Arms race fear over America's gamma ray bomb

[bobthedrummer]

By David Montgomery

Our "scientists" have come up with a new WMD, a gamma ray bomb that has many fearing a new arms race! Isn't that just peachy?

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/14-8-19103-0-40-21.html

Yes, it desroys all LIVING things, not property.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

1. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt

Google for "neutron bomb" and go and sin no more.

[bobthedrummer]

2. Yes, but this is now threatening to reignite the ARMS RACE.

Just in time for the playoffs, no doubt.
:hi:

[dweller]

3. hmm, who was the president

when they came up with the neutron bomb?

dp

[bobthedrummer]

4. Raygun/Bush?

:shrug:

[bobthedrummer]

5. One gram = 50 KT TNT????

Jesus Christ. What next? Here's some more stuff from "the best and the brightest".

http://www.datafilter.com/mc/

[Dudley_DUright]

6. Not 50 KiloTons, 50 Kilograms of TNT

(still a huge energy release, but not in the league of "conventional" nuclear weapons). Here is the original New Scientist article:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994049

As a physicist, I abhor such nuclear technology being hijacked yet again for destructive purposes.

[bobthedrummer]

7. Thanx for the correction, and the original article on gamma ray bombs, DD

Good Lord, I find it's still incredible that this shit can reignite the arms race!
:wtf:

[happyslug]

8. Some background on the Neurton Bomb.

Now to understand the Neutron Bomb you have to understand how a Hydrogen bomb works. An Atomic bomb is a Fission Bomb i.e. it works by spiting an atom (Uranium 235 or Plutonium) into two other elements (And this is acheived by the use of Conventional Explosives to merge sub-critical masses of Uranium 235 or Plutonium together at a super-critcal level i.e. the a-bombs blows up).

On the other hand a Hydrogen Bomb is based on a Fusion reaction, where you force two Hydrogen Atoms together to make an atom of Helium.

Both fision and fusion release a lot of energy, with Fusion releasing a lot more energy than a fission reaction. The energy released by a fission reaction is in the form of Light, Heat and blast with some Gamma Rays. With the Fusion reaction giving more Gamma rays than light, heat and blast.

The problem is it takes a lot of energy to start a fusion reaction, so to get that energy an A-bomb is used to start the Fusion reaction. You blast the A-bomb around a Hydrogen bomb. The A-Bomb releases energy (i.e. Gamma Radiation) to start the Fusion reaction involving the Hydrogen.

Once the Fusion reaction is started (we are discussing nano-seconds here) the energy released by the Fusion reaction is than used to start further fission reactions in Uranium U-235 or Plutonium that is placed just outside the bomb chamber of the Fusion reaction.

The Reason this is done is that the Blast effect of A-bombs can spread the Uranium U-235 or Plutonium before all of the Uranium U-235 or Plutonium go super-critical (i.e. blows up). With a H-Bomb this problem disappears, the Gamma Radiation released by the Fusion reaction is more than enough to caused all of the Uranium U-235 or Plutonium to go super critical (i.e. blows up) before the blast of the reactions tear the bomb apart. Thus H-bombs are much more powerful than A-bombs but the blast, light and heat still comes from Uranium U-235 or Plutonium NOT the fusion reaction of the Hydrogen.

As to the Gamma radiation issued by the Fusion reactions, the area destroyed by the Blast, Light and Heat of the Uranium U-235 or Plutonium far exceeds the area where the Gamma radiation will kill someone. Thus the old saying in the Army, don't worry about the radiation from a H-Bomb, the Blast, Light and heat will kill you way before the radiation will.

What has this to do with the Neutron bomb? A lot. Remember that outer case of Uranium U-235 or Plutonium in the H-bomb? In a Neutron bomb that Uranium U-235 or Plutonium is NOT installed so you have nothing but Gamma Ray being produced by the H-Bomb blast. The Light, Heat and Blast caused by the outer case of Uranium U-235 or Plutonium going super critical do to the gamma rays from the Fusion reaction does not occur. Thus you have all of these Gamma Rays going outwards till something absorbs them (Mass of Ground is the best, the thicker the better to absorb the Gamma rays). Gamma Rays will penetrate any matter, i.e. armor, sides of buildings etc. It is MASS that absorb the rays thus someone hiding in a bunker will not be effected by the Gamma rays, but someone in the open, in a tank or in a house will be hit by the rays and killed by the rays.

Thus a “conventional” neutron bomb is a H-Bomb without a H-Bomb's outer shell of Uranium U-235 or Plutonium. It kills by Gamma rays NOT heat, light and blast. In a Neutron Bomb the affect is much smaller than if the Gamma rays had hit Uranium U-235 or Plutonium. The Gamma rays do not travel to far till the amount of Gamma Rays drop below a level capable of killing people, but enough to kill people in a hugh area.

In the 1980s the Neutron bomb was pushed becasued it "killed people not buildings". The blast area was very small (almost the size of a large conventional explosion) and its kill area was much smaller than other Nuclear weapons (But much larger than regular Explosives).


My comment, is HOW are the scientist producing Gamma radiation WITHOUT a Fission or Fusion reaction? Gamma Radiation is a PRODUCT of Fission or Fusion. The langauge that states a "blaring of Conventional and Nuclear weapons" may be the answer. What I mean by this is there have been reports of US testing small nuclear devices all during the 1990s. The US has said these were NOT nuclear tests, and thus NOT a violation of the test-ban treaty but just large conventional explosives involving fissonable materials. What the Scientists are probally doing is saying that since the conventional explosives used to start the A-bomb are more powerful than the A-bomb used to start the Fusion reaction, than this is NOT a Fision or Fusion reaction, but combination of Conventional Explosion with Fision and Fusion reactions. Since this is NOT Primarly a Fission or Fusion reaction but more a Conventional explosion with the side affect of a Fission and than a Fusion reaction it is NOT a Nuclear reaction and not a violation of the Test Ban Treaty.

