TERROR OF BIN LADEN'S 20 BACKPACK NUKES developing

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[Southack]

Isotopes of the Element Beryllium with a Known Natural Abundance

Mass Number		Natural Abundance		Half-life
9		100%		Stable

All Known Isotopes of the Element Beryllium

Mass Number		Half-life		Decay Mode		Branching Percentage
5		No Data Available		Proton Emission		No Data Available
6		4.96848*10-21 seconds		Alpha Decay		100.00
				Double Proton Emission		No Data Available
7		53.22 days		Electron Capture		100.00
8		6.72206*10-17 seconds		Alpha Decay		100.00
9		Stable		-		-
10		1.51*10+6 years		Beta-minus Decay		100.00
11		13.81 seconds		Beta-minus Decay		100.00
				Beta-minus Decay with delayed Alpha Decay		3.1
12		21.3 milliseconds		Beta-minus Decay		100.00
				Beta-minus Decay with delayed Neutron Emission		<= 1.00
13		2.7*10-21 seconds		Neutron Emission		No Data Available
14		4.35 milliseconds		Beta-minus Decay		100.00
				Beta-minus Decay with delayed Neutron Emission		81.00
				Beta-minus Decay		5.00

[babygene]

The trigger is tritium which has a half life of 12.3 years, and a usefull life in this application of 8 years.

[Southack]

"There is nevertheless a very real "limited shelf life" issue. My hypothesis is that this might actually be part of the reason why these might end up available on the black market -- the sellers knew that they would be duds without a recharge of fresh tritium."

The shelf life is very limited, not only for the trigger (which is made from beryllium, not tritium), but also from the limited shelf-life of the tritium "booster" as well as the slow decay of the uranium and/or plutonium core (which impacts the critical moment), and finally, the radiation in the entire package has some serious affects on the associated electronic components and conventional explosive chemicals, too.

[Travis McGee]

Your interesting post 97 says nothing about /1/ Shelf life of various neutron sources and /2/ Whether old neutron sources result in a dud bomb, or just a bomb which loses a 5 of its effectiveness.

Our military might consider a 20 kiloton device which is going to only obtain a 12 KT yield to be a failure.

Al Queda may not.

[Southack]

No, tritium is the booster. Beryllium is the trigger.

Beryllium's half-life is 53 days.

[Dog Gone]

Beware of arabs wearing garbage cans or turkey fryers on their back.

That's what I'm thinking...

[ASA Vet]

Osama is still pushing up the daisies

It is interesting that this silly story
reappeared just after the one year anniversary of his death.

[Travis McGee]

I meant "which loses a % of its effectiveness".

[Southack]

"Your interesting post 97 says nothing about /1/ Shelf life of various neutron sources and /2/ Whether old neutron sources result in a dud bomb, or just a bomb which loses a 5 of its effectiveness."

Sorry about that, I had to go find a second source for the half-life information.

Roughly 53 days for the Berrylium trigger and about 12 years for the tritium booster.

Whether it fizzles or blows after those times are up would depend upon the speed of the projectile/trigger inside the gun-type weapon, along with some shape/form/purity questions (of the core as well as of the trigger), presuming that the electronics were still functional and that the conventional explosives were still viable after prolonged exposure to massive doses of radiation and shock, et al.

[Fury]

My apologies for not clarifying. I was responding to the general statement about the limited operational life of certain components, and not specific timeframes for when a component may have its operational capabilities degraded due to a component degradation or failure.

[Lx]

The question is whether it'll fit in the overhead or whether you have to check it.

[Dec31,1999]

It wouldn't surprise me if we were nuked very soon. Things are coming down to the wire. Probably NYC will be first, because it contains the most Jews and commerce, but you never know.

I like Bush's tough talk and hope he will avenge our deaths if need be.

[babygene]

What's your source on the beryllium trigger. It does not match my experience with nucler weapons.

[Russell Scott]

So they give nukes to dead guys. Not very smart.

[wharfrat]

Have you forgotten Putin is KGB?

[PianoMan]

Maybe the Russians are invading the Chinese.

[The Great Satan]

Yawn.

[Ranger]

al-Qaeda's access to your friendly neighborhood Paki nuke scientist is a very real scenario regardless of the ultimate origin of the weapon.

[Minutemen]

Good God, dont be so cheerful about it! </sarcasm