From:	Christopher King <cking@********.COM>
Subject:	Nuclear Bullets (Was Re: Narcoject)
Date:	Tue, 22 Sep 1998 06:36:41 GMT

On Sat, 19 Sep 1998 02:24:34 +0000, a voice came from the shadows:

>
>Yes, they can. Use collapsing californium rounds. Heh.
>
>Of course, the radioactive decay for californium means the rounds are
>going to be useful for a very short time... but yes, you can make
>nuclear bullets.
>
>I first saw the idea in 'Striker' (any Traveller fans out here, BTW?
>:)). They used nuclear damper fields that lowered the rate of decay
>to store the bullets. And the bullets are hollow and made of
>californium. When they hit, they compact and...
>BOOM. :>
>
>Hmmm...
>

Now that my evilGM mode has been engaged I have to wonder about the
properties of said bullets... you'd have to put them into sniper
rounds (the reasoning here is left as an exercise for the player)
which have a volume of 75 cm^3 (swag). The density of Californium
(presently unmeasured) has to be pretty significant in order to get
the requisite slow neutron mean path within the shell. So we're
talking about bullets weighing in at multiple kilograms (assuming
something 1.5 times as dense as uranium).

Now comes the kicker... what kind of yield would we get from a couple
of kilos of Cf and with bullets weighing that much unless we use
something really novel to propel the bullets what are the chances of
the sniper surviving?