"Jim Yanik" wrote:
| "Dan Welch" wrote in
news:3fd7c4ad$1_2@mk-nntp-
| 1.news.uk.worldonline.com:
|
| thanks Keith. I take it Co-60 is particularly nasty. I didn't know
if the
| whole idea of Cobalt bombs was enhanced blast, radiation, etc.
| Were Co-60 weapons developed / deployed?
|
| Cheers
| dan
|
| "Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
| ...
|
| "Dan Welch" wrote in message
| ...
| Hello,
| from reading in the threads relating to nuclear war in the '80s,
they
| mention "cobalt weapons". Can anyone explain what these are? I
very
| vaguely
| remember a mention to them a book once but have no real idea.
| cheers
| dan
|
|
|
| The theory is that if you put a cobalt sheath around a nuclear
| weapon you get lots of rather nasy cobalt 60 in the
| fallout zone. The doomsday merchants would have you believe this
| could wipe out all life on earth. The reality is nasty to be sure
| but not quite that bad.
|
| Keith
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Cobalt bombs were to be extremely DIRTY enhanced-fallout
bombs,Cobalt-60
| being a hi-level radioactivity isotope. I don't know what the
half-life is
| for it,though. Reasonably long,I suppose.
|
| It's used for food irradiation sources in the US.

And the original "cobalt bomb" was a cancer radiotherapy device.

http://www.usask.ca/research/news/994316710.shtml