Subject:
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Re: Tactical nukes (was: Real Pics Of New Mecha)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.geek
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Date:
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Thu, 31 Aug 2000 20:15:51 GMT
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Viewed:
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491 times
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> They're in the book, too. Some of the MI had Y-racks on their backs from
> which they could lob several tac-nukes to either side. Heinlein doesn't
> specifically mention yield, but it's inferred that the lethal radius of the
> blast is well below the size of a city, perhaps as small as a city block.
Sure. Look at the USMC...they _issued_ (to the div. level) 1.5kt nukes, that
were man portable. Only one little problem...the rocket propelling the nuke
had a range of about 2km, and the radiation was lethal at about 2.5km...
>
> An issue with such a small nuke is critical mass. Make the warhead small
> enough, and you don't generate enough neutrons to sustain a nuclear
> reaction. I don't remember exactly what critical mass for uranium-235 is,
> but I think I remember it's something 10 kilograms (or the size of a soccer
> ball -- name that reference :-), well too large for a convenient
> hand-grenade-sized weapon.
@22 lbs for U235, -at normal density-, if you compress it, the weight required
goes downwards _a lot_.
For the 1.5 kt warhead (W25, which was the air-air version, used on F101, F102,
F106 planes), the weight I have for the physics package is 68 kg
Neat book out with a lot of info on them in particular, 'Canadian Nuclear
Weapons', by John Clearwater.
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> Concievably, there are materials out there that naturally fling enough
> neutrons such that critical mass could be reduced to an appreciable size,
> but handling such a dirty substance would be extremely cumbersome. You'd
> need so much neutron shielding in the bomb, that it may contain a
> significant portion of the blast. Hmmm, if the shielding was
> lop-sided...shaped nuclear charges, anyone?
Not really. It depends on how "hot" the material is, and what forms of
radiation it is leaking. If it is leaking neutrons, then yes, too hot for
people (assuming that the suits don't have high radiation tolerances anyway,
which the ones from Starship Troopers did...), if however leakage is in the
form of alpha/beta radiation, then one can get away with little/no shielding.
> An alternative that I don't see mentioned much, but have read about
> *somewhere* before, are hybrid systems containing more than one type of
> isotope; i.e. mixing a stable high-neutron source and an unstable
> low-neutron source for detonation. But I don't have a clue as to which
> materials would be considered, or even if a "stable high-neutron source" or
> an "unstable low-neutron source" even exist.
Sure, use U235 as your stable source, and something in the order of Americanium
or one of the other synthetic isotopes (even U233 methinks)as your primary
neutron source for initiation. I believe this is part of how you get the
physics package size to be reduced.
Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears" is another good source, even if he says in
the preface that he deliberately altered details (not so that the info wouldn't
be out there, just so someone couldn't blame him for the big bang)
James P (who has a interest in this topic)
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Tactical nukes (was: Real Pics Of New Mecha)
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| (...) LOL! "Military intelligence" hard at work. :-, In Starship Troopers (and Ogre/G.E.V.) anyway, this is addressed by the radiation suits the troops wore (as you later note). At some point in the book, when they need to penetrate an area (...) (24 years ago, 31-Aug-00, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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