The Never-Tested Doomsday Bomb
From Bill Hamilton
skywatcher22@hotmail.com
8-27-03


Weapons of Total Destruction

Many might remember the Neutron bomb which, when exploding, leaves
buildings and roads intact while showering life on earth with lethal
doses of neutron radiation. This way an enemy can kill
all life within a zone and take possession of a city and all of its
content. Dreadful, is it not, but not
the Doomsday weapon conceived of in 1950 - the Cobalt Bomb.

In the light of the current talks in China with North Korea, let us
reflect on the awesome power of destruction we have brought into
existence.

The Cobalt Bomb is capable of wiping out life on earth. It explodes
and emits long-lasting and lethal gamma radiation, the most energetic
radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum. Has the Cobalt Bomb been
constructed?

If it has, then it is part of a classified arsenal of
weapons, but who would want to
unleash a weapon of such destructive power that none who inhabit the
earth would survive? Perhaps only those who can take refuge in a deep
underground Ark.

From the Encarta Encyclopedia...

"The Hydrogen Bomb or H-bomb, weapon deriving a large portion of its
energy from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes. In an atomic bomb
, uranium or plutonium is split into lighter elements that together
weigh less than the original atoms, the remainder of the mass
appearing as energy. Unlike this fission bomb, the hydrogen bomb
functions by the fusion, or joining together, of lighter elements into
heavier elements. The end product again weighs less than its
components, the difference once more appearing as energy. Because
extremely high temperatures are required in order to initiate fusion
reactions, the hydrogen bomb is also known as a thermonuclear bomb.
The first thermonuclear bomb was exploded in 1952 at Enewetak by the
United States, the second in 1953 by Russia (then the USSR). Great
Britain, France, and China have also exploded thermonuclear bombs, and
these five nations comprise the so-called nuclear club"nations that
have the capability to produce nuclear weapons and admit to
maintaining an inventory of them. The three smaller Soviet successor
states that inherited nuclear arsenals (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and
Belarus) relinquished all nuclear warheads, which have been removed to
Russia. Several other nations either have tested thermonuclear devices
or claim to have the capability to produce them, but officially state
that they do not maintain a stockpile of such weapons; among these are
India, Israel, and Pakistan. South Africa's apartheid regime built six
nuclear bombs but dismantled them later.

The presumable structure of a thermonuclear bomb is as follows: at its
center is an atomic bomb; surrounding it is a layer of lithium
deuteride (a compound of lithium and deuterium, the isotope of
hydrogen with mass number 2); around it is a tamper, a thick outer
layer, frequently of fissionable material, that holds the contents
together in order to obtain a larger explosion. Neutrons from the
atomic explosion cause the lithium to fission into helium, tritium
(the isotope of hydrogen with mass number 3), and energy. The atomic
explosion also supplies the temperatures needed for the subsequent
fusion of deuterium with tritium, and of tritium with tritium
(50,000,000 and 400,000,000, respectively). Enough neutrons are
produced in the fusion reactions to produce further fission in the
core and to initiate fission in the tamper.

Since the fusion reaction produces mostly neutrons and very little
that is radioactive, the concept of a 'clean' bomb has resulted: one
having a small atomic trigger, a less fissionable tamper, and
therefore less radioactive fallout . Carrying this progression further
would result in the suggested neutron bomb, which would have a minimum
trigger and a nonfissionable tamper; there would be blast effects and
a hail of lethal neutrons but almost no radioactive fallout; this
theoretically would cause minimal physical damage to buildings and
equipment but kill most living things. The theorized cobalt bomb is,
on the contrary, a radioactively "dirty bomb having a cobalt tamper.
Instead of generating additional explosive force from fission of the
uranium, the cobalt is transmuted into cobalt-60, which has a
half-life of 5.26 years and produces energetic (and thus penetrating)
gamma rays. The half-life of Co-60 is just long enough so that
airborne particles will settle and coat the earth's surface before
significant decay has occurred, thus making it impractical to hide in
shelters. This prompted physicist Leo Szilard to call it a "doomsday
device since it was capable of wiping out life on earth."

----

The idea of the cobalt bomb originated with Leo Szilard who publicized
it in Feb. 1950, not as a serious proposal for weapon, but to point
out that it would soon be possible in principle to build a weapon that
could kill everybody on earth. To design such a theoretical weapon a
radioactive isotope is needed that can be dispersed world wide before
it decays. Such dispersal takes many months to a few years so the
half-life of Co-60 is ideal.

The Co-60 fallout hazard is greater than the fission products from a
U-238 blanket because

many fission-produced isotopes have half-lives that are very short,
and thus decay before the fallout settles or can be protected against
by short-term sheltering;

many fission-produced isotopes have very long half-lives and thus do
not produce very intense radiation;
the fission products are not radioactive at all.

The half-life of Co-60 on the other hand is long enough to settle out
before significant decay has occurred, and to make it impractical to
wait out in shelters, yet is short enough that intense radiation is
produced.

Initially gamma radiation fission products from an equivalent size
fission-fusion-fission bomb are much more intense than Co-60: 15,000
times more intense at 1 hour; 35 times more intense at 1 week; 5 times
more intense at 1 month; and about equal at 6 months. Thereafter
fission drops off rapidly so that Co-60 fallout is 8 times more
intense than fission at 1 year and 150 times more intense at 5 years.
The very long lived isotopes produced by fission would overtake the
again Co-60 after about 75 years.

Zinc has been proposed as an alternate candidate for the "doomsday
role". The advantage of Zn-64 is that its faster decay leads to
greater initial intensity. Disadvantages are that since it makes up
only half of natural zinc, it must either be isotopically enriched or
the yield will be cut in half; that it is a weaker gamma emitter than
Co-60, putting out only one-fourth as many gammas for the same molar
quantity; and that substantially amounts will decay during the
world-wide dispersal process. Assuming pure Zn-64 is used, the
radiation intensity of Zn-65 would initially be twice as much as
Co-60. This would decline to being equal in 8 months, in 5 years Co-60
would be 110 times as intense.

Militarily useful radiological weapons would use local (as opposed to
world-wide) contamination, and high initial intensities for rapid
effects. Prolonged contamination is also undesirable. In this light
Zn-64 is possibly better suited to military applications than cobalt,
but probably inferior to tantalum or gold. As noted above ordinary
"dirty" fusion-fission bombs have very high initial radiation
intensities and must also be considered radiological weapons.

No cobalt or other salted bomb has ever been atmospherically tested,
and as far as is publicly known none have ever been built. In light of
the ready availability of fission-fusion-fission bombs, it is unlikely
any special-purpose fallout contamination weapon will ever be
developed.

The British did test a bomb that incorporated cobalt as an
experimental radiochemical tracer (Antler/Round 1, 14 September 1957).
This 1 kt device was exploded at the Tadje site, Maralinga range,
Australia. The experiment was regarded as a failure and not repeated.

Well, let us hope that Doomsday Weapons are never built. With enough
H-Bombs, we could come
close to a D-Weapon. A Doomsday weapon would not be just a WMD, but a
WTD (Weapon of Total Destruction).

Now that efforts for non-proliferation of these nuclear weapons are
underway, and with more countries trying to get into the nuclear
party, the doomsday cloud looms once again. Let us hope no nation
anywhere on earth, threatens humanity with such WTDs.

"The world we've made, as a result of the level of thinking we have
done thus far, creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of
thinking" -- Albert Einstein.



Bill Hamilton
Executive Director
Skywatch International, Inc.
Website:
http://www.skywatch-research.org
Fiat Lux et Veritas