ANY VIDEOS OF NEUTRON BOMBS?

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:54 pm

Does anyone got (or has a link to) a video of a neutron bomb explosion?

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:11 pm

I don't believe there are any in existence.

Here is something interesting though.
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~wbova/fn/gov/china_nb.htm#photo1

I have no idea of it's validity.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:10 pm

WHAT?!?! My country was testing neutron bombs?!? No wonder the US is currently angry with the Chinese government...

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:57 pm

That's a laugh for a number of reasons.

A fireball that hot and close to buildings would have easily shown secondary fires on the ground during the pulse, especially in infrared.

Personal verdict: fake photo.

Forum Admin Joined: Aug 06, 2006 Posts: 1631 Location: UK

That’s a nice picture/article Blake did you just find it? Though from your tone, I don't think it's the answer you are looking for segregator.
ER or enhanced radiation devices are actually very low yield, only a few kilotons or so but designed specifically for their prompt radiation output. The myth about these weapons as the ultimate expression of Capitalism as in destroying people but leaving property intact is not based in reality as the fallout from even a small weapon would make most small cities largely inhabitable anyway. Also a lethal dose of radiation that would kill immediately would place you so close that you might just have time to die before your skin burst into flames.

One use that was considered was against massed Soviet armour. Where at close range the radiation would induce a neutron flux in the tanks armour irradiating the troops inside and incapacitating the crew, or their replacements. ER warheads like the W-66 were deployed on the Sprint ABM system to take out incoming enemy RV's by cooking off their delicate internal circuitry.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:26 pm

An airburst of an ER warhead of 3 or less kilotons would not cripple the city with radiation from fallout, since a small device's cloud would drift away.

ER weapons are higher altitude weapons to allow maximum dispersion of radiation. Much of the effect of fast neutrons on certain ground materials would stimulate some radioactivity and therefore possible chemical disruptions from nucleonic changes.

Also, China announced the "invention" -- more like espionage according to some experts including Sam Cohen -- of their own neutron bomb in 1999, after reportedly first testing designs in 1988:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-23164658.html

The first deployable ER weapon was in the early 1970s, long after atmospheric testing. The W70 was the first deployable design considered to be a tactical ER warhead to be lofted in the Lance missiles of Europe.

I don't see what the hoopla about the neutron bomb is. It simply is an efficient fission warhead with a casing that allows for maximized escape of neutrons.

The real problem of its myth-inspiring legacy of special quality was in the debate of military politics possibly seeing its use based on ideas of it somehow becoming known among an element as a more humane weapon. The Germans also had no say on nuclear weapons in their country until relatively recently, further enhancing political outrage.

The Sprint was a delivery system, not a warhead itself.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:35 pm

sonicbomb wrote:

That’s a nice picture/article Blake did you just find it?

Yes, I did a quick search to check the factuality of my statement and came across that link. I don't think the US has worked with China in it's nuclear program, have we??

Forum Admin Joined: Aug 06, 2006 Posts: 1631 Location: UK

Quote:

The Sprint was a delivery system, not a warhead itself.

Thats what I said. Confused

"ER warheads like the W-66 were deployed ON the Sprint ABM system"

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:56 pm

sonicbomb wrote:

Quote:

The Sprint was a delivery system, not a warhead itself.

Thats what I said. Confused

"ER warheads like the W-66 were deployed ON the Sprint ABM system"

Added fact:

The W-71 was designed for Spartan as the first line of the SAFEGUARD system. It's nearly 5 megatons yield was tested at Cannikin.

Just as spectacular as the testing of Cannikin was the Supreme Court battle leading up to firing it. As soon as the verdict was released at the US Supreme Court, Nixon sent a wired order to then-secretary James Schlesinger personally overseeing the test with his family.

http://supreme.justia.com/us/404/917/case.html

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:34 am

Mack Bolan wrote:

There is a video of it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEo1Gg_SJ68

The Neutron Dance doesn't have any connection to the thread in any substantial form.

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:50 am

Graviton wrote:

The Neutron Dance doesn't have any connection to the thread in any substantial form.

Not to mention it's just simply awful. Good grief.

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:04 am

Mack Bolan wrote:

No humor Grav?

Of course I do.

It's just that it's far out to have the Neutron Dance that emphasizes a comedy action movie about cops and robbers.

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:23 am

Actually a neutron bomb resembles more a fusion weapon than a pure fission one, since the primary mechanism of destruction are highly energetic neutrons from fusion reactions, that are allowed to escape rather than fast fissioning a U-238 tamper, and they require a lot of expensive and short lived tritium to operate, and that was one of the reasons it was phased out of the arsenal. You could theoretically kill almost everyone in a city by blanketing it with a lot of them at an optimum height of burst to minimize the damage to the buildings by the blasts, but not reinforced structures will most likely be destroyed anyway and you could expect a lot of fires from thermal pulses. Some neutron induced activity and fallout will be dangerous for a few days as well. Twisted Evil

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 7:00 am

An enhanced radiation nuclear weapon is basically a fission bomb modification of the casing that allows primary fast neutrons to escape immediately.

I highly doubt it's fusion, since fusion detonation requires tampering that contains alot of neutrons. It also requires a very strong casing to contain the gamma ray and neutron pressure crush needed for fusion.

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:26 pm

That’s the trick and it is precisely why its EXTREMELY difficult to make a neutron bomb, they should highly compress the fusion fuel, something that requires a high density material but at the same time allow most of the fusion neutrons to escape through this material. I have no clue on how to achieve this. No wonder why China developed and tested a thermonuclear bomb in only 32 months but took them decades to manufacture a neutron bomb and probably only by stealing American designs.!!!