Russia has revealed a new superweapon. What is a cobalt bomb

It has now been established that the explosion Tunguska meteorite™ occurred due to his internal energy that its flight speed and density were relatively low. Observers from various places they saw it in different guises, most likely because it changed as a result of the violent interaction of the meteorite substance with the air. What kind of substance could it be, of which there was no trace left in the area of ​​the disaster? The easiest way to assume that dark matter was a huge lump of hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, in one of its stable solid forms. The chemical energy released during the combustion and explosion of such a block could well have been enough for the destruction that took place, and the cosmic origin of the distilled water formed during the catastrophe could hardly have been determined even in 1908. The advantage of the hydrogen hypothesis over the cometary hypothesis, according to which the icy nucleus of a comet collided with the Earth, is that such a nucleus does not have the required reserve of internal energy. And its disadvantage is that nothing is known about the existence of solid homogeneous blocks in space, while much is known about the nuclei of comets. In particular, the fact that their composition, in addition to water, ammonia and methane ice, includes in the form of minor impurities such fusible and volatile elements as alkali metals, zinc, lead, mercury, bromine, antimony, tin. Namely, the anomalously high content of these elements was revealed when studying samples of catastrophic peat layers taken at the epicenter of the explosion using fine elemental analysis methods. According to some data, the main chemical elements of the mineral part of the Tunguska cosmic body are sodium (up to 50%), zinc (20%), calcium (more than 10%), iron (7.5%) and potassium (5%). That is, 65% of the mineral part of heavy metals consists of alkali and alkaline earth metals. If these elements were present in the HM body only as impurities, then they would not be able to create any noticeable anomaly in the soil. But the anomaly has been identified quite reliably, it objectively exists! So why not assume that sodium, calcium and potassium were not mere impurities, but the main substance of HM? Since they react violently with oxygen and water, releasing huge amounts of thermal and, most importantly, light energy, perhaps this simple assumption contains the solution to a long-standing mystery?!
Alkali metals are characterized by low density, low hardness, low temperatures melting and boiling have the same type crystal lattices and silvery white color. Extremely high chemical activity excludes the possibility of their presence in terrestrial conditions in free state. However, in conditions outer space in the absence of reagents such as oxygen, hydrogen, water, they can exist indefinitely. This is proven by the nature of Io, one of the satellites of Jupiter, which contains a significant amount of sodium.

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And cobalt. Natural cobalt is a monoisotopic element, it consists of 100% cobalt-59. During an explosion, this shell is irradiated with a strong neutron flux. As a result of neutron capture, the stable cobalt-59 nucleus is converted into the radioactive isotope cobalt-60. The half-life of cobalt-60 is 5.2 years; as a result of the beta decay of this nuclide, nickel-60 is formed in an excited state, which then passes into the ground state, emitting one or more gamma quanta.

Story

The idea of ​​a cobalt bomb was described in February 1950 by physicist Leo Szilard, who suggested that an arsenal of cobalt bombs would be capable of destroying all humanity on the planet (the so-called Doomsday Machine, English Doomsday Machine). Cobalt was chosen as an element that, as a result of neutron activation, produces highly active and at the same time 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, such as gold-198, zinc-65, sodium-24, but due to their rapid decay, part of the population may survive in bunkers.

The “Doomsday Machine” invented by Szilard - a thermonuclear explosive device capable of producing enough cobalt-60 to destroy all of humanity - does not involve any delivery means. State (or terrorist organization) can use it as a tool of blackmail, threatening to blow up 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.

At the end of the 1990s, information appeared in the press with reference to Colonel General E. A. Negin that the group of Academician A. D. Sakharov allegedly offered N. S. Khrushchev to make a ship with cobalt plating containing a large number of deuterium next to a nuclear bomb. When detonated east coast America, radioactive fallout would fall on US territory.

