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The entanglement of fusion energy research and bombs

By Arjun Makhijani | November 12, 2024

Big Foot Target Shot: This colorized image of a National Ignition Facility “Big Foot” deuterium-tritium (DT) implosion was taken on Feb. 7, 2016. The open target shroud, the ablation of a magnetic recoil neutron spectrometer foil holder, and the neutron imaging system nose cone can be seen at 9:00. The hardened gated x-ray imaging diagnostics are at 12:00 and 3:00. This shot was the Inertial Confinement Fusion program’s first layered DT fusion implosion using the Big Foot strategy in a sub-scale diamond ablator. Image courtesy of Don Jedlovec / National Ignition Facility LLNL

The entanglement of fusion energy research and bombs

By Arjun Makhijani | November 12, 2024

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References

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Daniel Jassby
Daniel Jassby
16 days ago

Makhijani accuses the nuclear weapons labs of semi-secretly pursuing, or at least thinking about pure-fusion weapons. Yes, of course they are, and that activity is not secret. A pure-fusion weapon is undoubtedly a perpetual background objective of nuclear weapons labs worldwide. And why shouldn’t it be? They would be derelict in duty to their sponsors if they did not consider such possibilities. In any case a practical pure fusion weapon is not likely to come out of laser-driven fusion. It’s more likely to be developed with chemical high explosives, as postulated by Jones & von Hippel. So why not demand that all experimental work on chemical… Read more »

Kathleen McCroskey
15 days ago
Reply to  Daniel Jassby

Or, how about removing War from the human tool kit entirely? Or perhaps there is no civilization on this small blue planet…

Daniel Jassby
Daniel Jassby
15 days ago

Ultra-small fusion weapons would have little or no practical advantages over conventional explosives. (See my previous comment.) The real concern of developing small fusion explosions is that if they become feasible to implement without fission primaries, then so will larger fusion explosives in the kiloton and megaton range. The essential ingredients are tritium and deuterium. If a fission primary is unnecessary, then tritium must be given the same safeguards status that Pu and HEU enjoy today. Even in today’s nuclear weapons, tritium in effect has the same importance as Pu or HEU, because virtually every weapon of all 9 nuclear powers is dependent… Read more »

Vernon Brechin
Vernon Brechin
13 days ago
Reply to  Daniel Jassby

Not mentioned is the fact that many of today’s thermonuclear weapons are three-staged devices. Much of their energy yield is derive from their fission third stage which also makes them extremely dirty due to the large quantities of radioactive fission products that result from their detonation. The secondary fusion stage is employed to generate neutrons that aid in the fission of a uranium shell. As I see it the quest for a pure fusion nuclear explosive has been driven more by a desire to justify the work in the face of public opposition.