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, 
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"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

> 
> When we needed sources of alpha particles, we cracked open smoke
> detectors and took out the Americium sources.
>
Don't be surprised if you get cancer later in life. Americium is a very
toxic chemical and a very strong carcinogen.

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."

> 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"