Cobalt bomb
A cobalt bomb is a type of "
History
The concept of a
The Operation Antler/Round 1 test by the British at the Tadje site in the Maralinga range in Australia on September 14, 1957, tested a bomb using cobalt pellets as a radiochemical tracer for estimating yield. This was considered a failure and the experiment was not repeated.[4] In Russia, the triple "taiga" nuclear salvo test, as part of the preliminary March 1971 Pechora–Kama Canal project, produced relatively high amounts of cobalt-60 (60Co or Co-60) from the steel that surrounded the Taiga devices, with this fusion-generated neutron activation product being responsible for about half of the gamma dose in 2011 at the test site. The high percentage contribution is largely because the devices primarily used fusion rather than fission reactions, so the quantity of gamma-emitting caesium-137 fallout was comparatively low. Photosynthesizing vegetation exists all around the lake that was formed.[5][6]
In 2015, a page from an apparent Russian
Mechanism
A cobalt bomb could be made by placing a quantity of ordinary
The deposited cobalt-60 would have a
59
27Co
+ n → 60
27Co
→ 60
28Ni
+ e− + gamma rays.
Nickel-60 is a stable isotope and undergoes no further decays after the transmutation is complete.
The 5.27 year half life of the 60Co is long enough to allow it to settle out before significant decay has occurred, and to render it impractical to wait in
Fallout from cobalt bombs in comparison to other nuclear weapons
Initially, gamma radiation from the fission products of an equivalent size fission-fusion-fission bomb are much more intense than Co-60: 15,000 times more intense at 1 hour; 35 times more intense at 1 week; 5 times more intense at 1 month; and about equal at 6 months. Thereafter fission product fallout radiation levels drop off rapidly, so that Co-60 fallout is 8 times more intense than fission at 1 year and 150 times more intense at 5 years. The very long-lived isotopes produced by fission would overtake the 60Co again after about 75 years.[14]
Complete 100% conversion into Co-60 is unlikely; a 1957 British experiment at Maralinga showed that Co-59's neutron absorption ability was much lower than predicted, resulting in a very limited formation of Co-60 isotope in practice.
In addition, fallout is not deposited evenly throughout the path downwind from a detonation, so some areas would be relatively unaffected by fallout and the Earth would not be universally rendered lifeless by a cobalt bomb.[15] The fallout and devastation following a nuclear detonation does not scale upwards linearly with the explosive yield (equivalent to tons of TNT). As a result, the concept of "overkill"—the idea that one can simply estimate the destruction and fallout created by a thermonuclear weapon of the size postulated by Leo Szilard's "cobalt bomb" thought experiment by extrapolating from the effects of thermonuclear weapons of smaller yields—is fallacious.[16][dubious ] However, nuclear devices exploded at high altitudes result in much more widespread but slower fallout, especially for dirty or cobalt-like weapons. The radioactive isotopes are caught in the natural global meteorological processes which, because of the extraordinary hardiness of the isotope, will cycle many times throughout the condensation and evaporation process, resulting in global spread and the effective destruction of usable water for plants, land animals, humans, and sea life.[citation needed]
Example of radiation levels vs. time
For the type of radiation given by a cobalt bomb, the dosage measured in sievert (Sv) and gray (Gy) can be treated as equivalent. This is because the relevant harmful radiation from cobalt-60 is gamma rays. When converting between sievert and gray for gamma rays, the radiation type weighting factor will be 1, and the radiation will be a highly penetrating radiation spread evenly over the body so the tissue type weighting factor will also be 1.
Assume a cobalt bomb deposits intense fallout causing a dose rate of 10 Sv per hour. At this dose rate, any unsheltered person exposed to the fallout would receive a lethal dose in about 30 minutes (assuming a
- After one half-life of 5.27 years, only half of the cobalt-60 will have decayed, and the dose rate in the affected area would be 5 Sv/hour. At this dose rate, a person exposed to the radiation would receive a lethal dose in 1 hour.