Remember facts do not lie, but liars make up their own facts.

[absolutezero]

19. gamma rays

A gamma bomb can be created by a smaller nuclear reaction ie: positron emission from an element with too few neutrons

it could also be done with an extremely small amount of antimatter...the only problem is that a gram of antimatter could knockout half a small country and the gamma rays wouldn't really do much since everything else is probably dead

its also possible that it's not really a bomb at all...gamma rays are EM waves just like light, microwaves and radio

if you've ever seen a "flashbang" used by swat teams, they emit a bright flash, these scientists may have found a way to do it with gamma rays

[bicentennial_baby]

9. Ah, the Ultimate Capitalist Weapon

The Neutron Bomb...kills all the people, leaves all property... :puke:

[happyslug]

10. Re-read my thread, I re-wrote it since you read it.

I re-wrote it to better show how the Goverment Scientist are Lying about how the Gamma radiation is NOT a product of a Fusion reaction.

[bobthedrummer]

11. Hmmm.....

Yet the New Scientist article posted by DudleyDUright clearly states it is {gamma bomb} not a product of either fission nor fusion. I'm a generalist, but clearly something is wrong with the whole concept of getting the potential of 50 kilos of TNT from one gram of such a thing.
Not to mention the ARMS RACE reignition mention in the article I posted, oops, I did mention that stickler.

[bobthedrummer]

12. There are worse things than gamma-ray bombs, these don't kill.

They discredit and are insidious, they can be used to terrorize individuals and even populations. BTW, some mention of fusionless/fissonless energies are in this article.

http://www.adacomp.net/~mcherney/NewCrit-JPSS-CS2.htm

[Atlant]

13. Related posting already in GD...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=175730&mesg_id=175730

[htuttle]

14. "Lobotomy? Isn't that for loonies?"

"Not at all. Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb.

Did you ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people, but leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase, so small, no one knows it's there until Blammo! Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead!

It's so immoral working on the thing, it can drive you mad. That's what happened to this friend of mine. So, he had a lobotomy. Now he's well again."
-- J. Frank Parnell, Repo Man

[wuushew]

15. Gamma Ray myth debunked

3. THE ISOMER BOMB: HOW A DENTIST’S X-RAY MACHINE WENT TO WAR.
Well, maybe not quite. A news story in this week’s issue of New Scientist magazine reports that the Department of Defense is currently pursuing an isomer bomb, which would supposedly release its energy in the form of gamma rays from the decay of a nuclear isomer of Hf-178. Indeed, such nuclear isomers are on the Militarily Critical Technologies List. The claim is that decay can be accelerated by irradiation with low-energy x-rays. We’re told that the scientist who did the research used an x-ray machine borrowed from a dentist friend. A JASON panel determined that the idea is theoretically implausible and the evidence shaky at best. A group that attempted to reproduce the effect in a carefully controlled study at the Advanced Photon Source found nothing.

http://www.aps.org/WN/

[Vitruvius]

16. It's a CROCK. Some quack sold the Bu$h Pentagon a bill of goods.

From the American Physical Society website:

3. THE ISOMER BOMB: HOW A DENTIST’S X-RAY MACHINE WENT TO WAR.
Well, maybe not quite. A news story in this week’s issue of New Scientist magazine reports that the Department of Defense is currently pursuing an isomer bomb, which would supposedly release its energy in the form of gamma rays from the decay of a nuclear isomer of Hf-178. Indeed, such nuclear isomers are on the Militarily Critical Technologies List. The claim is that decay can be accelerated by irradiation with low-energy x-rays. We’re told that the scientist who did the research used an x-ray machine borrowed from a dentist friend. A JASON panel determined that the idea is theoretically implausible and the evidence shaky at best. A group that attempted to reproduce the effect in a carefully controlled study at the Advanced Photon Source found nothing.

Link: http://www.aps.org/WN/

------------- -------

Tell the Bu$h* gang what they want to hear, and you can sell them the most amazing nonsense. Some quack made a killing.

The Rethugs want a death ray so badly. Last time, under Reagan, it was the "Excalibur X-Ray Laser", that was supposed to vaporize Soviet nuclear warheads. "Excalibur" cost $billions and never produced enough energy to knock down a butterfly.

Vitruvius

[Junkdrawer]

17. If you keep this up, we're going to get a reputation..

for careful, intelligent commentary. Seriously, my money's on Bob Park.

[bobthedrummer]

18. Kick

This is educational.

[diamond14]

20. you can't hit buildings/bridges/structures with high amounts of

energy (i.e., gamma rays) without GREAT changes to molecules, like BIG movements of electrons, massive increases of vibration, rotations and spins of electrons...

after this bomb gets done with everything....there'll be so many structural changes at the chemical level (bond breakages, etc.)...some structures will just suddenly collapse as you open the door, or drive across a bridge, damns will burst open unexpectedly...and those insane bomb-makers will say: 'another unintended consequence...how would we have known....?'

selling another 'lame-brained insane weapon of mass destruction' to OUR government...the pentagoon needs to be stopped from all this madness...the madness of eternal wars, as an excuse for spending all OUR taxes...we don't need more WMDs, we don't need more wars, we don't need to give any more money to these KILLERS...because that's all they think about and that's all they do: KILL !!!