A beam, a bomb and a burning question: could China be rebooting a nuclear doomsday device?
Chinese researchers are experimenting with a highly radioactive isotope that could be used to dramatically worsen the fallout from a standard atomic weapon
A state-backed physics experiment using a rare metal could help China’s military develop highly radioactive “salted” nuclear bombs that can lay waste to vast areas for months, according to nuclear scientists.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences announced on the weekend that scientists at a heavy ion research facility in Lanzhou in northwestern Gansu province had fired superheated beams of a radioactive isotope of tantalum, a heavy metal that can be added to a nuclear warhead to increase the release of radioactive fallout.
The academy said scientists accelerated the ionised atoms of tantalum 181 to record levels repeatedly as part of an experiment for some military engineering projects to “meet a critical strategic demand of China’s national defence”.
Du Guanghua, a researcher involved in the tantalum beam project at the academy’s Institute of Modern Physics in Lanzhou, confirmed that the project had military applications but declined to give details.
Du said the creation of a high-quality, high-output tantalum beam had long been a challenge because the metal’s unusually high melting point of nearly 3,000 degrees Celsius meant it was difficult to isolate the element and generate a particle stream big enough for experimental use.