Cobalt bombs in culture

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Excerpt characterizing the Cobalt Bomb

Soon after his admission into the brotherhood of Freemasons, Pierre, with a complete manual written for himself about what he was supposed to do on his estates, left for the Kyiv province, where most of his peasants were located.
Arriving in Kyiv, Pierre called all the managers to the main office and explained to them his intentions and desires. He told them that measures would be immediately taken to completely free the peasants from serfdom, that until then the peasants should not be burdened with work, that women and children should not be sent to work, that the peasants should be given assistance, that punishments should be used exhortations, not corporal ones, that hospitals, shelters and schools should be established on every estate. Some managers (there were also semi-literate economists) listened in fear, assuming the meaning of the speech was that the young count was dissatisfied with their management and withholding money; others, after the first fear, found Pierre’s lisp and new, unheard words funny; Still others simply found pleasure in listening to the master speak; the fourth, the smartest, including the chief manager, understood from this speech how to deal with the master in order to achieve their goals.
The general manager expressed great sympathy with Pierre's intentions; but he noticed that in addition to these transformations it was necessary to generally take care of matters that were in a bad state.
Despite the enormous wealth of Count Bezukhy, since Pierre received it and received, as they said, 500 thousand an annual income, he felt much less rich than when he received his 10 thousand from the late count. IN general outline he had a vague sense of the next budget. About 80 thousand were paid to the Council for all estates; It cost about 30 thousand to maintain a house near Moscow, a Moscow house and princesses; about 15 thousand went into retirement, the same amount went to charitable institutions; 150 thousand were sent to the countess for living expenses; interest was paid for debts of about 70 thousand; the construction of the begun church cost about 10 thousand during these two years; the rest, about 100 thousand, was spent - he himself did not know how, and almost every year he was forced to borrow. In addition, every year the chief manager wrote either about fires, or about crop failures, or about the need to rebuild factories and factories. And so, the first task that presented itself to Pierre was the one for which he least of all had the ability and inclination - getting busy with business.
Pierre worked with the chief manager every day. But he felt that his studies were not making any progress. He felt that his activities took place independently of the matter, that they did not touch the matter and did not force him to move. On the one hand, the chief manager presented matters in the worst possible light, showing Pierre the need to pay debts and undertake new work with the help of serfs, to which Pierre did not agree; on the other hand, Pierre demanded that the matter of liberation be started, to which the manager argued that it was necessary to first pay the debt of the Guardian Council, and therefore the impossibility of quick execution.
The manager did not say that this was completely impossible; To achieve this goal, he proposed the sale of forests in the Kostroma province, the sale of grassroots lands and Crimean estates. But all these operations in the speeches of the manager were associated with such complexity of processes, the lifting of prohibitions, demands, permits, etc., that Pierre was at a loss and only told him:
- Yes, yes, do that.
Pierre did not have that practical tenacity that would give him the opportunity to directly get down to business, and therefore he did not like him and only tried to pretend to the manager that he was busy with business. The manager tried to pretend to the count that he considered these activities very useful for the owner and shy for himself.
IN big city acquaintances were found; strangers hastened to get acquainted and cordially welcomed the newly arrived rich man, the largest owner of the province. The temptations regarding Pierre's main weakness, the one that he admitted during his reception to the lodge, were also so strong that Pierre could not refrain from them. Again, whole days, weeks, months of Pierre's life passed just as anxiously and busyly between evenings, dinners, breakfasts, balls, not giving him time to come to his senses, as in St. Petersburg. Instead of the new life that Pierre hoped to lead, he lived the same old life, just in a different setting.
Of the three purposes of Freemasonry, Pierre was aware that he did not fulfill the one that prescribed every Freemason to be an example of moral life, and of the seven virtues, he completely lacked two in himself: good morals and love of death. He consoled himself with the fact that he was fulfilling another purpose - the correction of the human race and had other virtues, love for one's neighbor and especially generosity.
In the spring of 1807, Pierre decided to go back to St. Petersburg. On the way back, he intended to go around all his estates and personally verify what was done from what was prescribed to them and in what situation the people were now, which God had entrusted to him, and which he sought to benefit.
The chief manager, who considered all the ideas of the young count almost madness, a disadvantage for himself, for him, for the peasants, made concessions. Continuing to make the task of liberation seem impossible, he ordered the construction of large school buildings, hospitals and shelters on all estates; For the master's arrival, he prepared meetings everywhere, not pompously solemn ones, which, he knew, Pierre would not like, but precisely the kind of religious thanksgiving, with images and bread and salt, precisely those that, as he understood the master, were supposed to influence the count and deceive him .
The southern spring, the calm, quick journey in the Viennese carriage and the solitude of the road had a joyful effect on Pierre. There were estates that he had not yet visited - one more picturesque than the other; The people everywhere seemed prosperous and touchingly grateful for the benefits done to them. Everywhere there were meetings that, although they embarrassed Pierre, deep down in his soul provoked him. joyful feeling. In one place, the men offered him bread and salt and an image of Peter and Paul, and asked permission in honor of his angel Peter and Paul, as a sign of love and gratitude for the good deeds he had done, to erect a new chapel in the church at their own expense. Elsewhere, women with infants met him, thanking him for saving him from hard work. At the third estate he was met by a priest with a cross, surrounded by children, whom, by the grace of the count, he taught literacy and religion. In all the estates, Pierre saw with his own eyes, according to the same plan, the stone buildings of hospitals, schools, and almshouses, which were to be opened soon, erected and erected. Everywhere Pierre saw reports from managers about corvée work, reduced compared to the previous one, and heard for this the touching thanksgiving of deputations of peasants in blue caftans.

