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Neutrino beam could neutralise nuclear bombs
New Scientist ^ | 18:51 14 May 03 | By Will Knight

Posted on 03/29/2004 5:04:19 PM PST by vannrox

A super-powered neutrino generator could in theory be used to instantly destroy nuclear weapons anywhere on the planet, according to a team of Japanese scientists.

If it was ever built, a state could use the device to obliterate the nuclear arsenal of its enemy by firing a beam of neutrinos straight through the Earth. But the generator would need to be more than a hundred times more powerful than any existing particle accelerator and over 1000 kilometres wide.

"It is really quite futuristic," Alfons Weber, a neutrino scientist at Oxford University, UK, told New Scientist. "But the maths and physics seems to be right."

John Cobb, another researcher at Oxford University, cautions: "It might be technically feasible, given massive investment, but there are still unsolved problems."

Ghostly particles

Neutrinos are elementary particles with no electric charge and virtually no mass. They are produced in the nuclear reactions within stars and pass through the Earth in their thousands every day. As they pass through ordinary matter, neutrinos scatter atomic nuclei.

By scattering neutrons in uranium or plutonium, a sufficiently high-powered beam of neutrinos would destabilise a nuclear bomb. According to Hiroyuki Hagura and Toshiya Sanami at Japan's KEK High Energy Accelerator Research Organization and Hirotaka Sugawara at the University of Hawaii this would cause the weapon to "melt down" without triggering the chain reaction needed for it to fully detonate.

But the "muon storage ring" generator needed to propose the neutrino beam would need to be 1000 kilometres wide. It would also require 50 gigaWatts of power to operate - the same as used by the entire UK - and would cost an estimated $100 billion to construct.

Weber says the first stage of a generator might be feasible within 10 to 20 years, but he reckons the main problem is that the neutrino beam produced would be just a few metres wide. This means a target would need to be very precisely located beforehand. He adds that the beam would produce dangerous alpha and neutron radiation in any living thing in its path.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Government; Israel; Japan; Mexico; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Russia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: beam; bombs; bush; could; destroy; generator; instantly; miltech; neutralise; neutrino; neutrinodetector; neutrinos; nuclear; nukes; proliferation; superpowered; terror; war; weapons
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Neat.
1 posted on 03/29/2004 5:04:20 PM PST by vannrox
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To: vannrox
Maybe this is what the Russians have developed - or have found a simpler way to accomplish the same.
2 posted on 03/29/2004 5:07:05 PM PST by Fitzcarraldo
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To: vannrox
Build it on the moon, use sunlight for power...
3 posted on 03/29/2004 5:07:08 PM PST by etcetera
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To: vannrox
As they pass through ordinary matter, neutrinos scatter atomic nuclei.

Sluts.

4 posted on 03/29/2004 5:09:43 PM PST by humblegunner
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To: vannrox
Neutrino beam could neutralise nuclear bombs

Just how would one steer such a beam towards the desired target?

5 posted on 03/29/2004 5:09:56 PM PST by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: vannrox
John Cobb, another researcher at Oxford University, cautions: "It might be technically feasible, given massive investment, but there are still unsolved problems."

The problem is you would have to either build, test, deploy, and execute it in secret or negotiate with all targets first for an agreeable team effort. Otherwise you run the risk of a desperation first strike.

6 posted on 03/29/2004 5:12:55 PM PST by af_vet_1981
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To: vannrox
"A super-powered neutrino generator could in theory be used to instantly destroy nuclear weapons anywhere on the planet, according to a team of Japanese scientists."

Sounds like somebody learned a hard lesson 50 or so years ago. Getting nuked sucks, but in the long run the nukees might benefit to the point where they send their best and brightest to US universities to learn something, rather than strapping a bomb on such promising individuals.

Saudi Arabia might take a lesson from this.

7 posted on 03/29/2004 5:15:17 PM PST by yooper (If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there......)
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To: Fitzcarraldo
The Russian haven't developed anything but a press release.
8 posted on 03/29/2004 5:16:31 PM PST by CasearianDaoist
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To: vannrox
the maths and physics seems to be right."

