的地盘，我举个例子：橡树岭的K-25工厂。这是二战结束前美国铀浓缩计划的一个步骤。注意，这不是唯一的一步。
Note the size of the cars at the extreme left of the photo.
请注意照片最左侧的汽车尺寸。
那么，你从一吨铀矿石中可以提取多少铀-235？铀-235的丰度为0.720%，所以我们把1762.99磅乘以0.00720，得到……12.69磅。
12磅的铀并不多，你甚至得不到这么多。这个过程从来都不是完美的，有些会在过程中丢失。现在好消息是，你不需要100%纯度的这种东西，只需要90%纯度就可以制造20世纪40年代的那种核弹，所以你12.69磅的U-235可以制造出14.1磅的武器级铀。
That’s why it’s so difficult. Even though the way this is done is well understood, the actual doing of it is very hard.
We put a man on the moon with 1960s technology; that doesn’t mean your local boyscout troop could manage it today.
好消息。现在再做九次。小男孩炸弹的核心是120磅的U-235。
这就是为什么它如此困难的原因。尽管人们已经很好地理解了这一点，但实际做到这一点非常困难。
我们用20世纪60年代的技术把人送上了月球，但这并不意味着你当地的童子军今天也能做到这样的事情。
“If the pyramids were built with 4th millennium BCE technology, why can’t my kids make one for their science fair?”
“如果金字塔是用公元前4千年的技术建造的，为什么我的孩子不能为他们的科学展制作一座呢？”
Good question! Do they know any aliens?
好问题！他们认识外星人吗？
LOL!!! You missed the key part - ANCIENT aliens
哈哈哈！！！你丢失了关键词——古代的外星人 。
I wonder if MODERN aliens still know how to build pyramids. It may be a lost alien art.
我很想知道，现代外星人是否还知道要如何建造金字塔？这可能是一种遗失的外星艺术。
I think you missed the joke by a light year.
我认为你很大程度上没有理解这个笑话。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
I think you missed that I did get the joke. I am well aware that there are fools who believe that ancient Egyptians needed aliens to land on Earth to build the pyramids for them.
我认为你没有注意到我确实理解了这个笑话。我很清楚，有些傻瓜认为古埃及人需要外星人登陆地球为他们建造金字塔。
I think thats the best part, you clearly did miss the joke. You see, if you’re planning on building anything in the US, be it a house or a building or say a pyramid, who would you have do it? (illegal) aliens
我认为这是最棒的部分，但你显然真的没有理解这个笑话。
你看，如果你打算在美国建造任何东西，无论是房子、建筑还是金字塔，你会让谁来做？
（非法）外国人
译注：aliens 这个单词有外国人的意思，也有外星人的意思。
Illegal aliens do it everyday, unfortunately the blocks are moved away before completion.
非法外国人每天都这样做，不幸的是，这些立方体在完工前就被搬走了。
That’s only because some Karen called immigration…
那只是因为一些凯伦打电话给移民局……
I mean, your kids might be able to make one…but they’d need a few thousand classmates and a billion bucks or so, and they’d all be grown by the time they were done.
我的意思是，你的孩子也许能做一个……但他们需要几千名同学和大约十亿美元，而且当他们完成时，他们都已经长大了。
You are looking at it wrong, more slave labor fewer bucks.
你错了，更多的奴隶劳工更少的钱。
Probably more ‘conscxted’ labour rather than slaves, and you've got to provide food, beer and shelter for them.
可能是更多的“招募”劳工而不是奴隶劳工，你必须为他们提供食物、啤酒和住所。
Your kids could make one provided you have about 30,000 kids.
如果你有30000个孩子，你的孩子可以做一个。
On top of being absurdly expensive for a country under sanctions. It requires a chemical process to bind it to an extremely dangerous element (which means you need lab facilities to do that), then passed through thousands of gas centrifuges in series, called a cascade (which means you have to build and power them, and fix or replace the ones that break), then you have to detach the uranium from that extremely dangerous chemical from before.
对于一个受制裁的国家来说，这是可笑的昂贵。
它需要一个化学过程将其与一种极其危险的元素结合起来（这意味着你需要实验室设施来做到这一点），然后通过数千台串联的气体离心机，称为级联（这意味着您必须建造并为它们供电，并修复或更换损坏的离心机），然后你必须将铀从以前的极其危险的化学物质中分离出来。
That’s one of the (at least four) separation methods, yes.
Neither laser enrichment nor electromagnetic separation require fluorine.
是的，这是分离方法之一，但分离方法至少有4种。
激光富集和电磁分离都不需要氟。
UF6, yes?
UF6 （六氟化铀），是吗？
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
That’s the gas that’s fed into the centrifuges, yes. You have to attach flourine to uranium to make this happen. Flourine reacts violently to just about everything. Flourine reacts with a noble gas (krypton).
是的，UF6 就是被送入离心机的气体。你必须在铀上加氟才能做到这一点。氟对几乎所有东西都有强烈的反应。氟与惰性气体（氪）都能发生反应。
This is the method called calutron, yes?
这就是所谓的 calutron （电磁同位素分离器）方法，是吗？
Calutron’s the machine.
Calutron （电磁同位素分离器）就是那台机器。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
No. Calutrons are a different method. Basically calutrons are based on different deflection of different isotopes by magnetic field, gas diffusion based on different diffusion rates through membranes, and centrifuges don’t work as most people are expect them to work: Zippe-type centrifuge - Wikipedia
不，Calutron是一种不同的方法。
基本上，Calutron 是基于磁场对不同同位素的不同偏转，气体扩散则是基于通过膜的不同扩散速率，离心机并不像大多数人期望的那样工作。
链接：Zippe型离心机-维基百科
Gaseous diffusion is where it’s at now.
