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August 14, 2003
Gamma Rays Next Military Tool?
In the "Really Scary News" category comes a story from New Scientist about how weapons based on gamma ray explosives could be the next avenue of nuclear arms development...and proliferation.
"The explosive works by stimulating the release of energy from the nuclei of certain elements but does not involve nuclear fission or fusion. The energy, emitted as gamma radiation, is thousands of times greater than that from conventional chemical explosives."
The story goes on to describe how even "one gram of fully charged hafnium isomer could store more energy than 50 kilograms of TNT." Right now, production of the hafnium isomer is fairly limited, but experts predict gram quantities to be available within a handful of years.
Posted by Craig in Society / Politics