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A neutron bomb is a type of tactical nuclear weapon developed specifically to release a relatively large portion of its energy as energetic neutron radiation. This contrasts with standard thermo-nuclear weapons, which are designed to capture the intense neutron radiation inside the bomb to increase its overall yield.

Contents 1 History 2 Technical overview 3 Future Technology 4 Neutron bomb tactics 5 In popular culture 5.1 Art and literature 5.2 Film and television 5.3 Music 5.4 Gaming 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

The neutron bomb is generally credited to Samuel Cohen of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who developed the concept in 1958. Although initially opposed by President John F. Kennedy, its testing was authorized and carried out in 1962 at a Nevada test site. Development was subsequently canceled by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, but again restarted by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.^[1] The US stockpile is believed to have been largely dismantled by President George H. W. Bush.^[2] Enhanced radiation weapons were also produced by France in the early 1980s, though they have since destroyed these weapons. The 1999 "Cox Report" indicates that China is able to produce neutron bombs^[3], although no country is known to have deployed them.

Neutron bombs, also called enhanced radiation bombs (ER weapons), are small thermonuclear weapons in which the burst of neutrons generated by the fusion reaction is intentionally not absorbed inside the weapon, but allowed to escape. The X-ray mirrors and shell of the weapon are made of chromium or nickel so that the neutrons are permitted to escape. Contrast this with cobalt bombs, also known as salted bombs.

This intense burst of high-energy neutrons is the principal destructive mechanism. A popular misconception is that the neutron bomb "leaves the infrastructure intact" - in reality the blast from a neutron bomb would level almost any civilian structure inside the lethal radiation range.

The term "enhanced radiation" refers only to the burst of neutron radiation released at the moment of detonation, not to any enhancement of residual radiation in fallout.

A neutron bomb requires considerable amounts of tritium, which has a half-life of 12.3 years, thus making it impossible to store the weapon for more extended durations. The neutron bombs that existed in the United States arsenal in the past were variants of the W70 and the W79 designs.

An alternative technology is to enhance the x-ray yield of the weapon. Upon detonation a large electron field is allowed to hit the tungsten target, a metal slab compressed by explosives against the uranium or plutonium core. These enhanced radiation weapons are thought to comprise a true radiation damage/killing device.

Currently, the range of Neutron bombs is very limited and the energy efficiency is very low (only 1.8%). Future technology would involve the use of antimatter to make these bombs. Less than one gram of antihydrogen is needed to destroy all life in a city. Moreover, the cancellation of antimatter and matter is the only theoretically possible method to have a 100% energy efficiency energy output. The radiation generated by the cancellation of antihydrogen with the surrounding hydrogen which would result in a huge explosion of energy many times greater than a Thermonuclear bomb.

Neutron bombs could be used as strategic anti-missile weapons or as tactical weapons intended for use against armored forces.

As an anti-missile weapon, ER weapons were developed to protect United States missile silos from incoming Soviet warheads by damaging their electronic components with the intense neutron flux.

Tactical neutron bombs are primarily intended to kill soldiers who are protected by armor. Armored vehicles are extremely resistant to blast and heat produced by nuclear weapons, so the effective range of a nuclear weapon against tanks is determined by the lethal range of the radiation, although this is also reduced by the armor. By emitting large amounts of lethal radiation of the most penetrating kind, ER warheads maximize the lethal range of a given yield of nuclear warhead against armored targets.

One problem with using radiation as a tactical anti-personnel weapon is that to bring about rapid incapacitation of the target, a radiation dose that is many times the lethal level must be administered. A radiation dose of 6 Gy is normally considered lethal. It will kill at least half of those who are exposed to it, but no effect is noticeable for several hours. Neutron bombs were intended to deliver a dose of 80 Gy to produce immediate and permanent incapacitation. A 1 kt ER warhead can do this to a T-72 tank crew at a range of 690 m, compared to 360 m for a pure fission bomb. For a 6 Gy dose, the distances are 1100 m and 700 m respectively, and for unprotected soldiers 6 Gy exposures occur at 1350 m and 900 m. The lethal range for tactical neutron bombs exceeds the lethal range for blast and heat even for unprotected troops.

