China Weaponizing Isotope That Could Dramatically Worsen Nuclear War

too lazy to post it ^ | too lazy to post it | too lazy to post it

[The_Media_never_lie]

The only good thing about a doomsday device is that it only can be used one time.

[rsobin]

Tantalum 181 is stable.

[Moltke]

The research being reported on, involves particle beams of tantalum. What if the objective involves more of an orbital beam weapon? What effect would a beam of tantalum atoms, moving at a good percentage of the speed of light, have on satellites? Or ICBM warheads or electronics?

Having worked with heavy ion accelerators for 6 years in the '80s (material science applications, all very benign), this is the best I've got: There is no relevance of those "superheated beams" to nuclear weaponry.

To make a particle beam, a small amount of the substance is heated in a vacuum chamber to a temperature above the melting and then evaporation point (a few thousand degrees, depending on the metal). The gaseous atoms are then stripped of one or more of their outer shell electrons - ionized - and subjected to a high voltage electric field, which accelerates the ions in the direction of the field, hence creating the "beam".

The number of ionized atoms in said beam - the "fluence" - is so low (realistically in the order of 10^-15 ampere) that it is inconceivable to be used as a weapon. Never mind that all this has to happen in an enclosed high vacuum environment.

I think that the author is not at all clear about the physics involved in that statement of his and the implications he draws therefrom.

[SauronOfMordor]

If it’s in space, you have vacuum for free.

[Moltke]

Thanks - I’m not aware of any instance where this had actually happened. I suppose flooding areas with sea water might come close, but the technology to do that to areas above sea level was not available back then, either. (OK, lots and lots of slaves carrying buckets of sea water inland...LOL.)

[RAWGUY]

“I couldn’t find a half life on tantalum 181.”

There is no half life for Tantalum 181, it is a stable isotope:

Isotope Half Life
Ta-179 1.8 years
Ta-180 1.2E15 years
Ta-181 Stable
Ta-182 114.43 days

[DannyTN]

So what do you think they mean they fired tantalum 181?

If you wrapped a nuclear bomb with tantalum 181, the bomb would create a range of tantalum isotopes wouldn’t it?

[Moltke]

Perhaps the vacuum, but not the rest. It just doesn’t work that way in reality. Did you note the miniscule amount of available “beam atoms” I mentioned, for one thing?

[SauronOfMordor]

I took a brief look at heavy ion particle beam , and found one paper where they’re talking about 1MJ pulses

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468080X17301000

[SauronOfMordor]

It sounds like they are talking about shooting a beam of tantalum ions at a target.

[DannyTN]

If that’s the case and Tantalum 181 is stable, I don’t see a concern about radiation.

[DannyTN]

It sounds like Tantalum is pretty expensive. If it’s a particle beam weapon, it’s going to be a pretty limited deployment.

[OldMissileer]

If you wrapped a nuclear bomb with tantalum 181, the bomb would create a range of tantalum isotopes wouldn’t it?

Yep. If you make the case of a Secondary out of U 238 after the Lithium Deuteride takes off the reactions turn the stable U-238 into U-235. It would most likely be the same using Tantalum 181.

[Fred Hayek]

Neutron flux from the explosion would form radioactive isotopes of tantalum via neutron capture.