Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site mit-vax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!think!mit-eddie!mit-vax!csdf From: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe) Newsgroups: net.bizarre Subject: Re: Re: plutonium Message-ID: <544@mit-vax.UUCP> Date: Tue, 6-Aug-85 04:58:48 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-vax.544 Posted: Tue Aug 6 04:58:48 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 9-Aug-85 02:17:47 EDT References: <541@bentley.UUCP> <499@mit-vax.UUCP> <217@kitty.UUCP> Reply-To: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe) Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 38 In article <217@kitty.UUCP> peter@kitty.UUCP (Peter DaSilva) writes: >> Nothing, probably. Plutonium is VERY VERY VERY poisonous, but not >> particularly explosive (the amount needed to make a bomb is not easily >> transported). > >This is pure bull. One atom of plutonium can cause cancer. A hundreth of a mole (6.02 x 10^20) atoms is about a gram. That could be carried by anybody -- safely. >And to make a bomb all you need is a couple times critical mass. THIS is pure bull. If you have ONE times critical mass it will blow up, you lunkhead! That's what critical mass MEANS! Bombs contain LESS than critical mass so that they're stable. The activation energy is supplied by a conventional bomb set off as to compress the matter an "fool" it into thinking it's critical mass. Take a high school physics course. I did, and look where it got me! >That can >be carried in a briefcase. The whole bomb can be fit into a backpack. In >fact the army has a low-weild backpack bomb. Fine, why don't I just fill your briefcase with plutonium and see how long you can carry it around before you drop dead. 8 grams of plutonium will boil a liter of water in about a minute. I don't think you want to carry around a breifcaseful. -- Charles Forsythe CSDF@MIT-VAX "You are a stupid fool." -Wang Zeep "I'm not a fool!" -The Hated One