Neutron bomb inventor Samuel Cohen dies aged 89

[bananas]

Source: BBC

The man who invented the neutron bomb, Samuel Cohen, has died in California, at the age of 89.

The neutron bomb was a small tactical nuclear weapon, which produced lethal tiny particles to kill enemy soldiers while leaving buildings largely undamaged.

Mr Cohen called it "the most sane weapon ever devised".

It was developed in the US in the 80s, but was soon condemned for making nuclear warfare more likely.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11903795

[Taverner]

1. So fucking unethical

We will kill the people, but we want to use their stuff...

[DissedByBush]

13. Absolutely wrong about the neutron bomb

It was not invented to kill people and keep their stuff. Their stuff would be irradiated too, and unusable.

It has enhanced radiation and low blast. This served two purposes:

#1: Firing one on an advancing Soviet armor division plowing through Europe could be expected to give the close-in enemy tankers a lethal dose of radiation without having the huge blast that would destroy German civilian infrastructure for miles around. The stupid part of this idea is that the soldiers would know they're dead, but after an initial bout of nausea would enter the "walking ghost" phase where they would fight to the death to avoid the inevitable agonizing death by radiation poisoning in a few days. I wouldn't want to go up against soldiers with nothing to lose.

#2: In an anti-ballistic missile missile, detonating a neutron bomb near the incoming warhead could be expected to disable it without providing the intense blast that would come back down our own country.

Note none were ever made with the kinds of yields used for strategic strikes in the USSR.

They were all very tiny, a few kilotons at most.

[provis99]

14. the radiation is short lived in a neutron bomb.

The idea was in fact, to kill people and get their stuff.

[DissedByBush]

16. That was just the popular myth

The actual deployments were as I described.

[PavePusher]

21. Your analysis may be faulty.

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/2010/Q4/view651.html#neutron

[Journeyman]

2. If we could only devise an "O & P Bomb," one that kills. . .

only Officers and Politicians and leaves the rest of us alone, then maybe we'd have something of value. . .

[jtuck004]

3. Huh...Kinda like the Federal Reserve Proposal...

"The neutron bomb was a small tactical nuclear weapon, which produced lethal tiny particles to kill enemy soldiers while leaving buildings largely undamaged"

Kinda like yesterday's Fed proposal to strip homeowners of the best defense against unethical and illegal lending.
Takes the people out, leaves the buildings untouched. How ethical is that...

New Rules Makes It Harder to Avoid Foreclosure, Groups Say
Fed urged to hold off on changes to Truth In Lending Act rules

Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

November 19, 2010

The Federal Reserve has proposed a series of changes to Truth In Lending Act (TILA) rules governing foreclosure. A coalition of legal rights and consumer groups wants the Fed to withdraw that proposal, saying it would hurt homeowners.
...

"Instead of informing consumers about the terms of their loans as Congress intended, these proposals would allow broad misstatements of loan terms through new tolerances that are without statutory authority," the groups said in a letter to the Fed's Board of Governors.
...
Read more

Rest in peace, Mr. Cohen. Looks like your legacy is secure.

[Tesha]

4. Please, please! It's *NOT* a neutron bomb!

It's an "enhanced radiation weapon".

Kind of like "torture" is just "enhanced interrogation techniques".

Tesha

[jtuck004]

6. By jove, I think you've got it.

I find it ironic that both the death of Cohen and the proposed gutting of the Truth in Lending Act by
someone appointed by a Democratic president happened in the same week.

Are they doing this b4 Elizabeth Warren can get the Consumer Protection Agency up and working, adopting
a Bush doctrine sort of first-strike policy?

And just like the neutron bomb, it will leave bodies in the snow...

[DissedByBush]

19. It's not a euphemism

A good euphemism would be "reduced blast weapon" to make it sound less harmful.

But that's 100% correct too.

What they did is take a very small nuclear bomb and remove the parts that reflect neutrons back into the explosion to increase the destructive yield.

Not reflecting the neutrons means they are free to escape, thus "enhanced radiation."

But it is literally "reduced blast" since they enhanced the radiation by reducing the blast.

Note the blast is still bigger than any conventional weapon. Dropping it on a city will destroy anything within a rather large radius.

But it wasn't meant to drop on a populated city. It was meant to use against hardened military targets.

