Minimizing radiation in nuclear bombs

[RandomPoster]

Can a fusion bomb that uses a small fission bomb to set it off be used to in turn ignite a pure fusion bomb some distance away, which in turn ignites another pure fusion bomb some distance away, etc. like dominoes in order to build a canal and minimize radioactive fallout? The idea being that only the first bomb would produce radiation?

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Can a fusion bomb that uses a small fission bomb to set it off be used to in turn ignite a pure fusion bomb some distance away, which in turn ignites another pure fusion bomb some distance away, etc. like dominoes in order to build a canal and minimize radioactive fallout? The idea being that only the first bomb would produce radiation?

From what I know, I think that'd be highly dubious. It takes extreme conditions of pressure and temperature for fusion to take place, and on the “bomb scale”, I think we only can achieve this with an atomic fission explosion right next to the fission core.

I am aware that in the distant past, there was a proposed plan to built a canal, to supersede the Panama Canal; and that this plan called for the use of “clean” hydrogen bombs to dig it. These would have been Teller-Ulam bombs, with the last stage omitted. It is the last fission stage of a basic Teller-Ulam bomb that produces nearly all the radioactive fallout.

 

[toobfreak]

Can a fusion bomb that uses a small fission bomb to set it off be used to in turn ignite a pure fusion bomb some distance away, which in turn ignites another pure fusion bomb some distance away, etc. like dominoes in order to build a canal and minimize radioactive fallout? The idea being that only the first bomb would produce radiation?

I don't think you understand that there is no such thing as a fusion bomb. Fusion is how the Sun works and so far we have only succeeded in recreating fusion on very small scales in the laboratory. A thermonuclear "H" bomb works by supplying a fusion fuel source in close proximity to a fission bomb. The resulting high yield neutron bombardment from the adjacent fissile blast supplies enough neutrons to drive its depleted uranium fuel into a new critical mass.

Merely doubling the distance from say inches to feet would radically drop the neutron flux density too far below that needed (inverse square law), much less having them staged down the street or all over town or whatever you are thinking. The greatest staging ever accomplished was by the USSR creating a 3-stage H bomb, and that had to all be in one massive container.

But none of this really minimizes radiation. The end result of an H bomb is not appreciably lower in radiation output per megaton than a straight fission bomb.

 

[anotherlife]

Radioactive technologies were forcibly removed from the Internet and from every public domain or university course. Since science is a statistical process, this halts all scientific and engineering progress in bomb technology. So much for the canal proposal. The select governments that hold all bomb information will use it to maximize the environmental damage, in exact opposition to the request of this thread or all regular people.