Re: Nuclear Weapons Material
pstemari@bismark.cbis.com (Paul J. Ste. Marie) wrote:
Mark Terka wrote:
Not to mention the fact that without tritium, the "trigger" for nuclear weapons (and extremely expensive and rare at $ 100m a gram) all you have is a radioactive paperweight.
The "trigger" isn't tritium. Tritium (along with lithium 6) is used in fusion bombs. A fission-only device, ala Hiroshima or Nagasaki, doesn't require any.
The trigger in the center of the plutonium core is a neutron source, polonium if memory serves correctly. Tritium is a beta emitter.
A neutron source is usually a light element with a high neutron/proton ratio, coupled with an alpha emitter. I believe the Nagasaki bomb used beryllium-9. An alpha particle impacting a beryllium nucleus will fuse with it, forming carbon-12, and the binding energy will eject a neutron. I think aluminum and a few other light elements will undergo similar reactions to release neutrons in the presence of alpha particles. Polonium is primarilly an alpha emitter. It would work as part of a neutron source, but it is not a particularily good choice because its half-life is only 138.4 days (polonium-210). This makes it expensive to obtain, and impractical to store.
Matthew Ghio writes: (after a long absence from the list?--welcome back)
Polonium is primarilly an alpha emitter. It would work as part of a neutron source, but it is not a particularily good choice because its half-life is only 138.4 days (polonium-210). This makes it expensive to obtain, and impractical to store.
When we needed sources of alpha particles, we cracked open smoke detectors and took out the Americium sources. Later, we found a supplier of "anti-static" modules, for use in air guns used to clean wafers, each containing 10 milliCuries (!!) of Po-210. We called this our "Kong source." Nothing to do with crypto, except that the alphas scrambled data in our chips. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
Polonium is primarilly an alpha emitter. It would work as part of a neutron source, but it is not a particularily good choice because its half-life is only 138.4 days (polonium-210). This makes it expensive to obtain, and impractical to store.
They used to use polonium in static eliminators in darkrooms - don't know if they use them anymore, though. -- Ed Carp, N7EKG Ed.Carp@linux.org, ecarp@netcom.com Finger ecarp@netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key an88744@anon.penet.fi If you want magic, let go of your armor. Magic is so much stronger than steel! -- Richard Bach, "The Bridge Across Forever"
Timothy C. May writes:
When we needed sources of alpha particles, we cracked open smoke detectors and took out the Americium sources.
How much alpha do you really need (he asked, wondering when somebody will get irate and insist this thread be terminated)? I have some mineral specimens at home that are fairly hot (uraninite, cuprousklodowskite, and something else similar) with (this non-physicist thinks) mostly alpha emissions. Such things can be had at your next gem & mineral show, if you're lucky. [ No, my wife won't let me keep them in the house. Some people! ] | GOOD TIME FOR MOVIE - GOING ||| Mike McNally <m5@tivoli.com> | | TAKE TWA TO CAIRO. ||| Tivoli Systems, Austin, TX: | | (actual fortune cookie) ||| "Like A Little Bit of Semi-Heaven" |
Mike McNally asks:
Timothy C. May writes:
When we needed sources of alpha particles, we cracked open smoke detectors and took out the Americium sources.
How much alpha do you really need (he asked, wondering when somebody will get irate and insist this thread be terminated)? I have some mineral specimens at home that are fairly hot (uraninite, cuprousklodowskite, and something else similar) with (this non-physicist thinks) mostly alpha emissions. Such things can be had at your next gem & mineral show, if you're lucky.
I don't "need" any these days. My reference to "when we needed" was to the 1977-1982 period, at Intel. And, yes, we had cut and polishes "hot rocks," including uraninite, thorianite, and various pure U-238 sheets. But the "Kong source" (10 mCi of Po-210) sprayed out vastly more alphas per square centimeter at the target than the "natural" sources here. We used sources at a wide range of activities to measure device sensitivitie3s to alpha particles. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
participants (5)
-
Jim choate -
khijol!erc＠apple.com -
m5＠vail.tivoli.com -
Matthew Ghio -
tcmay＠netcom.com