WesWorld

Sorry Walter, but it's now been almost 20 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the supposed reason why there's no real evidence of those rumors is because the Soviets took it. There's been so much information released from the post WWII era from Soviet archives (including Hitler's skull fragment), that I can't put any real credence behind the Konan rumors without something having leaked in the way of real evidence.

There are two parts to the bomb. First is the science behind it and how to make it work. Second is the engineering to actually make it.

The UK, with quite a few German scientists did part 1. The UK then figured out how to do part 2 and the US and Canada actually did it.

No one else was particularly close to part 1. Reactors and general nuclear tech are a different story, with France in the lead mostly due to Joliot Curie's work.

"Evidence" of German and Japanese tests are similar to those German flying saucers with Panther turrets stuck on the underside.

"The Birth of the Bomb" by Ronald W Clark is a very good read and tells the story from the UK point of view.

Since when are we following OTL?

Quoted

Originally posted by Vukovlad
Since when are we following OTL?

True. That's where Snr Ulivi's F ray weapon comes in. Why bother with nukes when its possible to destroy aeroplanes and ships at the push of a button.

The theory behind nuclear weapons is not rocket science. It is so easy it is actually scary. To make a U-235 bomb (like the one Japan was developing) all you need is sufficient amounts of U-235. The engineering part is complex and labor intensive but it can be done. All you need is brute force. A plutonium based weapon is more difficult to develop. The bulk of the Manhattan Project's resources were used to develop the plutonium weapon, and that was the weapon that was tested at Trinity. The U-235 one was not as it was already known that that one would work.

Of course its easy now because its 60 plus years after the fact. That said "easy" isn't exactly a word I'd use considering the fact real life Persia and Korea are only now persuing their own programs.

How hard can it be, Sweden was 6-8 months away from getting nukes in the 50´s

Quoted

Originally posted by Vukovlad
How hard can it be, Sweden was 6-8 months away from getting nukes in the 50´s

Citation please? I'm aware that Sweden pursued a nuclear weapons program, but I believe that got canned because of lack of funding. The only resources I could find were in languages I can't read.

Theory is easy when you have your own Einstein, Openhiemer or Nishina. Its aplication thats the hard part.

As well, i'd like to know where Japan's planning on getting the uranium to make the bomb?

Good question considering 2005 Uranium production is a dismal 1.7% of world production in China and another 4.3% devided up between South africa, India and Germany/Czech republic.

In Wesworld terms the SAE could add another 7.5% to whatever portion of the 4.3% they produce.

In contrast Canada/Australia produce 50.7%, FAR country's produce 33.3% and the U.S.A 2.5%.

A rough guess is South Africa produces 1.2%, India 0.4% and Germany/Czech 0.8%.

Heck as Atlantis I'll claim the leftover amount of 1.9% un acounted for!

2005 production isn't a good benchmark. In the 1930s pretty much all production of note was from the Belgian Congo. Imperial Chemical Industries were the only company with experience in handling the material in quantities.

Its easy to get the science behind the bomb now, but then, not so much.

Unfortunately 2005 is the only year I have numbers for. I wouldn't doubt Canada was producing small amounts in the 40's as well.

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine

Quoted

Originally posted by Vukovlad
How hard can it be, Sweden was 6-8 months away from getting nukes in the 50´s

Citation please? I'm aware that Sweden pursued a nuclear weapons program, but I believe that got canned because of lack of funding. The only resources I could find were in languages I can't read.

The Funding for for offensive (ie building a bomb) nuclear research was withdrawn in 1958 by order of Riksdagen (the Parliament), however defensive research and for civilian applications was allowed which in turn was interepeted somewhat creativly by the Defence Department which comtinued to develop a nuclear warhead for "testing the effects of nuclear blast on military equipment" with money drawn from the general defence budget, all attempts was dropped in 1968 when Sweden signed the NPT but interestingly enough the equipment and reactors built for producing plutonium still remain although inactive, in 1987 there was a minor scandal when the magazine "Ny Teknik" published that the Armed Forces had continued the research in to WMD´s after the order to stop in 1958. Patents for nuclear bombs were filed in 1958, 1964 and 1968 they are still largely classified.


The only book really written about it is : Agrell, Wilhelm: Svenska Förintelsevapen - Utveckling av kemiska och nukleära stridsmedel 1928-70 (Swedish weapons of massdestruction- development of nuclear and chemiclal weapons 1928-70)

The 1960s saw a second race for the bomb in quite a few countries, most being responses to others. e.g. Italy developed a MRBM with nuclear warhead as a counter to Yugoslavia's nuclear program. An example of the missile still exists.

July 20, 1937

Brigade General Sato Shunji looked around at the desolated island. "This looks like the perfect location."

Major General Shiro Ishii nodded. "The island is off limits to all but military personnel."

"Looks to me like we have a lot of rebuilding to do here before we can get started. A good thing that the runway was
still in good shape so we could land here."

"We will have to bring in security first, before the heavy construction equipment arrives."

Shunji nodded as he walked up to the huge 400 meter crater in the ground. "What caused this anyway?"

"I have heard many rumours. An archaeological digging pit, the detonation of some powerful ancient weapon, the location
of a test laboratory where something went horribly wrong, the new vent for Suribachi, one of Manzo's crash sites..."

"Is that so."

"... though it is most likely something like the Barringer Crater in Arizona... only this one is smaller."

"Now that we have found our location, I think we should start making a list of what to do before we can started."

"Right. Let's go back."

Shunji and Ishii started to walk back to the runway for their flight back to the Japanese mainland.



========================================================



Aerial photograph of the island Ioutou, taken after the completion of the Nana-san-ichi facilities.

Looks more like a giant airstrip.

Why all the runways?


British Military Intelligence is baffled, thinks its some sort of casino resort island and passes the matter to MI6 (Far Eastern Division).

Quoted

Looks more like a giant airstrip.

Maybe it is a giant airstrip.

Quoted

Why all the runways?

That's classified. ^_^

Quoted

British Military Intelligence is baffled, thinks its some sort of casino resort island

I like that idea in order to hide the stuff that will be going on here.



I took a Google Earth shot of Ioutou, rearranged a few things and added a few other bit from somewhere else. I'm curious if someone recognized where those bits were from.

Meteor Crater is next to Suribachi, and the big runway is from Area 51. You also moved the Iwo Jima runway to the left.

You're right about the runways. The crater is actually located closer (a lot closer) to the runways I used than Meteor Crater.