![]() Norris, the author of “Racing for the Bomb,” cited formerly classified American documents that revealed the largely dismissive reaction of American military officials to the colossal blast. He said the bomb’s description in the video documentary was much fuller than the public would normally receive, but nonetheless carefully avoided the secret technical details “despite appearing to show the innards.”ĭr. In an interview, Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear historian at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., called the release “a nice addition” to the growing body of public information. It features closed captions in English, as well as surges of triumphal music. The Barents Observer, a publication in Norway, earlier reported on the video’s full release. Russia has previously released photos and video clips of the device, known officially as RDS-220. (ITER weights 23 000 tons, typical nuclear power reactor around 1000 tons).Ĭobalt bomb may include not only cobalt-60, but other isotopes like gold, strontium or polonium, for higher killing "efficiency", as they have different half-life and different biological effects.Īlso, the biggest effect from the cobalt bomb will be not acute radiation (as in the novel "On the beach"), but food chains poisoning, as some isotopes tend to accumulate in food chains, like strontium.From several angles and distances, the video shows the development of the weapon’s gargantuan mushroom cloud, hinting at the bomb’s churning power and apocalyptic force. In the links above is said that actual weight of the bomb will be the same as battleship Missuri, that is 20 000 tons. Note, that 510 tons is only amount of cobalt-60 which appeared in the explosion, but as cross-section is not very high, actually one needs to put many thousand tons of raw cobalt in the bomb. ![]() ![]() (There will be obvious local effects too, for the first thousand km.) For example, large volcanic eruptions were able to cover all sky for months with soot. So, there will be no localised fallout, but it will slowly falling from sky all over the world for months. of blast, thermal effects, and instantaneous and neutron irradiation. I will award $50 to the best answer by the end of next week, based on my gut sense, and I might pay out more if someone gives a particularly exceptional answer.Īs the explosion of the cobalt bomb will be very powerful, probably, around 10 gigaton, it will put almost all the cobalt in the upper levels of atmosphere, may be even in space, from where it will fall all over the earth. The explosion of the second atomic bomb, Fat Boy, above Nagasaki on 9th August. ![]() Israel neither officially confirms nor denies that it possesses nuclear weapons, and our estimate is therefore largely based. This issue’s column examines Israel’s nuclear arsenal, which we estimate includes a stockpile of roughly 90 warheads. I am interested in this question because it seems relevant to estimate the worst case scenario of a nuclear war, and the likelihood of civilization recovering after such an event. The Nuclear Notebook column has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1987. I don't know whether a single bomb that efficiently distributes 510 tons of material is remotely feasible, and the section about Co-60 conversion also suggests that the actual effectiveness of such a bomb would be far below this theoretical maximum.ĭoes there exist any existing literature that estimates the practical fallout area of a cobalt bomb? Or can we just do a simple Fermi to estimate things ourselves? However, in fact, complete 100% conversion into Co-60 is unlikely a 1957 British experiment at Maralinga showed that Co-59's neutron absorption ability was much lower than predicted, resulting in a very limited formation of Co-60 isotope in practice. If one assumes that all of the material is converted to Co-60 at 100 percent efficiency and if it is spread evenly across the Earth's surface, it is possible for a single bomb to kill every person on Earth. The Wikipedia article only has the following mildly helpful section: Theoretically, a device containing 510 metric tons of Co-59 can spread 1 g of the material to each square km of the Earth's surface (510,000,000 km2). I don't actually know the fallout area of such a bomb. of neutrons have identical chemical properties, but different atomic. Cobalt bombs are the currently most effective way I know of to make large areas of land unlivable for a long period of time. such terms as nuclear, thermonuclear, hydrogen weapons, cobalt bombs, and so forth. ![]()
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