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The technology now exists to create miniature neutron bombs no bigger than a baseball, and the implications for terrorism are ominous.
by F.R. Duplantier
Nuclear weapons scientist Sam Cohen says it is foolish to assume that any new nation that acquires nuclear capability would be content with developing "warheads closely resembling the bomb dropped on Nagasaki -- namely, a massive warhead weighing thousands of pounds." Nevertheless, the U.S. Government remains perversely committed to this fatal assumption. Writing in the Fall issue of the Journal of Civil Defense, Cohen contends that "enormous technological progress" has occurred in the 50 years since the atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and that most of the information needed for making smaller, more powerful bombs is unclassified and easily accessible.
Cohen charges that the U.S. Government has purposely underestimated the number of nuclear warheads that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are capable of producing, and deliberately discounted their capacity to produce substantially smaller warheads. U.S. officials have found it politically inexpedient "to admit to the possibility that the numbers might be significantly higher," says Cohen. "And to admit to the possibility that the warheads might be sufficiently compact to pose a real terrorist threat was equally unacceptable."
Cohen says "the possibility of a nuclear device devoid of fissionable materials" has preoccupied scientists since the beginning of the nuclear age. They knew that if a "pure fusion" explosive could be developed, "a new class of nuclear weapons could exist which could have an extremely disturbing terrorist potential." Such weapons would be small and easily transportable. They would also be "extremely cheap and therefore could be produced in very large numbers." Cohen calls these weapons "mini-neutron bombs" and says they could be used for "physically destructive purposes or, vastly more effectively, for producing radiological damage to humans."
Unfortunately, this is not the stuff of imagination. "A couple of years ago disturbing statements on advanced small, very low-yield nuclear warheads, began emanating from Russia," says Cohen. "Within the last few years, articles have appeared in the U.S., European, and even Russian media dealing with an exotic new material known as 'Red Mercury' which had been developed by the Russians and allegedly held properties capable of producing far more efficient nuclear fission warheads than the conventional explosives developed thus far." Cohen says these articles "revealed that a massive smuggling ring had emerged where the material was being sold around the world to a number of countries, some of which were recognized terrorist nations."
Cohen finds "the terrorist implications of these mini-neutron bombs" disturbing, and argues that "the number of horror scenarios that one can concoct borders on the infinite." Also disturbing, and inexcusable, is the fact that "no U.S. Government agency is prepared to do very much, if anything at all," to cope with this growing danger. Cohen insists that an effective defense could be developed if the U.S. Government and the American people were "willing to seriously consider the threat."
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