Keywords: W-88 warhead diagram.png NOTE This file has been superceded by Image W-88_warhead_diagram svg Diagram of a W88 nuclear warhead showing its variation of the Teller-Ulam design On the top is an oblate primary while at the bottom is a spherical secondary The outer casing blue/purple is that of a MIRV warhead reentry vehicle very schematic which would protect the warhead from the heat of the atmosphere after its launch into space The physics package of the primary and secondary is surrounded by a uranium-238 reflector casing gray inside of which is filled with polystyrene foam tan which aids in the transfer of radiation from the primary to compress the secondary The primary top is a tamper of some sort gray followed by precisely arranged high explosives yellow followed by a plutonium core blue filled with tritium gas green The spherical secondary is a uranium-235 or uranium-238 tamper blue followed by lithium deuteride fusion fuel red followed by a uranium-235 or plutonium sparkplug blue This is not drawn with any precision or scale and are meant only to illustrate a general concept Based primarily on diagrams appearing in Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman A convenient spy Wen Ho Lee and the politics of nuclear espionage New York Simon Schuster 2001 and in a 1999 article from the San Jose Mercury News also by Dan Stober Reid Brown and Karl Kalher Images available online at Howard Morland's http //www fas org/sgp/eprint/morland html The Holocaust Bomb A Question of Time Re-drawn by User Fastfission using Inkscape Fastfission If you want to credit someone credit Wikimedia Commons Otherwise don't credit anyone that's fine by me --Fastfission 14 57 14 April 2008 UTC Created with Inkscape Teller-Ulam design Cross sections of nuclear weapons |