[Javaman]

5. sane weapon? Why, because it preserves property?

Yet still kills people.

Huh, sounds like the republican platform.

[sudopod]

7. And it kills them with radiation poisoning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb

[DissedByBush]

20. "Preserves property" myth

The W70-3 was our battlefield "neutron bomb" warhead.

It had an explosive yield of 1 kiloton in neutron bomb mode.

The blast would still wipe out everything for about half a mile.

[slackmaster]

8. A modern Dr. Strangelove

[htuttle]

9. Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it.

J. Frank Parnell: Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But I'll show them. I had a lobotomy in the end.

Otto: Lobotomy? Isn't that for loonies?

Parnell: Not at all. Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb. You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people - leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. It's so small, no one knows it's there until - BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad. That's what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now he's well again.

[AlbertCat]

10. Otto: Lobotomy? Isn't that for loonies?

"Repo Man"! I love that movie. That Chevy looks just like my 1st car... which I got from my Grandmother when she couldn't drive anymore.


My favorite line:

"Let's go do some crimes. Let's go get sushi and not pay for it."

And this scene between lovers:

Leila: What about our relationship?

Otto: Huh?

Leila: Our relationship.... what about it?

Otto: Oh. .... fuck that!

Leila: What?! Oh, fuck you! I'm glad I tortured you!



Ahhhh.... what a great family film!

[mudplanet]

11. Death is fun

One problem with using radiation as a tactical anti-personnel weapon is that to bring about rapid death of the individuals targeted, a radiation dose that is many times the lethal level must be administered. A radiation dose of 6 Gy is normally considered lethal. It will kill at least half of those who are exposed to it, but no effect is noticeable for several hours. Neutron bombs were intended to deliver a dose of 80 Gy to quickly kill targets. A 1 kt ER warhead can do this to a T-72 tank crew at a range of 690 m, compared to 360 m for a pure fission bomb (the blast would likely destroy it, however). For a 6 Gy dose, the distances are 1100 m and 700 m respectively, and for unprotected soldiers 6 Gy exposures occur at 1350 m and 900 m. The lethal range for tactical neutron bombs exceeds the lethal range for blast and heat even for unprotected troops, which is likely the reasoning for the idea that a neutron bomb destroys life and not infrastructure. If a neutron bomb were detonated at the correct altitude, deadly levels of radiation would blanket a wide area with minimal heat and blast effects when compared to a nuclear weapon of conventional design.

The neutron flux can induce significant amounts of short-lived secondary radioactivity in the environment in the high flux region near the burst point. The alloys used in steel armor can develop radioactivity that is dangerous for 24–48 hours. If a tank exposed to a 1 kt neutron bomb at 690 m (the effective range for immediate crew incapacitation) is immediately occupied by a new crew, they will receive a lethal dose of radiation within 24 hours.

One significant drawback of the weapon is that not all targeted troops will die or be incapacitated immediately. After a brief bout of nausea, many of those hit with about 5–50 Sv of radiation will experience a temporary recovery (the latent or "walking ghost phase"<15>) lasting days to weeks.

[Bigmack]

12. I always wondered what was in the ...

mind of guys like him. What was his reasoning? "We can kill millions, but leave the buildings?...."

Who could think like that... killing millions.

That's psychotic.

[daleo]

15. Wouldn't nerve gas do pretty much the same thing?

Kill people but leave buildings standing?

Then there's this lovely, the mother of all bombs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_bomb

[htuttle]

17. That's the one that destroyed the Planet of the Apes in the second film

[yellowcanine]

18. "Humane Nuclear Bomb" ; one of many Orwellian notions from the Reagan era

Others included:

the "Peacekeeper" nuclear missile

Supply Side economics and the "Laffer" (aka "laugher")curve.

'Tree pollution" is worse than car pollution'

"Ketchup is a vegetable"

Assorted nonsense about the Sandinista threat to the U.S. to justify supporting the Contras, an operation which was a study in Orwellian contradictions in and of itself.

"Cadillac Driving Welfare Queens"

"Star Wars" Missile Defense

[JVS]

22. Only the good die young.

[yurbud]

23. he inspired pols in DC to come up with policies that protected the property of the wealthy while

killing the rest of us.

Whenever I see government spending at any level that enriches the rich and screws the rest of us, I think of the neutron bomb.