RE: Azovstol Steelworks Latest6 May 2022 08:55
half life refers to how long for half the nuclei to decay. For a critical chain reaction you need getting on for 93% concentration, below that critical mass cannot be achieved and the yield rapidly falls off. Not only are you losing fissile material during decay, you are also losing material being split from that surrounding decay. Indeed, you can't have too high a concentration of plutonium as it could go critical of it's own accord. This is why the waread has to have it's material replaced to keep it rich enough to go critical, and remove decayed material which can also reduce the free neutron flow reducing yield.
And then in the delivery system there is all the aged electronics, rusty switches, relays, decayed solid fuel, cracked fuel pipes, decayed rubber and plastic seals, insulator breakdown. Everybody knows how incredibly rare it is to have cars, gadgets and so on to stay serviceable over the decades and that in fact many 'vintage' items are practically entirely rebuilt over time. The older the item the more and more maintenance is required.
Russian nukes from the 60s, 70s, 80s are almost certainly incapable of delivering any nuclear yield even if launch mechanism works, stays intact to the target and then all the complex precision trigger mechanism still works. Even 'new' warheads and systems from the 80s and 90s and even 00s would struggle to work as we are learning equipment has been stripped of working components. There are some iable warheads and there are some maintained delivery systems.
But then, you have to get past all the missile defence systems!
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