Word: hydrogenate
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Would the sacrifice be worthwhile? Dr. Bacher thinks not. Even old-style atomic bombs, he points out, are too big to use economically on many military targets. Finding worthy targets for hydrogen bombs, 1,000 times more powerful, would be harder still...
...real expert gave his opinion last week about the hydrogen bomb. In the current Scientific American, Dr. Robert F. Bacher, professor of physics at CalTech, a former (1946-49) AECommissioner (and therefore an inside authority), speaks up frankly. His opinion of the hydrogen bomb: it is not practical as a military weapon. Carefully omitting secret details. Dr. Bacher points out that hydrogen fusion is not really a new primary source of atomic energy. It is only a new way of using the energy in old, familiar uranium...
...hydrogen bomb's necessary ingredients (a principal one, Dr. Bacher implies) is tritium, the heavy form of hydrogen with one proton and two neutrons in its nucleus. Tritium must be made in a chain-reacting pile by a reaction that costs one free neutron for every atom of tritium produced. There are plenty of free neutrons in a pile, but they originate in fissioning atoms of uranium-235 and are normally used to form plutonium (for atom bombs) out of nonfissionable U-238. Each neutron that is used to form an atom of tritium means less plutonium...
...published last week, Dr. Bethe's article was an exposition of the political and destructive effects rather than the technical problems of the hydrogen bomb. While it is not true, he wrote (in the uncensored portion of his article), that the bomb could set the world's atmosphere afire, it "would cause almost complete destruction of buildings up to a radius of ten miles . . . Chicago with all its suburbs and most of their inhabitants [could be] wiped out in a single flash." Bethe asked for new efforts to reach an atomic agreement with Russia, and a unilateral declaration...
...censorship underlined the drastic tightening a fortnight ago in AEC's security regulations. AEC has instructed all scientists and employees connected with atomic projects not to give out any information or discuss technical aspects of the hydrogen bomb even though the material is already in print. In view of this, it looked as if the press might find AEC's blue pencil busier in the future...