Excellent
Yes a shortage of nylon for underwear and hosery
As for the shortage of Uranium, let me clearify some of the oversimplifications of my previous post.
The decision to substitute the Tamper was made due to not wanting to miss the schedule for the widely publicized test. The knowledge of the risks of a Uranium tamper were not understood in 1961 (we even did not have a full understanding of it).
Due to the schedule of the test, the weapon was still being designed while being constructed. Hardly approved project management techniques here! The total schedule of the RDS-220 from idea to boom was only 16 weeks!
Even if the tamper of the RDS-220 was Uranium it would not add much to the nuclear yield of the weapon. A tamper is made to blow apart only after a pre-determined duration (micro-seconds). The purpose of the tamper is to keep the atomic mass (pit arrangement) in a super critical state for just a little bit longer to get more efficiencey out of the primary nuclear fuel, in this case Enriched Uranium. There would be some parasitic nuclear boosting from the Uranium tamper but that would be minor.
There is a misconception that has been repeated on several websites about the RDS-220. The RDS-220 was designed with a theoretical maximum yield of 100 MT. In order to get to this theoretical maximum yield, additional tertiary fusion stage would be needed. The RDS-220, as tested in 1961, consisted of one Primary, one Secondary and one or two Tertiary stages (the details are still uncertain.) To up the yield, more tertiary systems would be placed around the secondary stage.
The key phrase is theoretical yield as no one has tested a nuclear device with more than three tertiary stages and there is every evidence that the yield would drop off sharply if you try to pile on more tertiary stages. Sort of a nuclear diminishing returns.
The reason that Uranium was intended to be used for the tamper around the Primary and Secondary stages was to act as a neutron absorber for any neutrons that escaped the neutron reflector. Inside the tamper is a neutron reflector such as beryllium. While it is possible to construct a nuclear device with one substance that acts as both a reflector and a tamper, it is more efficient to have separate layers that each do a better job. It is much better to layer a good reflector inside a good tamper.
The purpose of a neutron reflector is to ... well... uh.. reflect neutrons. You want all the neutrons you have to continue bouncing around in your primary, not escaping yearning to breath free.
The problem with a design of multiple tertiary stages is the exposure to escaping neutrons from the primary stage. Neutron reflectors are not 100% perfect. In trying to get the biggest yield you want to control exactly when neutrons hit specific stages. The use of Uranium as a tamper/neutron absorber sounds good (at least in 1961) but the effects of fallout clearly indicate that this is a very undesirable system.
So if the yield of the RDS-220 were to be upped to the maximum by installing additional tertiary stages then the use of a neutron absorber (in this case Uranium) would be needed. However it is the extra tertiary stages that provide the increased yield not the Uranium tamper. This is where the misconception started.
If the Soviets wanted to limit the yield of the RDS-220 they would not have installed the additional tertiary stages (they probably would not have worked anyway). Since there is a limited number of tertiary stages in the test RDS-220 there was less of a reason for such efficient neutron absorbers. Added to this a shortage of uranium, lead the soviets to substitute lead for the tamper.
I know, more than you ever wanted to know, but it is your own fault for starting a thread about nuclear technology. You know that I can't resist.