After the end of World War II, humanity almost immediately fell into a new protracted conflict, in the era of confrontation between two global military-political blocs - the communist one, led by the Soviet Union, and the western one, the leader of which was the United States of America. This period lasted more than forty years and was called the Cold War.

At the end of World War II, the United States managed to create nuclear weapons, and a few years later they appeared in Soviet Union. After this, both countries entered into a mad nuclear arms race, increasing their arsenals and creating increasingly sophisticated means of delivering thermonuclear warheads. Several times, humanity literally stood on the edge, only a few millimeters separated it from atomic Armageddon.

The Cold War gave rise to numerous phobias: the West was afraid of Soviet tank armadas and nuclear submarines, and in the USSR they scared citizens with Pershings and cruise missiles"Tomahawk". One of the main horror stories Cold War became a cobalt bomb - the new kind nuclear weapons, capable of not only incinerating the earth, but also turning it into a radioactive desert for many decades. This term did not disappear without a trace along with the Cold War era; materials about the cobalt bomb can still be easily found on the Internet today. Sometimes it is called a “dirty” bomb, which, in general, is not entirely true.

Does it really exist? this type nuclear weapons? On what principles does a cobalt bomb “work” and why is it dangerous? Are similar weapons being developed today?

Cobalt bomb: what is it?

Conventional nuclear weapons have several factors of destruction: light radiation, shock wave, radioactive contamination, electromagnetic pulse. As the experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as numerous subsequent nuclear weapons tests, showed, the shock wave and light pulse cause the most casualties and destruction. Radioactive contamination is also deadly, but it usually does not act instantly, especially since with the explosion of conventional nuclear or thermonuclear weapons this factor is minimized, and due to natural decay, radioactivity decreases quite quickly.

Initially, they did not pay attention to this threat at all; the Japanese began to rebuild Hiroshima and Nagasaki right on the spot nuclear explosions, and only a few years later they paid attention to the sharply increased number of cancers and genetic abnormalities in children.

Already in the early 50s, development of nuclear weapons began, the main factor in the destruction of which would be radioactive contamination. Later it was called radiological.

The idea of ​​destroying the enemy with radioactive radiation was born before the invention of the first nuclear bomb- back in the early 40s. Moreover, the first person to come up with this idea was not a scientist or a general, but the famous American science fiction writer Robert Heinlein. In 1940, then still a beginner and few people famous writer published the story “Bad Solution,” in which countries anti-Hitler coalition subjected German territory to bombardment with conventional aerial bombs filled with radioactive materials.

The Nazis, having received such an unexpected blow, quickly signed a surrender. Interestingly, in this narrative, the development of weapons based on fission of uranium nuclei ended in failure, which is why the Allies had to use a “dirty” bomb. This point is indicative: the fact is that many did not believe in the reality of creating nuclear weapons, not only the military, but also scientists.

