Gamma Ray Bombs May Revolutionize Explosives Technology

It's not technically a nuclear bomb; there is no fission or fusion. But the explosive power comes from a high-energy nuclear isomer shedding energy in the form of gamma rays, and it could provide 1000 times the force of conventional chemical explosives:

But in future there may be cheaper ways to create the hafnium isomer - by bombarding ordinary hafnium with high-energy photons, for example. Hill Roberts, chief scientist at SRS, believes that technology to produce gram quantities will exist within five years.

The effect of a nuclear-isomer explosion would be to release high-energy gamma rays capable of killing any living thing in the immediate area. It would cause little fallout compared to a fission explosion, but any undetonated isomer would be dispersed as small radioactive particles, making it a somewhat "dirty" bomb. This material could cause long-term health problems for anybody who breathed it in.

This article is actually from last year. I struck upon it because someone found my site searching for this information.

posted by Ace at 09:31 PM

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