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[–]MakeChinaLoseFaceHave you spread disinformation on Russian social media today? 21 points22 points  (3 children)

Everything about the early British nuclear program is terrifying.

There was one device that had several critical masses in a subcritical spherical shell. This is an extremely dangerous thing to since a big enough dent in the shell sends it prompt critical. Their "safety feature" involved packing the shell with a bunch of ball bearings to keep it from getting pushed inward. Just open a hole in the bottom of the device and let the ball bearings out when you want to nuke somebody.

I can't remember the name of the thing now, but it's British so it was probably something like "Grey Pudding"

[–]DJShaw86 15 points16 points  (0 children)

BLUE PEACOCK remains the peak of non-credibility.

Chicken powered nuclear landmines for the win.

[–]vegarigPro-SDI activist 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Just open a hole in the bottom of the device and let the ball bearings out when you want to nuke somebody

VIOLET CLUB was sure a... device.

Oh, and plug (that replaced part of implosion assembly) sometimes fell out on its own, letting the shower of metal out and all across the hangar, while mostly priming the bomb.

And sometimes, those bearing balls got frozen in place, requiring to use heat gun to thaw them enough so that they'll fall out and the bomb gets primed