Superbomb ignites science dispute

[jamesinca]

Superbomb ignites science dispute
Pentagon advisers challenge experiments behind nonnuclear weapon

Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer Sunday, September 28, 2003

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The Pentagon's pursuit of a new kind of nonnuclear super-weapon has sparked a behind-the-scenes revolt among its elite scientific advisers, some of whom reject the scheme as pseudoscience.

The military's goal is to develop a bomb that might be far more powerful than existing conventional weapons of the same size. Precisely targeted, such a weapon could take out targets -- such as underground caverns that conceal weapons of mass destruction -- without posing the severe political risks of using nuclear bombs.

The key to the concept is a little known element called hafnium. By figuring out how to unleash the abundant energy from a hafnium isotope, called hafnium-178, the military hopes to develop a new generation of weapons. According to a Defense Department Web site, such a weapon might "revolutionize all aspects of warfare."

The Pentagon is now quietly investigating ways to mass produce the isotope. Late last year, it created the 12-member Hafnium Isomer Production Panel (HIPP). Its purpose: to assess ways to mass-produce the isotope for military uses ranging from bombs to advanced forms of propulsion.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/09/28/SUPERBOMB.TMP

[Kemet]

1. Such creativity!

"without posing the severe political risks of using nuclear bombs"

Right! Apparently, Fall out comes second on the "worry" list.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

2. A few points...

Collins himself has a weighty reputation. A decade earlier, the Texas Academy of Sciences had named him "Distinguished Texas Scientist" of the year for his research on high-energy lasers.

Would these be the same "high-energy lasers" that were an integral part of the original Star Wars program? You know, the lasers that the scientists claimed could shoot down incoming warheads and cost billions and billions and billions of dollars, BUT NEVER WORKED?

If that is his history, then we know EXACTLY what kind of program this hafnium weapon program will be: pure profit for the military industrial complex, derived from STEALING from YOU.

They KNOW it can't work, but they will only admit it after BILLIONS have been spent on it.

However, there is another, even more sinister possibility: They will pretend they have found the way to do it, will produce "hafnium" weapons, and in the next war will use them, KNOWING all the time that these "hafnium" wepons are really just mini-nukes disguised as a "new non-nuclear superweapon".

People don't like nukes, so just call them something different. It's not like we would ever be able to prove it, because they will just say that the weapons and the science behind them are classified under National Security. At least that could be what they are hoping to do.

[NashVegas]

3. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=136450