"sodium bomb" over the taiga. P. D. Smith. Cobalt Bomb (Dirty Bomb)

Cobalt bomb is a theoretical modification of a weapon of mass destruction, which leads to high degrees of radioactive contamination and contamination of the area with a relatively small explosion force. Cobalt bomb refers to which in the role damaging factor At the same time, due to the relative weakness of the explosion, almost all infrastructure, buildings, structures and buildings remain undamaged.

A cobalt bomb is a nuclear weapon whose shell is made not of uranium-238, but of cobalt-59. During detonation, the shell is irradiated with a powerful neutron flux, which leads to the transmutation of cobalt-59 into the cobalt-60 isotope. It is a little over 5 years. As a result of the beta decay of this nuclide, nickel-60 is formed in the active state, which after some time passes into the ground state.

The activity of one gram of cobalt-60 is estimated to be 1130 Ci. To completely contaminate the entire surface of the planet with radiation at the level of grams/square kilometer of cobalt-60, about 510 tons are needed. In general, the explosion of such a bomb could contaminate the area for almost 50 years. Such long periods leave little chance for the population to survive the infection even in bunkers.

It is believed that the cobalt bomb was never created, so it is not in service with any country. Not a large number of This element was used in one of the British tests for radiochemical tracers.

There are no big obstacles to creating such ammunition, but the high degree of contamination of the area and its duration do not allow it to be safely tested. Such ammunition has never been manufactured or tested due to the enormous danger it poses to the attackers themselves.

The most terrible way to use a cobalt bomb is to explode it on high altitude, somewhat away from enemy territory, depending on weather conditions. In this case, the goal is for radioactive fallout to pass over enemy territory, which theoretically could destroy all life on it.

The very idea of ​​this bomb was invented by physicist Leo Szilard, who suggested that an arsenal of cobalt bombs could destroy the entire population of the planet. Cobalt was chosen due to the fact that when activated by neutrons it gives a very strong and long-lasting radioactive contamination. It is possible to use other elements that form isotopes with even longer half-lives when creating such ammunition, but their activity is clearly insufficient. There are also short-lived isotopes compared to cobalt-60, such as sodium-24, zinc-65 and gold-198, but due to their fairly rapid decay, part of the population can survive the contamination of the area in bunkers.

Academician Sakharov, who created the first one, also took part in the theoretical development of the thorium-cobalt bomb and called it “a stinking toadstool.” Even the creation of a hydrogen bomb and its testing did not evoke such “flattering” epithets from the scientist. A cobalt bomb can be considered both a neutron and a radiological bomb, a so-called “dirty” weapon.

My new website, which contains all the information on the risks of human extinction:
http://www.humanextinction.ru/

P. D. Smith, in his book Doomsday Men, describes the story of how the cobalt bomb was first proposed. It happened on a radio show where they were arguing live leading physicists about the possibilities of creating a cobalt bomb in 1950:

“When Bethe finished speaking, Szilard’s eyes suddenly flashed brightly. He had been waiting for this moment. He began by disagreeing with Bethe's views on the dangers of radioactivity. “It would take a very large number of bombs for life to be at risk from hydrogen bombs,” Szilard said. “But,” he continued, “it is very easy to boost a hydrogen bomb so that it produces a very dangerous amount of radioactivity.” He then gave his audience, both around the studio table and across America, a lesson on how to build a bomb. doomsday.

He began by explaining how an atomic explosion creates dangerous radioactive elements. “Most naturally occurring elements become radioactive when they absorb neutrons,” he said. All you have to do is pick the right element and arrange it so that that element captures all the neutrons. In this case you have a very dangerous situation. I did the calculations for this case. Suppose we create a radioactive element that will live for five years, and which we simply allow to be released into the air. During next years it will gradually settle and cover the entire Earth with dust. I asked myself: How many neutrons or how much heavy hydrogen do we have to explode to kill everyone on Earth in this way?”

