From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Mon Jul 03 2000 - 23:12:14 MDT
John Clark wrote:
> I don't know it for a fact but my intuition tells me that if you want to
> destroy a nuclear warhead with another H bomb the most important
> factor would not be the heat (X rays mostly) and of course in space
> there would be no a shock wave, the important thing would be the huge
> neutron flux. The hope is that all those neutrons would cause the barely
> subcritical fissionable parts of the warhead to pre-detonate, or al least
> warp enough so the weapon malfunctions.
Ja, I still ha' me doots something like that would work, given that
current designs for the plutonium detonator have a neutron
source to assist criticality. Id have to sit down and do out the
calcs, some of which would require educated guesses. Its telling
that the US dismantled its antimissile system from the 70s. Thats
pretty good evidence that a nuclear anti-nuke isnt the right way.
spike
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