The neutron flux can induce significant amounts of short-lived secondary radioactivity in the environment in the high flux region near the burst point. The alloys used in steel armor can develop radioactivity that is dangerous for 24-48 hours. If a tank exposed to a 1 kt neutron bomb at 690 m (the effective range for immediate crew incapacitation) is immediately occupied by a new crew, they will receive a lethal dose of radiation within 24 hours.

One significant drawback of the weapon is that not all targeted troops will die or be incapacitated immediately. After a brief bout of nausea, many of those hit with about 5-50 Sv of radiation will experience a temporary recovery lasting days to weeks. It has been suggested that these troops, knowing that they are likely to die soon anyway, may fight fanatically, without the usual regard for their own well-being.

Some authorities say^{[citation needed]} that due to the rapid attenuation of neutron energy by the atmosphere (these authorities claim that it drops by a factor of 10 every 500 m due to absorption by the environment, in addition to the effects of three dimensional dispersion) ER weapons are only effective at short ranges, and thus are practical only in relatively low yields. These ER warheads are said to be designed to minimize the amount of fission energy and blast effect produced relative to the neutron yield. The principal reason is said to be to allow their use close to friendly forces.

These same authorities say^{[citation needed]} that the common perception of the neutron bomb as a "landlord bomb" that would kill people but leave buildings undamaged is greatly overstated. At the conventional effective combat range (690 m), the blast from a 1 kt neutron bomb will ruin almost any civilian building. Thus the use of neutron bombs to stop an enemy attack, which requires exploding large numbers of them to blanket the enemy forces, would also destroy all buildings in the area.

Another view of the neutron bomb and its tactics exists. The inventor of the neutron bomb, Samuel Cohen, wrote a book in which he stated that the effective range of a pure neutron bomb exceeded 10 km of altitude. Cohen stated explicitly that "enhanced radiation" weapons deployed in Germany during the Cold War were political compromises designed to have substantial blast, with radiation effects deliberately reduced to eliminate any possibility of surviving structures. He also quoted radiation releases of 1 kGy at the ground from pure neutron weapons exploded at 10 km.

The neutron absorption spectrum of air is disputed, and may depend in part on absorption by hydrogen from water vapor. It therefore might vary exponentially with humidity, making high-altitude neutron bombs immensely more deadly in desert climates than in humid ones. This effect also varies with altitude.

According to Cohen, one possible tactic of using such "true" neutron bombs is therefore to launch them as defensive weapons against armored attacks. Civilians enter fallout shelters, and the bomb is exploded 10 km over the armored attack. Portable armor is said to be unable to shield tank and aircraft crews. In such an event, a city's trees and grass would have been killed by radiation, but buildings would remain undamaged for the emerging civilians (who would however have to wait several days for certain short-lived isotopes to decay). Such neutron bombs would be very potent anti-ship weapons. A major supporter of Cohen's research was the U.S. Navy.^{[citation needed]}

• Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, was nicknamed Neutron Jack for his management style, which wipes out his employees (out of the company) while leaving the company structure intact.
• During his 1977 lecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Hunter S. Thompson was asked his opinion of the neutron bomb. He responded that it is an ideal representation of capitalism at the time -- a bomb that destroys tissue but not property.^{[citation needed]}

