Does china possess Salted nukes?

Have they developed a salted nuclear weapon?


For those who don`t know what a salted bomb is :

Salted Nuclear Weapons

Salted nuclear weapons, or cobalt bombs, are thermonuclear weapons which are designed to produce a large amount of long lasting radioactive fallout. This would result in large scale radioactive contamination of the area they are dropped in. The fallout from salted weapons is much more intense and lasts much longer than from unsalted weapons. The long term effects of such weapons would therefore be much worse. These weapons are called `Doomsday Devices' since they could possibly kill everyone on earth. Fortunately, though these weapons have been conceived of and discussed, none have been built or tested (as far as we know).

www.survive-nbc.org...

i dont think so.

but china has neutron bombs.

Its really not a technical issue and any country with a nuclear warhead can easily apply a cobal jacket to the bomb to have a scorched earth capacity. I thought it simply poisioned the surrounding ground with the material and was unaware that it had an enhanced or boosted radiation effect immediatly after.

salted bombs *can* come if 3 flavours :

short term effects (but longer than normal bombs) would have a gold layer - this is also used to enhance the radiation(neutron and xray) as used in the W71 warhead used in the USA Spartan ABM.


middle term effects , and the prefference for replacing cobalt in the layer would be zinc - the half life is measured in 100`s of days , rather than 5 years for cobalt BUT the radiation intensity is greater than CO-60.

and of course long term effects : Cobalt. Cobalt lasts for years in radioactive form , is very persistant , and resistant to removal , as well as being a strong emmitter.

nuclearweaponarchive.org...

more info there.

a `neutron` bomb is a misnomer - all it does is add an outer layer which does not inhibit as much the escaping radiation (in fact it enhacnes it)- the material used (as an example gold) also defines the characteristics of the escaping radiation.

Originally posted by chinawhite
i dont think so.

but china has neutron bombs.

Actually a neutron bomb is much more controllable then other nukes.

The brightside, more control. Radiation arund that area last maybe a week or so.

The Bad side, gives people the thinking of. "Hmmm....it will go away in a few days, not much harm to ourselves, so lets use it."

how is a neutron bomb `more controllable`?? its a nuke after all - and they go BANG

I think he means contrallable as in, the side effects and radiation are more 'controlled' then a regular bomb

The idea is to attack an area with salted nukes then a week/month or so the radiation levels drop away the ground troops can move in and take over. The intence radiation killing all life in an area, then it fades to allow the conquerors to move in.

Originally posted by rustiswordz
The idea is to attack an area with salted nukes then a week/month or so the radiation levels drop away the ground troops can move in and take over. The intence radiation killing all life in an area, then it fades to allow the conquerors to move in.

And because of this, it may send a wrong idea to the public, thats its "safe" to use.

Goverment bodies may think the same too. All it need now is someone to use one, and we will soon see B-52s or long range missiles carrying payloads of them.

the effects of `salted` nukes last much longer than days/weeks - CO-60 is something like 5 years for beta decay and ZN-65 is something like 8 months; AU-198 is amoungst the shortest at 3 days.

And thats the thing about `salted` weapons - the effects last MUCH longer than `normal` nuclear weapons.

I guess if they had salted bombs they wouldn't have to pepper us .
Seriously though, Why would anyone in their right mind want to increase fallout since we all breathe the same air, drink the same water, live on the same planet... maybe thats it?

China wouldn't be the ones to use it though, they'd probably sell it to someone who is willing to suffer the MAD consequences of such a strike. Al Quaeda would use it if they got their hands on it, and if they could get it here.
I'd think this world was hell bent for destruction anyway since any new technology is developed for weapons first.

Originally posted by keybored
I guess if they had salted bombs they wouldn't have to pepper us .
Seriously though, Why would anyone in their right mind want to increase fallout since we all breathe the same air, drink the same water, live on the same planet... maybe thats it?

.......

I guess that the people who thought of this, well, guess its the only way to increase the effectivness of a nuclear strike.

You can increase the megaton warhead of a nuke. But the dust and stuff after the blow up is kinda insane. Not forgetting the destruction to the terrian.

So they did the next best thing. Increase the fallout, so that place can't be used again for a long time.

Salted nukes shouldn;t be our problem actually. Unless the terrorist get one of those. Our main problem we could be facing is AU-198 type of nukes. Have the power, and last a few days. Sound to me, a perfect weapon to use.

Rumour has it that the Israeli's may have developed removable cobalt collars for certain nuclear weapons. I believe Strontium may also be used.

We also have low yield nukes, bunker busters that couldn't get deep enough with conventional weapons.
Like I said, weapons first creativity isn't going to bring us together.

typo edit

[edit on 28-7-2005 by keybored]

Humster

fallout IS `the dust and stuff`

Originally posted by Harlequin
Humster

fallout IS `the dust and stuff`

Sorry pls replace it with radiation (-___-;;

Or some other stuff....

What I'm trying to say (I'm having trouble trying to pharse), is, a megaton nuke, will probably cause too much dmg. Too much dmg = bad publicity. So try the next best thing. Make the place too dangerous to live in for years.

Originally posted by Humster

Originally posted by Harlequin
Humster

fallout IS `the dust and stuff`

Sorry pls replace it with radiation (-___-;;

Or some other stuff....

What I'm trying to say (I'm having trouble trying to pharse), is, a megaton nuke, will probably cause too much dmg. Too much dmg = bad publicity. So try the next best thing. Make the place too dangerous to live in for years.

So poisoning vast sections of land and killing everyone in it is not bad publicity?