Critical Mass
Critical mass is the minimum amount of fissile material required for a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, first calculated for uranium by French physicist Francis Perrin in 1939 and central to both nuclear weapons design and proliferation intelligence.
Critical mass refers to the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Francis Perrin, a French scientist, was the first to publish a formula for calculating the critical mass of uranium in 1939.1
Sources
- Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2. ↩
Local network
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