A Helping Hand

A modest wind blew, stirring up the sand on the ground. It was quite hot here in the desert, but it wasn't at an unbearable level at the moment. From a quick glance, it would look like there was a structure sitting out in the middle of nowhere.

Seemingly buried in the sand was a concrete shelter. The roof was barely two feet off of the ground at the highest. The roof was somewhat slanted, with it being close to the ground at the front and higher up in the back. The majority of the building was hidden below. Thick concrete walls reinforced with steel held the structure together and kept out the sand.

The floor was also solid concrete. There was no carpet since it would be too hard to clean the sand out when it fell off of the people coming in. At the back of structure was a set of stairs going up to the door which exited out the back of the structure at the surface. Upon exiting, one would see nothing but a vast expanse of sand, and a fence in the distance.

The people in the shelter were in a state of activity as today would be quite a momentous occasion. The researchers and engineers eagerly awaited the result of their work, the creation of the nuclear bomb. Furthermore, there were several important people present. After the bomb had been completed, Roland invited Steven and Zero to come witness the first test.

The creation of the nuclear bomb would be a landmark event. It would mark the beginning of the development of the most frightening class of weapons known to man. The nuclear bomb would be the most powerful tool in their war against the demons. Zero was especially excited to see the results of the ultimate weapon.

The current bomb they were testing would be the most basic of the designs for nuclear weapons. Its power could not even compare to the behemoths that had been developed back on Earth, such as the Tsar Bomba with a yield of 50 megatons. Even though the bomb they were making wouldn't even have a thousandth of the power, it would be more than enough.

The bomb would be of the gun type. The bomb contained two pieces of uranium that were placed apart from each other. When the bomb detonated, an explosive would launch one piece of uranium toward the other, almost like shooting a bullet out of a gun. Then, the two pieces of uranium would come together and cause a chain reaction, causing a massive explosion.

Gunpowder and uranium operated off of different explosive principles. To cause an explosion with gunpowder, you add fire and the gunpowder will explode. Gunpowder plus fire equals explosion. With uranium, fire would not cause it to explode. Instead, having too much uranium in one place will cause it to explode. Uranium plus more uranium equals explosion.

As a result, when the two pieces of uranium come together, it will cause the mass to reach criticality where the uranium starts an uncontrolled chain reaction. In the bomb, it is concentrated further by the tungsten carbide sleeve surrounding the uranium would reflect the neutrons emitted back into the uranium, making the detonation even stronger. The result would be a massive nuclear explosion.

The design of the weapon was rather simple, however that was not the most difficult part of making a nuclear bomb. That was rather good news as otherwise it would have been too easy back on Earth for rogue groups to make nuclear weapons. The primary difficulty in nuclear proliferation has always been being able to enrich uranium.

There are two types of uranium, U-238 and U-235. U-235 is the one that is used in bombs. Thus, in order to make a bomb, you have to first separate the two types of uranium. It was quite difficult to do the separation, since the two types were so similar it would require very precise machinery. Uranium enrichment required many high powered centrifuges that would be able to spin the uranium at high speeds to cause it to separate out.

Those centrifuges would be extremely difficult to make and it was completely outside the technological ability of Neverwinter to produce. Furthermore, even if it was made there wouldn't be enough electricity to power all of them. Fortunately, Roland had a cheat. He was able to bypass the complex enrichment process with magic.

In particular, the witch named Lucia was able to separate out the two types of uranium. This means that all that they needed to do was to deliver the mined uranium to her and then they would end up with a pile of U-238 and U-235.

The U-238, also called depleted uranium, would also have its uses. The high density of U-238 makes it very useful for making armor penetrating bullets. So, all parts of the uranium were used by the military. The U-235 would make bombs, the U-238 would make bullets.

It had taken a while, but they were finally ready to test the weapon. The location of the test would be the desert in the Southernmost Region. They picked an area that didn't have oil and where nobody lived. A very large area was fenced off to be the testing grounds. Entry into the area was forbidden. A shelter was built at the edge of the testing zone to be a protected place to observe the test.

In order to test the effects of the bomb, there were buildings built in the testing zone. Some were concrete, some were wood. They were spaced out at different distances. Once the bomb was detonated, they could examine the amount of damage done to the test buildings.

There was a long wire connecting the shelter to the bomb. Upon pressing the button, the bomb would be detonated.

Roland stood next to the button. "Here goes. 3. 2. 1. BOOOM." Roland pressed the button.

Everyone waited. It didn't seem like anything happened. After a minute had passed, they still didn't feel anything. Roland looked around awkwardly. Then, he sent someone outside to take a look.

After the researcher came back, he reported the buildings appeared to all still be standing and it seemed that the bomb had not detonated.

Roland was quite embarrassed by the failure of the test.

"Come on Roland, what are you doing", said Steven.

"Yeah, I expected to actually see something happen", said Zero. She turned to Steven. "Why did we come here again?"

Roland let out an exasperated sigh. "This is a world changing weapon we are building. You can't expect it to work on the first try. Besides, I don't see you doing anything."

"I don't see you doing anything either Roland", retorted Steven. "Did you weld the bomb together?"

"Of course not", replied Roland. "I just helped provide the design."

"So did I", Steven said. "You forgot about the tungsten carbide to reflect the neutrons. I had to tell you about it."

"Fine then. But I am going to make this work", Roland said. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

"Just be sure to change it up", Steven murmured. "Otherwise you get, if at first you don't succeed, do the exact same thing again."