- After 10 half-lives (about 53 years), the dose rate would have decayed to around 10 mSv/hour. At this point, a healthy person could spend up to 4 days exposed to the fallout with no immediate effects. Long-term effects from this exposure would be increased risk to develop cancer.[18] At the 4th day, the accumulated dose will be about 1 Sv, at which point the first symptoms of acute radiation syndrome may appear.
- After 20 half-lives (about 105 years), the dose rate would have decayed to around 10 μSv/hour. At this stage, humans could remain unsheltered full-time since their yearly radiation dose would be about 80 mSv. This yearly dose rate is about 30 times greater than the average natural background radiation rate of 2.4 mSv/year,[19] but within its variability. At this dose rate, causal connection to cancer incidence would be difficult to establish.
- After 25 half-lives (about 130 years), the dose rate from cobalt-60 would have decayed to less than 0.4 μSv/hour and could be considered negligible.
Decontamination
It may be possible to decontaminate relatively small areas contaminated by a cobalt bomb with equipment such as
In popular culture
- In Nevil Shute's novel On the Beach (1957), cobalt bombs are given as the cause of the lethal radioactivity that is approaching Australia. The cobalt bomb was a symbol of man's hubris.[26]
- In San Quentin State Prisonsteals a canister of cobalt-60, thinking it contains drugs. He flees to Los Angeles to pawn it, not knowing it could kill him and possibly contaminate the city.
- In the dark comedy Dead Hand mechanism, by the Soviet Union as a 'doomsday device' nuclear deterrent: if the system detects any nuclear attack, the doomsday device will be automatically unleashed. With unfortunate timing, a deranged American general mutinies and orders an attack on the USSR before the Soviet secret device, already activated, could be unveiled to the world. One American bomber piloted by a hapless and unknowing crew gets through to their target; the Dead Hand mechanism works as designed and initiates a worldwide nuclear holocaust. In the film, the Soviet Ambassador says, "If you take, say, fifty H-bombs in the hundred megaton range and jacket them with Cobalt-Thorium G, when they are exploded they will produce a doomsday shroud. A lethal cloud of radioactivity which will encircle the earth for ninety-three years!"[27]
- In the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964), the title character informs Bond he intends to set off a "particularly dirty" atomic device using "cobalt and iodine"[28] in the U.S. Bullion Repository at Fort Knox as part of Operation Grand Slam, a scheme intended to contaminate the gold at Fort Knox to increase value of the gold he has been stockpiling.
- In Roger Zelazny's 1965 Hugo Award-winning novel This Immortal, Earth has suffered a nuclear war many decades ago and some areas still suffer high radiation levels from cobalt bombs, leading to drastic mutations and ecological changes.
- In the fourth act of the classic Star Trek episode "Obsession" (1967), Ensign Garrovick states that 10,000 cobalt bombs would be less powerful than one ounce of antimatter.
- In Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) the main character, upon seeing an underground mutant community worship a doomsday bomb, comments "They finally built one with a cobalt casing" in reference to a cobalt bomb that could wipe out the world. After astronauts Brent and Taylor are shot by an invading army of apes, Taylor's dying act is to detonate the doomsday bomb, obliterating all life on fortieth-century Earth.
- In a two-part episode of the TV show The Bionic Woman, "Doomsday Is Tomorrow", a cobalt bomb, dubbed by its creator as "the most diabolical instrument of destruction ever conceived by man" is used as a trigger for a more powerful weapon that can render the world lifeless.
- In Tom Clancy's novel The Sum of All Fears (1991) it is noted that Israeli Air Force tactical nuclear bombs can optionally be fitted with cobalt jackets "to poison a landscape to all kinds of life for years to come".[29]
- In the Ishtar, she builds another cobalt bomb in the city of Kish to threaten the Seventh Doctor, Gilgamesh, and the city's king with the destruction of the Earth if they should interfere with her plans for world domination. This second bomb is later used as a nuclear power source for a spacecraft, allowing the surviving refugees of Anu to travel to a new homeworld.[30]
- In the television show Washington D.C.is discovered during diplomatic summits. The bomb and its maker are tracked by Special Agent Hannah Wells, but it ends up detonating and killing six federal agents, including FBI Director John Foerstel. It is later uncovered as planted by a conspiracy led by the ambassador of the fictional nation of Kunami in an attempted domestic power-play.
