Cobalt

[Dark Mind]

I'm posting this in this Forum because I'd like to know the technology aspect behind the fabled COBALT missles (ICBM's at that ;)-- Which are Inter Continental Ballistic Missles). If the thread starts to stray more into the physics invloved in them this thread may need to be moved... But for now I'd really like if someone could explain what was used to make them... not how they are used and what they'll do ;).

 

...These things are capable of eliminating 25% of all life on Earth, a piece... right? And the U.S. has four, right? :shrug:

[alexander]

hmm, cobalt missiles eh?

 

well if you are wondering about the use of cobalt in a nuclear weapon, then you are better off going somewhere like chemistry or physics, all i can tell you is that if you surround a nuclear weapon with a material like gold or cobalt, you can increase the amount of radioactive contamination by quite a lot, that would have to deal with some element properties and their effect on the production of radioactive isotopes as a result of nuclear fission...

[Dark Mind]

Hmmm... Is that all? Poo, I thought there would be a lot more hi-tech stuff involved ;)...

 

I tried to name the thread COBALT, but it automatically set it to lowercase. I believe that the missiles are called the COBALTS...:shrug:

[alexander]

google reveals nothing good, but here is a cool story:

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/2003w36/msg00135.htm

[Dark Mind]

Yeah, I tried googling about 100 different things that I thought might reveal some decent results... Nothing... ;)

 

So here I am asking you :shrug:.

 

Now to read "cool story" ;).

[Dark Mind]

"Yikes!"

 

...:shrug:

[C1ay]

I suspect the US has none of these. Cobalt laced bombs are basically dirty bombs that cause a poisonous fallout that would render an area completely unlivable. Leo Szilard was the first to propose such a bomb. Try this search for more info, "Leo Szilard" cobalt.

[Dark Mind]

Interesting results (Still liked the story above better, though ;))...

 

He didn't intend it for destuctive purposes... proposed in 1950...

 

Not anything close to what I recently heard ;). I wish I could remember where I heard it though ;). It could've been my grandfather... but it could have just as easily been the Discovery Channel :shrug:... I don't know any more...

[CraigD]

As Alexander noted, “cobalt bombs” are just nuclear bombs (usually hydrogen fusion) encased in cobalt (isotope 59) to increase the amount of fallout they produce. See http:// http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/Chemistry/NuclearChemistry/NuclearWeapons/FirstChainReaction/TypesofNuclear/CobaltBombs.htm. Bombs of this sort are called “salted”.

 

Cobalt 59’s half-life is 5.25 years, so this fallout would be around for generations.

 

In the 1950s, Sizlard talked about cobalt bombs not out of any scientific interest, but to warn the public of the threat of “doomsday bombs” that could poison what they didn’t directly destroy, potentially killing all human life, not in a few intense minutes, but over many sickening years.

 

England built and tested a cobalt bomb in 1957. Officially, that was the end of serious consideration of salted weapons.

 

In 1959, the movie “On the Beach” was released. It depicted the survivors of a nuclear world war awaiting their inevitable ends in Australia, the only continent on which any human life still existed. Although the movie was purposefully vague about the details of the weapons involved, in the novel on which the movie was based, author Nevil Shute stated that the near 100% fatality was due to the widespread use of cobalt bombs. The movie was widely viewed, leading to the popular belief that cobal bombs were widely deployed.

 

Of course, government denials of this were not believed by many. In the cold war days in which it was considered important to maintain the idea of “mutually assured destruction”, governments may have actually encouraged such beliefs.

 

Over the years, popular awareness of cobalt bombs eventually decreased, replaced by obviously incredible notions such as the “doomsday bomb” in the 1970 movie “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”, which causes a chain reaction igniting the Earth’s atmosphere. This idea appears to have its origins in darkly joking wagers concerning a speculation by Edward Teller that the first test of a nuclear bomb might produce enough heat to ignite the atmosphere, resulting in that test being the human last action ever. Before the 7/16/1945 test of the first nuclear bomb, all the scientists involved were fairly convinced by theoretical arguments that this was impossible, but still seemed to discuss the idea in a joking manner that some non-scientists involved took seriously. A good discussion of this can be found at the Wikipedia article "Manhattan Project".

[Qfwfq]

For an excellent spoof of Mutually Assured Destruction, see Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"

 

Absolutely hilarious, with Peter Sellers playing three different characters.

[alexander]

heh, i knew that if google does not have it, it must be either a really big secret, or its not what it is presumed to be :shrug:

[Dark Mind]

I, for one, now presume it's not what I presumed it to be :shrug:.