Hope this guy knows more about physics than he does about English.

9 posted on 03/29/2004 5:21:16 PM PST by gg188
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To: vannrox
Weber says the first stage of a generator might be feasible within 10 to 20 years, but he reckons the main problem is that the neutrino beam produced would be just a few metres wide.

The MAIN problem would be the unilateral disarmament and appeasement crowd who would cry that this destablizes the world, that it isn't fair that the US would be able to DEFEND itself against other nations.

The same arguments the left made against ballistic missle defense would apply to this.

10 posted on 03/29/2004 5:25:19 PM PST by gg188
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To: vannrox; Paleo Conservative
He adds that the beam would produce dangerous alpha and neutron radiation in any living thing in its path.

Unfortunately, this weapon could easily be defeated by the old "shell game" of moving warheads around in secret. If the beam is only a few meters in diameter, it wouldn't be hard to elude. Of course, it would be impossible to "neutralize" nuclear ballistic missile submarines, which have traditionally been the most effective deterrent.

Furthermore, it would be virtually impossible to target "backpack" bombs, and would probably do nothing against dirty bombs. Since these are the more likely threats of the future (rather than ICBMs), I propose another use for the neutrino beam weapon: use it to take out the dangerous leadership in threat countries. Imagine beaming this through the earth and taking out the seat of government in Tehran or the subterranean terrorist stronghold in Afghanistan.

11 posted on 03/29/2004 5:26:50 PM PST by SpyGuy
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To: vannrox
Would it affect other things, such as people and beer, or does this disrupt only nuclear bombs?
12 posted on 03/29/2004 5:27:23 PM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts; proofs establish links)
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To: Paleo Conservative
"Just how would one steer such a beam towards the desired target?"

Very carefully, it would appear.

13 posted on 03/29/2004 5:30:50 PM PST by justanotherday
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To: Paleo Conservative
Just how would one steer such a beam towards the desired target?

Tons of cleaning fluid?

14 posted on 03/29/2004 5:31:00 PM PST by rightwingcrazy
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To: vannrox
I agree it's neat.

But this makes the entire issue academic:

"This means a target would need to be very precisely located beforehand."

When I first started reading the article, from the phrasing I got the impression that it was supposed to be able to disarm -all- nukes around the world simultaneously... now -that- would be very interesting.

But with the above restriction, screw it, might as well stick with missile defense.

Qwinn


Qwinn
15 posted on 03/29/2004 5:31:35 PM PST by Qwinn
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To: RightWhale
He adds that the beam would produce dangerous alpha and neutron radiation in

any living thing in its path.

Doesn't sound good, even for the yeast!

16 posted on 03/29/2004 5:31:36 PM PST by StriperSniper (Ernest Strada Fanclub)
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To: yooper
but in the long run the nukees might benefit to the point where they send their best and brightest to US universities to learn something, rather than strapping a bomb on such promising individuals. Saudi Arabia might take a lesson from this.

Saudi and other countries have done just what you've suggested, although not as you intended. Many of the scientists who were working on the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in Iraq were university educated in the US, UK, or other western countries. The same can be said for weapons scientists in many other threatening countries.

And let's not forget the "promising" Saudi citizens who came to the US to learn how to fly commercial airliners...

17 posted on 03/29/2004 5:32:03 PM PST by SpyGuy
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To: rightwingcrazy
If I can neutralize Plutonium, can it also do it to Carbon, or whatever element you tune it to?

If so, this is a superweapon of infinite power.
18 posted on 03/29/2004 5:32:06 PM PST by Monty22
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To: justanotherday
Very carefully, it would appear.

With what? Neutrinos are electromagnetically neutral particles. Magnetic fields won't deflect them. They can pass right though miles of lead.

19 posted on 03/29/2004 5:37:44 PM PST by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: Dark Wing
I like all the statistics here. Wouldn't it be simpler just to slam the planet with a ****ing moon?
20 posted on 03/29/2004 5:40:02 PM PST by Thud
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