Red Mercury Bomb

From TinWiki.org

A Red Mercury Bomb is a weapon of disputed existence, believed by some to be a pure fusion weapon. It is named for the alleged material which makes it possible: Red Mercury. There are several theories on exactly what "Red Mercury" might be, some of which do not necessarily believe it to be Mercury at all.

1 Theory
2 Unique Applications Of Use
3 Possibility Of Pure Fusion
4 Ballotechnics
5 Further Reading
6 ATS Discussion Threads
7 External Links

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Theory

Doctors Sam Cohen (father of the neutron bomb) and Joseph Douglass have written on this subject as believers in the weapon. According to their writing, a Red Mercury Bomb is a pure fusion weapon: an advanced neutron bomb. The fusion of Tritium and Deuterium into Helium releases high energy neutrons, which are harmful to living things. It does not however generate the enormous heat and shock which is released by fission. [1]. This is because the splitting of an atom generates kinetic energy in addition to the loss of mass as energy that results from the higher binding energy of the products. Fusion generates only a loss of mass as energy, in this case in the form of high energy neutrons with no kinetic energy from the breakup of an atom.

Getting back to Dr. Cohen's work, the practical application of this is that a pure fusion device will create virtually no explosion, but have a killing radius of hundreds of yards.

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Unique Applications Of Use

In most cases, the only practical way to generate enough energy to begin the fusion of heavy hydrogen is fission. This means that the neutron bomb as Dr. Cohen created it generated a small nuclear explosion in the kiloton range, creating significant short-range explosive damage with a "clean kill" radius beyond that from the high energy neutrons produced by fusion. The requirement of Plutonium or Uranium fission to initiate fusion made fission-fusion neutron bombs heavier and thus less versatile. A pure fusion weapon could be lighter and smaller because it does not require either a critical mass or heavy metals, it has a higher kill range per unit of explosive force (ton TNT equivalent),could be constructed from materials not covered by the NPFT, could be tested without detection, and produces no radioactive fallout Ibid.

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Possibility Of Pure Fusion

This is a subject of some speculation because the nature of "Red Mercury" is unknown. It may or may not be Mercury, and for that matter may or may not be red. Without knowing the nature of the material being used, it's hard to be certain how it works. Given what it is purported to do though, some theories are available.

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Ballotechnics

Ballotechnic materials are non-explosive energetic materials which undergo shock-induced reactions which do not produce expansion through gas by-products. Most of their output is heat energy. This property would make these compounds better suited to inducing fusion than conventional explosives.[2]

Ballotechnics have been considered for use in using fusion to power the next generation of Global Hawk UAVs according to The New Scientist. The aircraft, which has been the subject of two feasibility studies by the Air Force Research Laboratory, would use a quantum nucleonic reactor, in which Halfnium 178, a ballotechnic isotope, would be bombarded with Xrays, causing it to fuel the fusion of heavy hydrogen. It is believed the aircraft would have a loiter time of months rather than hours with such a propulsion system [3].

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