气体扩散就是现在使用的技术。
Gas defusion was the old method, the extremely expensive and slow method. Ultra centrifuges are much better.
气体扩散是老方法，极其昂贵且缓慢。超速离心机要好得多。
See my reply to Chris' answer. That was the method. There are quicker, much more efficient methods now
看看我对 Chris 的回答。这就是方法。现在有更快、更有效的方法。
No. Gas centrifuges, calutrons and gas diffusion are 3 different methods.
不。气体离心机、calutron 和气体扩散是3种不同的方法。
I'll just assume you mean to say fluorine.
我假设你说的是氟。
Flourine is the reason extracting U235 costs a lot of dough and you only get crumby yield.
氟就是你提取U235需要花费大量金钱的原因。而且你只能得到碎米一样的产量。
Wow ! Could you tell more about this reaction betwenn Fluorine and Kripton ??
哇！你能详细介绍一下氟和氪之间的反应吗？？
Under extreme circumstances krypton will combine with fluorine to form krypton difluoride. The bond energy is the weakest of any fluorine compound, and the reaction forming it is endothermic. It’s not often that can be said about the reactions of elemental fluorine.
在极端情况下，氪会与氟结合形成二氟化氪。键能是所有氟化合物中最弱的，形成它的反应是吸热的。对于氟而言，产生这样的反应并不常见。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Fluorine is some seriously *scary* stuff!
氟是一种非常可怕的东西！
Great answer. Remember in Iran’s case that they had the centrifuges in place to extract the U235 and there was ingenious malware that caused them to spin just a little bit off.
The technicians had to keep replacing the failed centrifuges because of Stuxnet…
An Unprecedented Look at Stuxnet, the World's First Digital Weapon
很好的回答。
请记住，在伊朗的案例中，他们有离心机来提取U235，并且有巧妙的恶意软件导致他们稍微偏离了轨道。
由于超级工厂病毒，技术人员不得不不断更换故障的离心机……
链接：前所未有的超级工厂病毒，世界上第一个数字武器
A nice documentary was made about it “zero days” a must watch.
有一部关于它的精彩纪录片叫《零日》是必看的。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Also the main reason it’s so hard is that the centrifuge has to spin at an insanely high speed. I think around 90,0000 RPM and these things are not small like a turbo charger. The outermost points of it are traveling at close to mach 2.
Making something that travels at mach speeds through the air is already hard enough, but having it mounted would be even harder. And since it’s much heavier than lead it would be slinging around a lot of weight.
They are big enough that they are ultra sensitive to balance, it’s has to be pretty much perfect. I heard that if you touch the part that spins, the oils from your skin will ruin it by throwing it out of balance, and if the balance isn’t perfect it will fly apart.
And then the bearings that it rides on also have to be pretty amazing.
I’m sure there are other components that are also extremely difficult to implement as well
此外，它如此困难的主要原因是：离心机必须以极高的速度旋转。我认为大约是900000转/分，这些东西不像涡轮增压器那么小。它的最外点以接近2马赫的速度行进。
制造在空气中以马赫速度飞行的东西已经足够困难了，但将其安装起来会更加困难。而且由于它比铅重得多，所以会有很大的重量。
它们非常大，对平衡非常敏感，它必须非常完美。我听说，如果你触摸旋转的部分，皮肤上的油脂都会让它失去平衡，从而破坏它，如果平衡不完美，它就会飞离。
然后，它所依靠的轴承也必须非常惊人。
我确信其他的组件也极难实现。
And even If any country has the resources to do this, the nuclear powers would decide If that country is allowed or not to have nuclear weapons and embargo or even invade It If they don't. It is a way to maintaining power in the hands of those who developed It first.
就算任何其他国家有资源这样做，核大国也会决定是否允许该国拥有核武器，要不要实施禁运，甚至要不要入侵该国。
这是将权力掌握在最先开发核武器的人手中的一种方式。
Well, there are a lot of technical difficulties to be encountered when devising a nuclear core. A simple example is that, upon the starting of a chain reaction the core heats up and expands. The U-235 atoms move apart and the chances of fission decrease. One has to keep this in mind while designing explosive cores.
嗯，设计核芯时会遇到很多技术困难。一个简单的例子是，在链式反应开始时，核心会加热并膨胀。铀-235原子会分散，裂变的可能性降低。在设计炸药芯时，必须牢记这一点。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
I love the moon analogy. It's still prohibitively expensive and dangerous to go to the moon.
我喜欢月球的比喻。登上月球仍然非常昂贵和危险。
Thank you! So many people don’t understand this.
Realistically though, of far more concern is a dirty bomb.
非常感谢。很多人都不明白这些。
然而，现实地说，更令人担忧的是脏弹。
Its not like anyone was going to allow Iraq and Iran to get nuclear bombs. Iran tried to make them but then america stopped them and had put heavy restrictions on Iran so she doesn’t dare make one. Iraq never bothered making one as it was not an enemy of america. The Americans merely accused Iraq of having them, after destroying Iraq they found none.
没有人会允许伊拉克和伊朗获得核弹。伊朗试图制造这些武器，但后来美国阻止了它们，并对伊朗施加了严格的限制，所以她不敢制造。伊拉克从来没有费心制造过，因为它不是美国的敌人。美国人只是指责伊拉克拥有这些武器，在摧毁伊拉克后，他们没有发现任何武器。