If you can survive the use of conventional nuclear weapons in a shelter, and then begin to restore the affected areas - as the Japanese did with their cities - then this will not work with radiological weapons: the area will remain uninhabitable for many decades. This is the main idea behind the development and use of the cobalt bomb.

The design of the first “dirty” bombs was very similar to what was described by Heinlein: these were ordinary containers with radioactive materials and an explosive charge, which were dropped over enemy territory. At the required height an explosion occurred, which carried isotopes over the attacked area. However, already in 1952, the American scientist Sillard proposed a fundamentally different design of radiological weapons, and for the first time it included the use of cobalt, a material capable of producing very strong radiation over a long period of time.

In the early 60s, the British were studying the properties of cobalt. They used this element as radiochemical tags during tests of thermonuclear charges at a test site in Australia. Information about this was leaked to the English press, which gave rise to rumors that Britain had not only developed a cobalt bomb, but was also testing it. The scandal greatly damaged London's international image.

The USSR was also interested in the creation of cobalt nuclear weapons. In particular, the future “dissident” and “humanist” Academician Sakharov took part in the development of the Soviet “dirty” bomb. He suggested that Khrushchev build a ship with cobalt lining and a nuclear bomb inside and blow it up somewhere near the US coast. In this case, almost the entire territory of this country would be contaminated.

Gradually, however, the excitement around the cobalt bomb faded away. The reason for this was not the voice of reason, which the high-ranking generals finally heard, or considerations of humanism. It was simply concluded that such weapons make no sense. Modern warfare is carried out for the sake of seizing someone else's territory; after the explosion of a nuclear or thermonuclear device, it can soon be used at your discretion. The situation is different with a dirty bomb: high level infection, persistent for decades, makes any territorial seizures meaningless. To deter the enemy, conventional nuclear warheads were quite enough, which the USA and the USSR “stamped” enough to destroy the planet several times.

There is another reason. Any type of nuclear weapon underwent multiple tests - first above ground, and then underground. But how to test radiological weapons? Who wants to turn their own territories into lifeless deserts for decades?

Most of the above applies to nuclear weapons, which contain cobalt in one form or another. However, the term "dirty" bomb has another meaning. It is often referred to as ammunition containing radioactive elements and a conventional explosive. After detonation, the isotopes are distributed over a large area, making it unsuitable for life. Such a “dirty” bomb is much more dangerous than those developed by the superpowers during the Cold War. The reason is very simple: even the poorest and most technically undeveloped states are able to obtain such ammunition. To develop a real nuclear bomb, it is necessary to create a new industry, very high-tech and expensive. A state seeking to join the nuclear club must first build one or more nuclear power plants, obtain special centrifuges, train the necessary specialists. All this requires billions of dollars in costs and many years of hard work. Even more difficult to create effective means delivery of nuclear weapons: ballistic missiles or bombers.

On the other hand, it is quite easy to obtain radioactive materials - today they are widely used in various industries, including scientific research and in medicine. For example, the isotope americium-241 is used in conventional smoke detectors, and radioactive materials are used in significant quantities in medicine. Of course, to make a dirty bomb you would have to gut several million sensors, but there are processes that use isotopes in much larger quantities.

Theoretically, not only a rogue state, but also a terrorist organization can assemble such ammunition. It’s not for nothing that “dirty” bombs are often called “the poor man’s nuclear weapons.” The consequences of its use can be seen in the exclusion zone Chernobyl nuclear power plant. There was a thermal explosion (albeit a very powerful one), as a result of which a large number of radioactive isotopes were released into the environment. The area around the station is still deserted today (more than thirty years have passed), and the city of Pripyat is a clear illustration of what our planet would look like without humanity.

If the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 in New York had been carried out using a dirty bomb, the city would have become a ghost, and the number of victims would have been in the tens of thousands.

Until now, the “dirty” bomb is rather a fictitious weapon that could hypothetically pose a danger to anyone. modern state. However special services take the likelihood of such terrorist attacks very seriously, so turnover radioactive substances is under strict control.

Cobalt bomb device

During a conventional nuclear explosion, it produces a huge amount of a wide variety of radioactive isotopes. However, most of them have a very short half-life, so that radiation levels drop significantly within a few hours after the explosion. It is quite possible to sit out the most dangerous time in a bomb shelter, and after a few years the territories become completely suitable for economic activity.

