If you have, say, an unarmed nuclear warhead sitting in a silo somewhere, will it detonate a nuclear explosion if the silo is destroyed with conventional explosives like C4 or TNT? Would it detonate if it were armed?
No. For a nuclear warhead to detonate all the different components need to act together in a very precise way. Blowing up a nuclear warhead with conventional explosives will break it, not detonate it.
If unarmed, then supposedly it would not detonate. I wouldn't chance it myself.
It would detonate, but it would be as a 'dirty' bomb. It would not achieve nuclear fission or start a chain reaction.
Technically, no. The nuclear fission/fusion reaction will not take place when exploded with conventional explosives. However, if you attach radioactive material to conventional explosives, it produces a smaller, but similar effect to nuclear fallout. This is what is commonly called dirty bombs. But a nuclear reaction (fission or fusion) produces far more energy per mass of material than any conventional explosive can. So a dirty bomb is not as efficient. But dirty bombs are still very much a concern because they can cause far more damage than the conventional explosive alone.
No. Technically, a nuke is detonated by conventional explosives. The warhead is surrounded by high explosives...basically a ball of explosives. When detonated, the explosives push on all sides top/bottom left right, etc at precisely the same time until that fissionable material reaches critical mass. If one section of the explosives does not detonate on time with the others, then there would be no nuclear detonation since the material needs to reach critical mass. All it would do is probably damage it and spread radioactive material around a bit, but no mushroom cloud or anything. At least, that's my understanding of it and from seeing documentaries on Fat Boy and the whole Manhattan project.