• In Frank Herbert's novel Dune Messiah (1969), an atomic weapon with an adjustable radiation yield called a stone burner is used in an assassination attempt. This fictional novel takes place more than 22,000 years in the future.
• In Kurt Vonnegut's book Deadeye Dick (1982), an American town, Midland City, Ohio, is depopulated because a neutron bomb detonates on the freeway. All structures are intact, the townspeople are buried under a parking lot and the area fenced off. Because of the lack of property damage, there is talk of using the fenced off town as a camp for Haitian refugees.
• In Richard Ryan's novel Funnelweb (1997), the Australian Government negotiates for an American Neutron Bomb to be detonated in the city of Sydney to dispatch the infestation of enormous mutant spiders. However, the blast does not have any effect on spiders living beneath the ground, allowing these later, stronger generations of mutant spiders to take hold.
• In 1979, artist Chris Burden created a piece of installation art called The Reason for the Neutron Bomb, which consists of 50,000 nickels with matchstick tips glued to them, arranged in tight rows across the floor of the gallery. It can be said to represent the 50,000-strong Soviet tank force at the time.
• A popular book about the development of punk rock in 1970s California is entitled We Got the Neutron Bomb : The Untold Story of L.A. Punk. The title itself being the name of a song by the punk rock band, the Weirdos.
• In Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl book, the fairies have a devastating "bio-bomb", sometimes referred to as a "blue-rinse" as it covers the landscape in blue radiation. Like a neutron bomb, it destroys living tissue and leaves the landscape untouched. It is used in the last part of the book on Fowl Manor in an attempt to kill Artemis Fowl.
• The comic-book series The Incredible Hulk featured the Gamma-Bomb, an "anti" neutron bomb which, conversly, destroyed buildings and landscape but left living tissue largely unharmed. Experiments with this transformed Bruce Banner into his green-skinned alter-ego.

• In the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Umbrella uses a neutron missile to sanitize Raccoon City. In the movie, it shatters the glass of the City Hall as it is deployed and expands outward in a blinding white light.
• The character "J. Frank Parnell" in the 1984 film Repo Man mentions the neutron bomb in the course of justifying voluntary lobotomies: "Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb. You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people - leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. It's so small, no one knows it's there until - BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad. That's what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now he's well again." The DVD release contains footage of Alex Cox interviewing, then watching Repo Man with nuclear physicist Samuel Cohen, inventor of the W70 warhead. Cohen mentions it being one of his favorite films.
• In The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror VIII", France uses a 6-megaton neutron bomb to wipe out Springfield.
• In the 1987 film Robocop, a TV news report mentions a French-made, 3-megaton neutron bomb that the white ruling party in the "besieged city state" of Pretoria is prepared to use as a last line of defense.
• In the Doctor Who serial The Daleks (1963-64), neutron bombs were extensively utilized in the war between the Dals and the Thals many hundreds of years previous to the story.
• In the Blake's 7 episode Countdown, a weapon whose effects are very similar to a neutron bomb is used by the Federation to enforce their will on a rebellious planet.
• In the Ultraman Tiga episode "Ultraman Tiga: Star of the Dinosaurs" (1996), the two Weaponizers each have half a neutron bomb inside them, able to kill all life on Earth when brought together.
• In an Alias second season episode, one of the Rambaldi artifacts is a reusable suitcase neutron bomb.
• In the 2006 film District B13, a neutron bomb is supposed to "sanitize" B13 of the "scum" who live there.
• Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame played a character known as “Mr. Neutron.” As the voiceover implied, there was always a nuclear threat when Mr. Neutron was in town: "Mr. Neutron! The man whose incredible power has made him the most feared man of all time... waits for his moment to destroy this little world utterly!" Original Air Date: November 28, 1974 (Season 4, Episode 5).
• Neutron bombs are mentioned in various episodes of the science fiction television series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda (TV series). For example, a Nietzschian Princess plans to assassinate a capital city using a small pocket neutron bomb.
• In the science fiction series Deathlands, the characters often encounter the remains of cities that remained more or less intact, and their survival was attributed to the use of neutron bombs that killed the population and left the buildings.
• In the post-apocolyptic series Doomsday Warrior, the KGB primarily uses neutron bombs to destroy the American holdouts they discover.
• Working in a "nuke-proof" bunker 600 feet below the earth, Olga and Parker, in the TV series 7 Days, are spared the effects of an enhanced neutron bomb explosion which evaporates all life on the planet.
• In the Japanese Anime series Gundam SEED, the ZAFT faction employs the use of Neutron Jammers, or N-Jammers, which are designed to stop the free movement of Neutrons thus effectively stopping Fission Reactions over a wide area. The operation of these devices is never fully explained: they have no side effect on human anatomy, but do inhibit Radio Waves; to the point where alternative communication methods are required.
• In the 1987 Norwegian movie Etter Rubicon (After Rubicon), a neutron-grenade goes off when a US-military chopper crashes during a NATO-exercise, causing what is (at first) believed to be a mysterious illness. The main issue of the movie however, was the possible conflict between Norway as a "No Nukes-zone" and the USA as an ally.
• In Walter Klenhard's 2002 TBS Superstation Original Television Motion Picture Disappearance the Neutron Bomb is offered as a clue as to what might have happened to the strange town of Weaver.