The most dangerous isotopes for humans are those whose half-life occurs over years and decades: cesium-137, strontium-90 and 89, zinc-64, tantalum-181. Such a period cannot be spent in a bomb shelter; the area affected by these elements remains uninhabitable for several generations.

Cobalt bomb has a final shell made not of uranium, but of cobalt. It is 100% composed of the cobalt-59 isotope. Under the influence of a strong neutron flux during an explosion, it turns into the unstable isotope cobalt-60, which has a half-life of 5.2 years. The result is a still unstable element - nickel-60, which is also radioactive and emits beta radiation.

Scientists have even calculated how much cobalt is needed to completely sterilize our planet. For this, 510 tons of the cobalt-60 isotope turned out to be sufficient. In this case, a person is guaranteed to receive lethal dose radiation.

Summarizing all of the above, we can say the following. Currently, the cobalt bomb is more of a fiction and a horror story from the Cold War. It is relatively easy to make, but it is not clear what it should be used for. Potentially much more dangerous are conventional “dirty” bombs, which are not nuclear weapons. The main problem is the possibility of such ammunition falling into the hands of terrorist organizations.

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One type of radiological weapon is the cobalt bomb. Almost all nuclear physicists, as well as the military of all states, know what it is.

Type of radiological weapon

This type of bomb is considered a modification of the nuclear bomb in a theoretical sense. The consequences of its explosion are very sad. There is a significant and very deep contamination of the territory not only at the epicenter itself, but also in nearby areas. Moreover, the significance of this infection does not depend on the force of the explosion; there are very strong consequences for environment can cause a relatively small nuclear explosion.

What does a bomb consist of?

The thorium-cobalt bomb, in its theoretical understanding, consists of a thermonuclear warhead. Unlike a simple nuclear weapon, the final shell of this thermonuclear charge is not made of uranium-238. It contains the chemical element cobalt. Cobalt existing in nature is classified as a monoisotope; one hundred percent of this chemical element consists of cobalt-59.

Chemical reactions during explosion

During the explosion, this cobalt shell is extensively irradiated by a neutron flux. After this, the next chemical reaction occurs. Neutron capture is accompanied by the fact that the stable nucleus of a natural chemical element is transformed into cobalt-60, which is a radioactive isotope.

It should be noted that the time required for the half-life of the resulting isotope is estimated at five years and several months. After beta decay of the resulting nuclide, nickel-60 appears. The latter is in an excited state, and after a certain period of time it is replaced by the ground state, accompanied by the release of one or more gamma rays.

According to its characteristics, one gram of cobalt-60 is equivalent to 41.8 TBq or 1130 Ci. In order to contaminate the entire surface of the planet, only 510 thousand tons of this substance are enough. Moreover, this calculation was made taking into account the fact that one gram would be required to infect one square kilometer.

Cobalt-60 discovered at landfills

As of today, there is no reliable information or verified information that any country has created and has a cobalt fragmentation bomb. According to official information, such a fact has not been registered. However, during various nuclear tests cobalt-60 was still used in different countries. So, on September 14, 1957, small quantities of this element were used by the British military during their tests. It has been used as radiochemical tracers. It should be noted that the chemical element in question is an ordinary consequence of nuclear explosions, and the form of their implementation does not matter; it is formed both during open and closed test explosions. Cobalt-60 appears in such explosions as a result of neutron activation of iron. But this process involves not only iron, but also natural cobalt and nickel. The interaction occurs with the iron contained both in the bomb itself (steel shell) and with the iron located in the ground (any soil contains a certain percentage of this element).

For example, the radioactive isotope in question was identified in areas where above-ground and underground nuclear tests, namely industrial military explosions. These include those produced Soviet tests at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, located in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as the explosions of “Taiga”, “Chagan”, “Crystal”, “Kraton-3”. Of the foreign test sites, we should note the North American test site Alamogordo, where the first explosion of this classification, called “Trinity,” was carried out. Cobalt-60 was also detected at the French test site, which was located in Algeria.

