US military pioneers death ray bomb (for real)

[donsu]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1018300,00.html

American military scientists are developing a weapon which kills by delivering an enormous burst of high-energy gamma rays, it is claimed today.

-snip-

In May, Congress approved further research on a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons: bunker busters, designed to drill into underground shelters, buried beneath hundreds of feet of con crete, and so-called mini-nukes with explosive yields of less than five kilotons.

-snip-

"Many countries which will not have access to these weapons will produce nuclear weapons as a deterrent," Andre Gsponer, director of the Independent Scientific Research Institute in Geneva, told New Scientist. Just one gram of the explosive would store more energy than 50kg of conventional TNT. It would be as expensive as enriched uranium, but less would be needed for a bomb. Unlike uranium, it does not need a critical mass of material to maintain the nuclear reaction.

It would produce little radioactive fallout compared with an atomic explosion, but could cause long-term health problems for anyone breathing the particles in.
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Please, someone stop the criminal, death loving bushgang.

[kimchi]

1. That is what the military does- make more efficient ways to kill.

It wouldn't be that different no matter who was in office (know that I want to puke for saying that, but I think it is true.) If we still fought hand to hand I could understand, and maybe even participate in, the "patriotism" of cheering for war like it is a football game. I'm speculating that actual deaths were more rare in those societies that understood the consequences up close. We are devolving culturally and too stupid to stop it.

I don't understand how a person who develops weapons as a living can sleep at night, and I don't understand the culture of death that moves Congress to approve the research. The entire freakin US is in a zombie sleep and they/we are leading the way in destroying our own ecological niche. And the "criminal, death loving bushgang" is definitely the worst part of that equation at the moment.

[Atlant]

2. Not unlike the "Neutron Bomb" that Reagan had the hots for

While the mechanism described is somewhat different than
the "Enhanced Radiation Weapon" (AKA "Neutron Bomb")
that Ronald Raygun had the hots for, the effect is pretty much
the same. (Actually, "better" in the eyes of the capitalists
because the new gamma ray weapon can't leave things
radioactive; it just leaves them dead.)

It is interesting how a country that seems to hate everyone
elses' "Weapons of Mass Destruction" can't seem to ever
get enough of their own, though.

I'm also amused by the "artificial enhancement of natural
radioactivity" that this bomb seems to be based upon.
Does anyone else besides me remember how the Earth was
made uninhabitable (by R. Giskard) in Asimov's "Foundation"
series? Maybe we didn't set the atmosphere on fire with
"the gadget"; maybe we haven't yet caused the formation
of a microscopic black hole with our gold-nuclei collision
experiments, but hey, why just because we haven't succeeded
yet in destroying the world through an experiment gone awry
doesn't mean we should stop trying! :-)

Atlant

[Walter_Bowman]

5. Asimov's "Foundation"

is fiction.:-)

[Atlant]

6. Really?

> Asimov's "Foundation" is fiction.

Really?

You know, the funny thing about the Bush Reich is how much
of the "speculative fiction" (such as The Handmaid's Tale)
has either come true or is shockingly likely to come true.

Maybe you should write: "is fiction (so far)".

Atlant

[Atlant]

3. Remember: Nuclear power facilitates the development of nuclear weapons.

(Edited for formatting)

On another thread, a poster asked why liberals so often hate
nuclear power.

Remember: The commercial use of nuclear power facilitates the
development of nuclear weapons by inciting the production of
materiel and trained nuclear engineers. Fission reactors are
the only practical source of plutonium, whether the
reactors operated solely for the production of plutonium or
as power reactors where the spent fuel is reprocessed.

Atlant

[JHB]

4. They're actually making a "Gamma Bomb"?

There wouldn't be a "Dr. Bruce Banner" working on it, would there?

[newyawker99]

7. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=178905


I am locking this one.

NYer99
DU Moderator