Szilard stopped and looked around the table as if he was expecting an answer. “I came to the conclusion that 50 tons of neutrons would be enough to kill everyone, which means about 500 tons of deuterium. Harrison Brown looked closely at Szilard, trying to understand the meaning of what he was saying... “What you mean,” said Brown, “is that if you explode 500 tons of heavy hydrogen, and then allow those neutrons to be absorbed by another element to create a radioactive substance , then all the people on Earth will be killed?
Szilard replied: “If it is a long-lived element that gradually, over several years, settles to form a layer of dust on the surface of the Earth, then every single person will be killed.”

Brown's specialty was geological chemistry, particularly extraterrestrial formations. Time magazine, shortly before this moment, depicted him holding a meteorite in his hands. And now he chose a geological analogy that was familiar to him: “So then you can imagine something like the Krakatoa explosion, where you create one big explosion or a series of small explosions. "Dust rises high into the air, as was the case with this particular explosion, circulates around the Earth for many, many months and even years, and then gradually falls to the surface of the Earth?"
Szilard leaned back in his chair and spread his arms expressively: “I agree with you.” The volcano analogy was good. Szilard liked her. He made his point clear. The doomsday weapon was born.

Hans Bethe listened to Szilard with growing irritation. Although his face still bore the soft smile that habitually resided on his lips, his brows furrowed. It wasn't that he scientifically disagreed with what Szilard was saying, but rather that he was irritated by Szilard's typically flights of fancy. There was no need to escalate the current situation. The hydrogen bomb had to be bad enough as it is - why scare people about what might come after it.

“You may ask,” Szilard said, anticipating his critics, “who would want to kill everyone on earth?” Any country that wants to be invincible in war, was his dramatic answer. This would be the advantage that would accrue to any country that possessed the doomsday weapon, the hydrogen bomb, enhanced in this way, as he described, with zinc, or, as he later proposed, with cobalt.

“Let us suppose,” he explained, “that we are in a war and on the verge of winning a war with Russia, after a struggle that has lasted, say, ten years. The Russians may say: “You won’t go further than this border. You will not invade Europe, and you will not drop conventional atomic bombs on us, or we will detonate our hydrogen bombs and kill everyone." Faced with such a threat, I don't think we can continue. I think Russia will be invincible."

Harrison Brown was clearly suffering from the consequences of what Szilard had just said. “Will any nation,” he asked, “decide to destroy everyone instead of being defeated?” Szilard honestly admitted that he does not know the answer to this question. But he added this chilling conclusion: “I think we can threaten to do it, and the Russians can threaten to do it. And who then will take the risk of not taking this threat seriously?”

In a public lecture the following month, Brown told the audience that he was now convinced that there were people who would be willing to destroy all life on Earth if they were not given way. “Can we doubt,” he asked, “that Hitler, in despair of defeat, would destroy the whole world if he had the power to do so?”
That February evening the discussion round table moved on to discuss the possibility of huge hydrogen bombs being delivered by ship. If it gets blown up in Pacific Ocean, radioactivity from such monstrous devices will float over America thanks to the prevailing westerly winds, poisoning the land and people. This was a new and frightening threat to America. The fear of bomb ships will dominate the headlines for the rest of the decade, as America and Russia race to outdo each other in building ever-larger hydrogen bombs. But, as Szilard pointed out, such radioactivity cannot be controlled. The terrible irony, Harrison Brown added, is that “it is easier to kill all the people on Earth than just some of them.” “That’s true,” Szilard agreed. ...

In the fall of 1950, Szilard's fears of a cobalt bomb received independent scientific support. Dr. James Arnold from the Institute for Nuclear Research in Chicago decided to investigate whether such a weapon was technically possible. According to Newsweek, “the brilliant young (27-year-old) physicist began by, slide rule in hand, demolishing Szilard's arguments. But he ended with agreement on many aspects.”
Arnold's calculations showed that the doomsday machine described by Leo Szilard should be a gigantic device "perhaps two and a half times heavier than the battleship Missouri (70,000 tons displacement - A.T.)" The deuterium that should fill this bomb should cost that much the same as the entire Manhattan project, 2 billion dollars.