Author of the idea of ​​creating a dirty bomb

The cobalt bomb, or rather, the idea of ​​its creation belongs to physicist Leo Szilard. Back in 1950, this scientist said that any country’s arsenal of weapons of this type would be capable of devastating the entire Earth. Cobalt as an element causing radioactive contamination as a result of certain chemical reactions, was not chosen by chance. It is with its help that it would be possible to achieve highly active and at the same time quite long radioactive exposure and infection.

When choosing between cobalt-60 and other isotopes, if the goal is to eradicate humanity, of course, the first deserves more attention. Thus, although other isotopes have a longer half-life, their activity is more than insufficient to obtain the desired result. But cobalt-60 fits perfectly. This scientist also considered other isotopes, the life of which is even shorter than that of cobalt-60. These are sodium-24 and gold-198. However, the very short half-life of these chemical elements could have contributed to the fact that some part of the population could survive a nuclear attack by hiding in bunkers.

Method of using a bomb

The Doomsday Machine is the name given by the physicist to the cobalt bomb he invented. Who created it at the present time, and whether it was created at all, is unknown. But it is desirable that such weapons do not exist in the world, since they can lead to irreversible tragic consequences for humanity. The thermonuclear device invented by Szilard does not require any special means of delivery to its destination.

Any terrorist organization or country that threatens the entire world will be able to blackmail all of humanity by threatening to detonate this bomb on its territory. Of course, this country will perish, but along with it all the inhabitants of the Earth will be destroyed. This will be achieved due to the fact that the radioactive isotope will be distributed throughout the world with the help of winds and atmospheric currents. It is clear that this will not happen in an instant, but after several months, but it will be inevitable.

Additional Information

There is information that during the existence of the Soviet Union, a group led by the famous academician and scientist A.D. Sakharov. spoke to general secretary Communist Party N.S. Khrushchev with the initiative to create a rocket with a cobalt shell. Such a cobalt bomb, a photo of which can hardly be found in open sources, would contain a huge amount of deuterium, and if it exploded off the coast of the United States, the entire population of this country would die.

The source of such information was Negin E.A., who had the rank of colonel general and served during the reign of Khrushchev.

Russia has new types of weapons, including the advanced underwater drone “Status-6”, which is capable of carrying a nuclear charge on board. This fighting machine seriously excited Western experts, who appreciated this development of the Russian defense industry and called it a “cobalt bomb” capable of turning entire continents into lifeless territories.

Researcher on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, Stephen Schwartz, in an interview with Business Insider, analyzed combat capabilities unmanned vehicle "Status-6".

The expert said that the detonation of nuclear weapons near or on the surface of the earth causes radioactive fallout.

During an explosion, a fire cloud appears, which actually absorbs water or soil, contaminating it with radionuclides. The particles released into the atmosphere are then carried over vast distances.

Today, the United States has designed its nuclear weapons to destroy entire cities while creating minimal radioactive contamination. Their charges detonate in the air, and it is the shock wave that becomes the damaging factor.

He is "Status-6" experts expect much more. Despite the fact that accurate information about the possibilities Russian weapons not yet, there are rumors that the underwater drone, in addition to the possibility of detonation in the water column, also contains the substance cobalt-59. Upon detonation, neutron capture will transform the isotope into radioactive cobalt-60. In this case, water particles and fields containing it will be able to spread thousands of kilometers around the epicenter of the explosion.

Stephen Schwartz concluded that if such weapons were used near Washington, radioactive fallout would also most likely reach Mexico and Canada. The blow will be so powerful that before the intensity returns ionizing radiation It will take at least 50 years to reach background values. This will make the contaminated areas completely uninhabitable for this period.

The specialist noted that people who managed to hide underground, when trying to get to the surface, would be exposed to doses of radiation that would soon lead to their death.

Information about the Status-6 weapon is strictly classified, but earlier The Washington Free Beacon, citing American intelligence data, reported that the drone was allegedly tested at the end of 2016. During the tests, the vehicle was launched from the Sarov submarine.

According to currently available data, Status-6 has a range of about 10 thousand kilometers and can reach a speed of more than 56 knots at a diving depth of up to a kilometer. Now two weapons are attributed damaging factors: radiation pollution and the creation of a tsunami.