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Some out there may be wondering how nuclear bombs work. [Boy thinking of nuclear bombs]

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Don’t ask that question too loudly…

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…you don't want the NSA knocking on your door.

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They really do send out the CIA for that kind of thing. [CIA collecting boy in his bedroom]

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Okay, but in all seriousness, how the bomb works is pretty common knowledge.

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First, we need some unstable isotopes like uranium or plutonium, which can be easily [uranium and plutonium isotopes]

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bashed apart by neutrons.

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You'd be unstable too if you knew you could be easily bashed apart at any minute.

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Once we get our hands on some uranium, you know that ebay thing we then have to enrich that

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uranium to get it be as bomb-friendly as possible. [woman attempting to catch uranium in a street]

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Enriched uranium is only the beginning of all the fun we’re about to have.

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…Yeah, we have a weird idea of fun.

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And yeah, we've had the CIA visit us before. We don't like to talk about it [CIA knocking on mans door]

00:49

Moving on.

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Next, we have to package the uranium in such a way that it won't…[Man packaging uranium in a wooden crate]

00:56

a) accidentally leak and give everybody instant cancer….

01:00

b) can be triggered from a nice, long distance away… [explosion in the distance]

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And…

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c) it will make a chain reaction and lead to the kind of explosion that can level entire cities.. Like that. [A city crumbles to the ground]

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So, the uranium is packed tightly into the core of the bomb and surrounded by the explosive, [Uranium packed into the core of the bomb]

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TNT.

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A remote control is then set to detonate the TNT at a later date.

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When that goes off, it subjects the uranium in the core to extreme heat and pressure. [uranium in the bomb heating up]

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Some of the nuclei of the unstable atoms start whizzing into tiny particles and shooting

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neutrons out at other atoms.

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This blows the other atoms apart, which explode too. [atoms blown apart]

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It's kind of a chain reaction, and the reason the devastation of nuclear bombs can be so unimaginably [bomb explodes]

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huge.

01:46

Talking less about physics and more about human existence, nuclear weapons are a lot

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more awful than just a molecular chain reaction as to calculate in math school [two boys watching a bomb explode on the TV and one runs out of the room]

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The first part of the bomb is a giant, blinding flash of light and heat.

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And we're not using the word "blinding" casually… [a blinding white flashing light]

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It can literally melt eyeballs…ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark?

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Good for you.

02:07

Those Nazis in the movie haven't.

02:08

…Heh.

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It can also cause instant third-degree burns... [images of third degree burns]

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And this burning actually precedes what comes next…

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An incinerating wave of fiery death. [man in a flame filled street]

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Yeah, nothing about this video is good news.

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It’s so hot and powerful that buildings are atomized.

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And then, almost worse than everything else, there's a wave of horribly poisonous radiation that lingers for decades. [poisonous radiation spreading across a city]

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If we get hit with enough of it, we turn into human goo within a few hours or days.

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If we get a lesser dose, it takes us weeks or months to die from cell damage and all kinds of bad stuff.

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And even if we get very little radiation exposure, it will slowly poison us for the rest of our [man suffering with poisonous radiation]

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lives and we can still drink it inside of cows milk.

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We can look forward to things like infertility, leukemia, skin cancer, lung cancer, birth

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defects, and blood disorders.

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Seriously, guys…

02:57

Why not to invent something a little more horrific next time? [lab workers thinking about a new discovery in the lab]

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