Additionally, at least 10,000 tons of cobalt would be needed to create the deadly radioactive isotope, cobalt-60, when the bomb detonated. Most of Szilard's assumptions about the cobalt bomb were confirmed by the Chicago scientist. In reality, the only uncertainty was whether the radioactive dust from such a doomsday bomb would be evenly distributed throughout the world.
Although Arnold concluded that the human race is not in danger now, since creating such a device would require a "full-scale effort big country for many years," he was convinced that "the vast majority of people could be killed in this way." The only ray of hope that Newsweek could find was that "those who wish to use this weapon to kill must accept suicide as a condition of the deal."

As the birthplace of the atomic age and the cobalt bomb, the University of Chicago was home to the most important journal on atomic issues, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It was this Bulletin that commissioned James Arnold to investigate Leo Szilard's doomsday machine predictions.

Translation: A.V. Turchin

It is 100% composed of . During an explosion, this shell is irradiated with a strong neutron flux. Neutron capture converts a stable cobalt-59 nucleus into a radioactive isotope. The half-life of cobalt-60 is 5.2 years, as a result of this nuclide is formed in an excited state, which then passes into the ground state, emitting one or more gamma rays.

Story

The idea of ​​a cobalt bomb was described in February 1950 by a physicist who suggested that an arsenal of cobalt bombs would be capable of destroying all humanity on the planet (the so-called , Doomsday device, DDD). Cobalt was chosen as an element that results in highly active and relatively long-lasting radioactive contamination. When using other elements, you can get contamination with isotopes with a long half-life, but their activity will be insufficient. There are also shorter-lived isotopes than cobalt-60, for example, but due to their rapid decay, part of the population may survive in bunkers.

Szilard's "Doomsday Machine" - a thermonuclear explosive device capable of generating enough cobalt-60 to destroy all humanity - does not involve any delivery means. A state (or terrorist organization) can use it as a tool of blackmail, threatening to detonate the Doomsday Machine on its territory and thereby destroy both its population and the rest of humanity. After the explosion, radioactive cobalt-60 will be carried throughout the planet by atmospheric currents over several months.

In the early 2000s, information appeared in the Russian press with reference to interviews with foreign journalists about what the academician’s group allegedly proposed to do with cobalt plating containing a large amount of deuterium next to a nuclear bomb. If detonated off the east coast of America, radioactive fallout would fall on US territory.

Cobalt bombs in culture

• In the novel “” (1969), cobalt bombs are called the cause of cataclysms on the planet.
• The second film about the planet of the apes - "" (1970) - talks about the worship of a cobalt bomb by the descendants of people - psionic illusionists.
• In the novel "" (1998) it is mentioned - shuttles loaded with cobalt and hydrogen bombs on.
• The massive use of cobalt bombs is described in the novel “The Huge Black Ship” (2004).
• The science fiction story "Black Blood of Transylvania" (2007) describes the bombing of Transylvania by NATO forces using cobalt bombs.
• The cobalt bomb became the engine of the plot of the 16th and 17th episodes of the third season of the TV series "" (2011).
• In the television series "" (2015), the FBI suspected aliens of manipulating children to create a cobalt bomb to begin their invasion.
• Cobalt bombs were mentioned in the novel Hiero's Journey.
• In the 1954 story "Exhibit Piece" by Philip K. Dick, a cobalt bomb was mentioned at the very end, for a more open ending.
• In the game "" in one of the endings in Detroit, a cobalt truck is blown up.
• It is mentioned several times in the science fiction series "Star Trek" as a weapon of great destructive power.
• In the game "First Strike: Final Hour", among the available weapons there is a cobalt bomb.
• In the game "Metro Exodus", one of the characters suggests that Novosibirsk was hit by a cobalt bomb.