- In the video game Detroit: Become Human (2018), the player has the option of detonating an improvised cobalt bomb during certain endings of the game. The detonation of the bomb results in humans evacuating the now-irradiated city of Detroit and the area 50 miles around, though promising to retake it from the androids in the future. Depending on the player's actions, the city is left empty or the androids claim it for their own.
- In the video game Metro Exodus (2019), the player visits the Russian city of Novosibirsk which was hit with at least one cobalt warhead during a worldwide nuclear war in the year 2013, resulting in catastrophic levels of radiation, and easily the most irradiated area visited in the three Metro games. While the city is left largely standing even twenty years after the cobalt warhead's detonation, the radiation in the city is so lethal that even with lead-lined full enclosure suits, the player can only spend a few minutes on the surface before receiving lethal amounts of radiation poisoning. During their visit, the player discovers that the survivors of the attack survived underground for twenty-two years, but only due to constant injections of anti-radiation medicine.
- In Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, a lead-lined briefcase is filled with activated cobalt wrapped around a conventional explosive bomb with the intention of detonating it under a weather alteration gun to render it unusable for a hundred years.
See also
- Neutron bomb
- Nuclear terrorism
- Weapons of mass destruction
- ICBM
References
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- ISBN 978-81-7648-312-4.
- ^ Sublette, Carey (July 2007). "Types of nuclear weapons". FAQ. The Nuclear Weapon Archive. Retrieved 2010-02-13.
- ^ a b "1.6 Cobalt Bombs and other Salted Bombs". Retrieved February 10, 2011.
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- ^ "U.S. calls for new nuclear weapons as Russia develops nuclear-armed torpedo". USA TODAY. 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
- ^ Trevithick, Joseph (2018-07-19). "Russia Releases Videos Offering An Unprecedented Look At Its Six New Super Weapons". The Drive. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
- ^ Peck, Michael (2015-12-08). "Russia's New Super-Torpedo Carries the Threat of Nuclear Contamination". The National Interest.
- ^ "'Secret' Russian nuclear torpedo blueprint leaked". Fox News. November 12, 2015.
- ^ a b "Russia reveals giant nuclear torpedo in state TV 'leak'". BBC News. November 12, 2015. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
- ^ a b "Buried In Trump's Nuclear Report: A Russian Doomsday Weapon". NPR.org. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
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- ^ "Section 1.0 Types of Nuclear Weapons". nuclearweaponarchive.org.
- ^ Glasstone, Samuel; Dolan, Philip J., eds. (1977). "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" (PDF) (3rd ed.). Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Defense and Department of Energy. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
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(help) - ^ Martinus, Brian (December 1982). "The global health effects of nuclear war". Current Affairs Bulletin. 59 (7): 14–26.
- ^ "Lethal dose (LD)". www.nrc.gov. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
- ISBN 978-0-7020-3048-2. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ISBN 978-92-1-142274-0. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Born of Nuclear Blast: Russia's Lakes of Mystery. YouTube. November 28, 2010.
- ^ Joint FAO/IAEA Programme. "Joint Division Questions & Answers - Nuclear Emergency Response for Food and Agriculture, NAFA". iaea.org.
- ^ International Atomic Energy Agency International Atomic Enmergy Agency, 2000 - Technology & Engineering - restoration of environments with radioactive residues : papers and discussions, 697 pages
- ^ "Scavenging cobalt from radwaste". neimagazine.com.
- ^ "Sequestration Coating Performance Requirements for Mitigation of Contamination from a Radiological Dispersion Device- 9067" (PDF). Wmsym.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
- ^ Drake, John. "Sequestration Coating Performance Requirements for Mitigation of Contamination from a Radiological Dispersion Device" (PDF). Cfpub.epa.gov. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
- ^ Smith, P. D. (25 September 2008). "Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon". Penguin UK.
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- ^ "No Mr Bond, I don't know about anything radioactivity". Science by degrees. 2018-02-21. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ "Excerpt from The Sum of All Fears". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ Peel, John (1991). "Timewyrm: Genesis". The Internet Archive. Retrieved 2022-12-01.