Checked out the 'newscientist' link. Two points come to mind. First
the target has to be 'pumped up' to the higher energy state.
Sincenothing's free, you have to use more energy in the process than
you're going to recover. Gigawatt hours, most likely. Second, the
comment about spontaneous decay bothers me. Sounds like research on a
full-size weapon ought to be done someplace very remote, like
Kerguelen Island. Or the Moon's Farside. Also, what effect would a
cosmic ray have, impacting a charged nucleus? Remeber, you can't
screen against them . .
Walt BJ