Word: fissioning
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...detonator of a thermonuclear bomb is a fission bomb containing plutonium or uranium 235, and its explosion sets off the main charge of fusion material, which is essentially deuterium (heavy hydrogen). Fission detonators are expensive, but a single one can explode any amount of comparatively cheap fusion material. Result: the bigger the bomb, the cheaper it is in terms of explosive yield. Clark figures that a ten-megaton bomb costs somewhat more than $1,000,000, mostly for the detonator. But further increases in yield cost only about $5,000 per megaton, so that the price...
...More deadly yet would be large fission-fusion-fission bombs whose outer blankets of cheap uranium 238 yield energy as well as deadly fission products. Clark believes that any nuclear power could easily destroy a nation with the close-range fallout effect from this type of bomb, but he thinks that the human race as a whole would be more resistant...
Unwelcome Cloud. Even if the blast gave no local fallout, it surely created some fission products that stayed below the stratosphere to drift with the winds of the lower atmosphere until rain or snow brought them down. By studying their charts, U.S. meteorologists figured that this cloud of tropospheric fallout moved southward into Russia, then swung eastward to cross Siberia. At week's end, it was heading across to the U.S. (see map) near Oregon and Idaho where rain was expected to wash some of its radioactive debris to earth...
...high atmosphere gradually decreased, and most airlines stowed their Geiger counters in mothballs. Recent Soviet tests have started the trouble all over again, and this time it is expected to grow worse and last longer. Jetliners of the 19605 fly well up in the stratosphere, where radioactive fission products linger for years...
...check them frequently. The airplanes are washed down with special detergent solutions, and the mops used in this process are also checked. They sometimes prove notably hot, and from them PHS has extracted the 25-odd radioisotopes that make up the most dangerous debris in a cloud of fission products...