The cobalt bomb is a theoretical modification of weapons of mass destruction, which leads to high degrees of radioactive contamination and contamination of the area with a relatively small explosion force. A cobalt bomb refers to a radiological weapon in which ionizing radiation acts as a damaging factor . At the same time, due to the relative weakness of the explosion, almost all of the infrastructure, buildings, structures and buildings remain intact.
A cobalt bomb is a nuclear weapon whose shell is not made of uranium-238, but of cobalt-59. During detonation, the shell is irradiated with a powerful neutron flux, which leads to the transmutation of cobalt-59 into the cobalt-60 isotope. Its half-life is a little over 5 years. As a result of beta decay of this nuclide, nickel-60 is formed in the active state, which after some time passes into the ground state.
The activity of cobalt-60 weighing one gram is estimated at 1130 Ci. About 510 tons are needed to completely infect the entire surface of the planet with radiation at the level of gram / square kilometer of cobalt-60. In general, the explosion of such a bomb could infect the area for almost 50 years. Such long periods leave little chance for the population to survive the infection, even in bunkers.
It is believed that a cobalt bomb was never created, so it is not in service with any country. A small amount of this element was used in one of the British nuclear weapons tests for radiochemical tags.
There are no major obstacles to the creation of such ammunition in
technical terms , but the high degree of contamination of the area and its duration do not allow it to be safely tested. Such ammunition was never made or tested because of the great danger when used for the attackers themselves.
The most terrible way to use a cobalt bomb is to detonate it at high altitude, somewhat away from enemy territory, depending on weather conditions. The goal is to have radioactive fallout over the enemy’s territory, which theoretically can destroy all life on it.
The very idea of this bomb was invented by physicist Leo Silard, who made the assumption that an arsenal of cobalt bombs could destroy the entire population of the planet. Cobalt was chosen due to the fact that with neutron activation it gives a very strong and lasting radioactive infection. It is possible to use other elements that form isotopes with an even longer half-life when creating such an ammunition, but their activity is clearly insufficient. There are also short-lived isotopes compared to cobalt-60, such as sodium-24, zinc-65 and gold-198, but due to their rather rapid decay, part of the population can survive the contamination of the area in bunkers.
Academician Sakharov, who created the first
hydrogen bomb, also took part in the theoretical development of the thorium-cobalt bomb and called it the "stinky toad". Even the creation of the hydrogen bomb and its testing did not cause the scientist such "flattering" epithets. A cobalt bomb can be considered both neutron and radiological, the so-called "dirty" weapon.