From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Thu Jul 27 2000 - 09:32:56 MDT
John Clark wrote:
>
> Andy Toth <antst20+@pitt.edu> Wrote:
>
> >>Me:
> >> I don't know how it could tell if the helium came from a bomb or a Thanksgiving day parade balloon
>
> > you could radioactively trace it.
>
> Easy to say but the devil is in the details, exactly what did you have in mind?
I imagine he means that you can sniff out odd isotopes of helium, or sniffing
out helium in concert with radio noise or neutron emissions. A bomb that is
small and light enough to transport and keep hidden in transport will NOT be
well shielded. Proper shielding for that much plutonium is at least 6 inches of
solid metal, all the way around, which would weigh at least a half ton. Using
lead would require less, but at least a couple inches, which would also be
similarly heavy. Anything less and there WOULD be detectable radiation that any
nanoscopic radmeter could detect once its nanite sniffed a helium trail to home
in on (and making the bomb hermetically sealed is also another engineering
worry).
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