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Xanthro--It seems you are saying that if you have a critical mass, then just because of this a warhead will go detonate.
That's right. Here, have a citation:
As part of a re-creation of a 1945 criticality accident, a 'pit' of plutonium is surrounded by blocks of neutron-reflective tungsten carbide. The original experiment was designed to measure the radiation produced when an extra block was added. Instead, the mass went supercritical.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass
Notice that your claim that "A great amount of heat and pressure must be applied to trigger an nuclear denotation" doesn't even enter into it. Because you don't know what you're talking about.
I think I know why you are confused. You are mixing up nuclear power with a nuclear explosion. They are two very different processes, though they share many terms.
In a nuclear power plant, if it's producing electricity it's in a critical state, it's not detonating, and it's not creating a nuclear explosion.
It's not nearly as simple as bringing together a critical mass, which is a term that indicates the smallest mass in which a chain reaction can be self-producing, that's why in your example, there were neutron reflecting panels. You have to generate and control the neutrons. That's why Pu-240 works well in nuclear power production, because it freely releases neutrons.
No, you don't need heat or process to start a chain reaction in a nuclear power plant, but it's not detonating by any stretch of the imagination.
To create a nuclear detonation, such as in a warhead, you have to have heat and pressure. It's a very different process than a nuclear power plant.
Naturally, that can't be true, because they are not going off right now.
Once again, you don't know what you're talking about.
A warhead contains subcritical masses which are combined to create a critical mass which causes the detonation.
No, sub critical masses are only used in gun type devices, and they are never used with plutonium.
The refined Pu-239 is compressed into a critical mass. It's the actual compression that creates the criticality.
If a warhead didn't contain enough material to create a critical mass it wouldn't detonate and you wouldn't have a bomb.
Do you know understand the difference between how a nuclear power plant works and a nuclear warhead?
I can give you plenty of links if you want.