Notes

1. The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (unavailable link), Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan (editors), United States Department of Defense and Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.
2. 1.6 Cobalt Bombs and other Salted Bombs (undefined) . nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved February 10, 2011. Archived July 28, 2012.
3. Ramzaev V. et al. Radiological investigations at the “Taiga” nuclear explosion site: Site description and in situ measurements (English) // Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. - 2011. - Vol. 102. - Iss. 7. - P. 672-680. - :

Having survived the Second World War, humanity almost immediately found itself in a new protracted conflict between the USSR and the United States. This incident went down in history as the Cold War. The confrontation between the two powers lasted for more than 40 years, which gave rise to many “horror stories.” The American population was frightened by nuclear submarines, and Soviet citizens by cruise missiles.

But the most important horror in times Cold War was a cobalt bomb, it was also called “dirty” - the latest radiological weapon, capable of turning into dust all life on the planet for a long time, after which Earth will become a radioactive desert.

Reality or Myth

The idea of ​​destroying the enemy with radioactive radiation originated a long time ago. It should be noted that the idea of ​​​​creating a cobalt arsenal came not to scientists and military personnel, but to the famous American science fiction author Robert Heinlein.

In 1940, not yet very famous writer a story was written, it told a story about the powers included in anti-Hitler coalition who bombed Germany with radiological weapons.

This unexpected blow forced the Germans to capitulate.

Interesting fact, in the story, the creation of a nuclear warhead failed, causing the Allies to use a dirty bomb. At that time, military officers and scientists were confident that it was impossible to create such weapons.

The idea of ​​a cobalt bomb was described by physicist Leo Szilard in the 1950s. He suggested that the use of such a projectile would lead to the death of all life on planet Earth. It should be noted that the existence of a cobalt bomb has not yet been officially confirmed by anyone.

Writers and screenwriters widely use this ammunition in their creations. They show the consequences awaiting humanity after the use of such weapons. Maybe for this reason, the idea of ​​​​creating a cobalt bomb remains only an idea on paper.

Design and Application

A nuclear explosion produces a certain number of different radioactive isotopes. Many of them have a short half-life, so the radiation can drop significantly in a matter of hours after the explosion.

This period can be waited out in a special bunker, and after a few years the affected areas can again be used for economic activity.

This can be seen in the example of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, raised from ruins 4 years after the atomic bombing.

A cobalt bomb, in theory, is a type of nuclear weapon; from its use, territories are contaminated with radioactive elements (even after a weak explosion). It is a means of mass destruction, not instantaneous. A bomb or other ammunition is a thermonuclear charge, the last shell of which contains not uranium-238, but cobalt. The design was proposed by the American scientist Szilard.

Cobalt is a naturally occurring mineral, a monoisotopic element consisting of 100% cobalt-59. From the explosion, the shell is irradiated with a strong neutron flux, from which the cobalt-59 core becomes a radioactive isotope of cobalt-60, its half-life lasts more than five years.

Pundits have even calculated how much cobalt is needed to completely destroy our planet. It turned out that 510 tons of cobalt-60 isotope would be enough, and no bunker could save us from this.

The design of the first “dirty” bomb was similar to those described by science fiction author Heinlein: ordinary containers stuffed with radiological material (previously obtained as a result of synthesis) and an explosive charge.

At a certain height, the shell exploded, spreading isotopes. Szilard proposed his design a little later.

A term was coined for radiological weapons: a doomsday machine. They do not need to bomb an enemy state; it will be enough to blow it up on their own, and the radioactive contamination will spread across the earth in a few months by atmospheric currents. True, the people of the country that detonated the bomb will die first.

Presumably, no country yet has such ammunition in service, but some claim that Russian scientists are developing a cobalt bomb. It is not possible to establish what really is; all statements are based on rumors that are refuted by the Kremlin.

It becomes very scary to think that humanity so little values ​​​​its existence on planet Earth. In the race for superiority in weapons, people forget that no one can survive after using such weapons.

Video