| From: | Paolo Falco <Falco@****.IT> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Nuclear Bullets (Was Re: Narcoject) |
| Date: | Tue, 22 Sep 1998 10:32:39 +0200 |
> 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?
Atomic weight for Cf is 291, known isotopes (as for my textbook) are
Cf244 and Cf246. I don't have the stats for rho and tau, but I bet
your figure of 1.5 density of uranium is quite good, and that the
bastard decays alfa and possibly beta. That meaning: you have 1.5 kgs
of highly radioactive, unstable, decaying fast material stored in a
full metal jacket without any kind of proper insulation. Even if you
could rocket it to its target, you'd still need the detonator, and
the detonator's weight would wildly unbalance that. Even more,
imagine the kind of security that would be around a bullet that can
wreck five city blocks in a single shot and kill its own firer of
cancer six months later! Bullets like that would be probably made-on-
order in cases of great need, providing they work at all. And then,
would'nt it be easier, (and more economical, incidentally) to just
release 100 earth spirits or drive a rigged MBT and destroy the
complex from the foundations?
That said, if you need a collapsing californium round, invent it.
IMHO, a good S-S missile can have the same effect at a million times
less the price.
Paolo Falco | ...let me introduce his frogness...
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