"Most frightening for Cohen is the relative ease by which neutron bombs can be created with a substance called red mercury. Red mercury is a compound containing mercury that has undergone massive irradiation. When exploded, it creates tremendous heat and pressure - the same type needed to trigger a fusion device such as a mini-neutron bomb.
Before, an obstacle to creating a nuclear bomb was the need for plutonium, which when exploded could create a fusion reaction in hydrogen atoms. But red mercury has changed that. The cheap substance has been produced in Russia, Cohen said, and shipped on the black market throughout the world.
Cohen said that when U.N. inspectors went to Iraq to examine the Iraqis' nuclear weapons capabilities, the U.N. team found documents showing that they had purchased quantities of red mercury. The material means a neutron bomb can be built "the size of baseball" but able to kill everyone within several square blocks."
Cohen, the father of the neutron bomb, has stated that such a bomb could fit inside a lunch box and upon detonation kill everyone above ground level within several hundred yards. The timer, battery and other initiating devices would probably take up more room than the actual bomb.....................
Of course, the neutron bomb is a very efficient EMP weapon............it has many applications........
Cohen advocated using tactical neutron bombs in Vietnam to win the war and save American lives.............the radiation (tritium) is short lived and kills the enemy quickly, how quickly depends upon how close to the detonation the enemy is............
should read......the radiation (tritium) of a pure fusion bomb is short lived and kills the enemy quickly, how quickly depends upon how close to the detonation the enemy is............during Vietnam we may have only had fission triggers, making it politically damaging to use the neutron bomb then..........