Do you think RED MERCURY exists?

BOMBS-RED MERCURY

CAPE TOWN Jan 21 Sapa

Leading South African scientists and explosive experts believe
that the mystery substance Red Mercury, subject of an
international debate regarding alleged arms smuggling, may well
be used in the manufacture of nucleur bombs.

But they say it is not the only chemical available for this
purpose and is unlikely to be of special help in making small
sized weapons.

The head of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Cape Town
Prof Graham Jackson said the topic had been discussed widely
among local scientists in the past year, but that none had been
able to attach special inportance to the substance over others
available.

"Many different compounds of mercury are used in explosives and
particulary detonators because they are unstable and respond to
impact giving off a lot of oxygen to fuel and explosion," he
said.

Leading physicist Dave Aschman said it seemed that all South
African explosive experts and nuclear specialists agreed that the
sale of Red Mercury, by its formula a normal detonator explosive
and not necessarily the best, was part of an international scam.

"None of the people involved in physics research can see how it
could participate in a nuclear reaction. The normal chemical
reaction forcing nuclear material together to form a critical
mass is the only way it can work," he said.

He said South African scientists' impressions were similar to
those of scientists overseas and the South Africans had special
knowledge in this area of explosives used in the extensive local
mining industry apart from arms manufacture.

The scientists agreed that "layman's pseudo-science" was being
used to sensationalise alleged special properties for the
substance.

Mercury and antimony oxides in Red Mercury were highly unstable
as even school science pupils knew and there was nothing new
about the reaction of mercuric oxide to heat or impact.

They claimed a crude marketing effort for an "ordinary substance"
seemed to have created a possible arms trade which might have led
to loss of lives.

Thanks for the update, Artificium. The problem is that everyone denies red mercury. The Russians deny it exists, yet their black market was the source after the Soviet Union fell. Number Two on the list were the South Africans which apparently did a lot of work on it in pre-Mandella times. The South Africans don't want to be linked to any nuclear weapons then or now so their denial is a little suspect in my mind. If any government were to acknowldege red mercury as real, they would almost have to also acknowledge work on mini-nukes, nukes made with less than critical mass or even fusion weapons. Nobody wants to admitt this sort of thing.

I don't know about Red Mercury but I was in the military before the Iraq action started and I saw information that still baffles me as to why it hasn't been released to the press yet. We are there for good reasons from what I've read on the grapevine. Every now and then i do a little checking to see if anything new has come up. Remember the Cole incident? I was telling people something really bad went down before the word got out.I hate knowing things but not able to say anything about them. At least the pay is well.

-Aza

Sensationalized conclusion by the jpurnalist, contradicts with:




In short: it may be used as an explosive in a nuke, just as any explosive, but wouldn't be remotely near the best choice. Other than that it has no special properties and does not participate in a nuclear reaction. I do believe red mercury could exist as an old Soviet code name for something else, lithium-6 has been named for that.

nti.org...

Very informative link, thanks.

I like this!

Factual debate and not paranoid cr@p like I read in the other forums.

As in "scam Saddam with fake WMD stuff."

Buying some secret "red mercury" which turns out to not make nuclear weapons is
just the type of thing that a megalomaniac dictator would do.

His scientists say "no, that's a load of BS", but he doesn't believe them, because
he suspects they are peacenik wussies.

Then, some loyalist toadies in the engineering establishment say, "Sure thing boss! We'll
get right on it---we need a few million dollars for equipment and tests and we'll
get your red mercury bomb right away."

This apparently happened frequently in the USSR.

It also happens in the USA---by defense contractors and greedy Congressmen and sleazy lobbyists.

One important role of the JASONs, is in fact to tell the DOD when it has its head up its ass scientifically, when there are institutional (Military career + private sector financial interests) in continuing some projects which are bogus or stupid.