• Pearl Jam's song "Wishlist" begins with the lines "I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off."
• R.E.M.'s song "The Wake-Up Bomb" features the lyrics "I had to write the great American novel, I had a neutron bomb / I had to teach the world to sing by the age of 21."
• The anarchist rock band the Zounds referred to the destructive power of the neutron bomb in their song "Target/Mr. Disney/War" during the Mr. Disney segment. "Oh Mr. Disney, where have you gone? Mickey's being threatened by a neutron bomb."
• A satirical Dead Kennedys song titled "Kill the Poor" discusses the possible use of the weapon for population control in inner city areas: "Efficiency and progress is ours once more/ Now that we have the Neutron bomb / It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done / Away with excess enemy / But no less value to property / No sense in war but perfect sense back home."
• On W.A.S.P.'s album "The Headless Children," there is a song called "The Neutron Bomber."
• The Circle Jerks song Making the Bombs alludes to neutrons bombs: "I like the kind that save the buildings / Why take it out on pillars of stone? / You gotta kill, you gotta maim / The real estate is not to blame."
• on GWAR's album War Party the song Bring Back The Bomb
• On Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger's live album "Precious friend", Guthrie talks to the audience about the neutron bomb and theorizes that if it exists then so must its opposite, "you can't have a light without a dark to stick it in." He then talks about an "un-neutron bomb" which destroys everything but living things, "all the buildings melt, and all the guns disintegrate and there's nothing there but flowers growing and... there's naked people everywhere!"
• The short-lived Chicago punk rock band The Broadways are critical of neutron bombs in their song "I Hear Things Are Just As Bad Down In Lake Erie": "The neutron bomb is so fucking ingenious, kill a million people instantly but preserve their machines. Erase a culture and a race, but their fax machines are safe."

• In the collectible card game Shadowfist there is a card called Neutron Bomb which kills all characters in play.
• In the Playstation game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night there is a use item called the Neutron Bomb that does large amounts of damage to all enemies on the screen
• In the PC strategy game Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour the Chinese forces have access to neutron bombs and neutron mines. They are used to kill enemy infantry and disable enemy vehicles by killing their crews.
• In the PSP Game Metal Gear Acid 2, Metal Gear "Chaioth Ha Qadesh" has the ability to launch Neutron Bombs as its main weapon.
• In the PC game Soldier of Fortune, members of the terrorist group "The Order" are trying to create a neutron bomb, in order to wipe out the UN headquarters in New York.
• In the MMORPGs City of Heroes and City of Villains, the power 'Neutron Bomb' is available to characters with the Radiation Blast powerset.
• In the Nintendo 64 game Perfect Dark, a weapon called the "N-Bomb" is available.
• In an expansion to the board game Supremacy, Neutron Bombs are available for superpowers to use.
• In the PC strategy game Total Annihilation, the Core forces have access to a Neutron Missile launcher which destroys all units in the missile's area of effect, leaving buildings unharmed.

• Neutron
• Nuclear fallout
• Nuclear strategy
• Nuclear warfare
• Nuclear weapon design

1. ^ "On this Day: 7 April", BBC. Retrieved on 2006-08-23.
2. ^ Christopher Ruddy, "Bomb inventor says U.S. defenses suffer because of politics", Tribune-Review June 15, 1997. [1]
3. ^ U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China [2]

• Cohen, Sam, The Truth About the Neutron Bomb: The Inventor of the Bomb Speaks Out, William Morrow & Co., 1983, ISBN 0-688-01646-4

• Cohen, Sam, "Shame: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb", Xlibris Corporation, 2000, ISBN 0-7388-2230-2

• Mower "Neutron bombs"

• The Profits Of Fear: A History of The Neutron Bomb and Sam Cohen
• What is a neutron bomb?
• Nuclear Files.org Definition and history of the neutron bomb