- American military scientists are developing a weapon
which kills by delivering an enormous burst of high-energy gamma rays,
it is claimed today.
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- The bomb, which produces little fallout, blurs the distinction
between conventional and nuclear weapons, and experts have already warned
it could spark a new arms race. The science behind the gamma ray bomb is
still in its infancy, and technical problems mean it could be decades before
the devices are developed. But the Pentagon is taking the project seriously.
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- The plans are getting under way at a time when the Bush
administration is seeking ways to expand its arsenal of unconventional
weapons, and could well fuel charges that Washington risks triggering a
new arms race.
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- In May, Congress approved further research on a new generation
of tactical nuclear weapons: bunker busters, designed to drill into underground
shelters, buried beneath hundreds of feet of con crete, and so-called mini-nukes
with explosive yields of less than five kilotons.
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- Critics say such research projects, though tiny by the
standards of the Pentagon, risk igniting a new arms race. They also charge
the administration with seeking to put in place the conditions to end a
ban on nuclear testing.
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- According to New Scientist magazine, the gamma ray bombs
are already included in the US department of defence's militarily critical
technologies list - a wish list of possible weapons technology that America
considers essential to maintaining its superior firepower.
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- They would not have the awesome destructive power of
nuclear weapons, but the energy emitted from a gamma ray bomb would be
thousands of times greater than from conventional chemical explosives.
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- "Such extraordinary energy density has the potential
to revolutionise all aspects of warfare," the magazine quotes the
defence department list as saying.
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- The device would not produce energy by triggering a nuclear
fission or fusion reaction, like current nuclear weapons. Instead it would
rely on the gamma rays produced when the high-energy nuclei of some radioactive
elements decay.
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- Four years ago, scientists at the University of Texas
in Dallas showed that it was possible to trigger this effect artificially.
The possibility that this decay process, which usually takes place very
slowly, could be accelerated and used in a weapon grabbed the attention
of the Pentagon. Scientists at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New
Mexico are studying whether this can be achieved.
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- Such weapons would allow military commanders to increase
firepower without being forced to push the nuclear button. Experts have
warned that if the US scientists succeed in building a gamma ray bomb,
it could force other countries to start nuclear programmes, or worse, encourage
those who already possess nuclear weapons to use them.
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- "Many countries which will not have access to these
weapons will produce nuclear weapons as a deterrent," Andre Gsponer,
director of the Independent Scientific Research Institute in Geneva, told
New Scientist. Just one gram of the explosive would store more energy than
50kg of conventional TNT. It would be as expensive as enriched uranium,
but less would be needed for a bomb. Unlike uranium, it does not need a
critical mass of material to maintain the nuclear reaction.
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- It would produce little radioactive fallout compared
with an atomic explosion, but could cause long-term health problems for
anyone breathing the particles in.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1018361,00.html
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