Word: lithium
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Tritium & Lithium. Just what ingredients will be used and how they will be proportioned is, of course, a top military secret. But the general principles are known to many competent physicists, including the Russians...
Deuterium (heavy hydrogen) may be used as a convenient source of reactive neutrons and protons. Another ingredient will probably be lithium, which has three protons and four neutrons in its nucleus. When joined by a proton, lithium turns into two helium nuclei. Lithium 6 (an isotope of lithium with three protons and three neutrons) may be used too. It combines with tritium to give two helium nuclei plus a free neutron...
...these ingredients, and probably others, will be arranged advantageously around the uranium, which will act as a detonator. The hydrogen isotopes are thin gases and hard to package, so they will probably be used in the form of chemical compounds. Lithium hydride, which may combine two desirable ingredients (lithium and tritium) in a single compound, would be handy for this purpose. Other tricks will be used to pack more hydrogen isotopes closely around the uranium...
...this point the scientists use the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. When certain materials (e.g., lithium fluoride) are placed in a strong magnetic field, the nuclei of their atoms also line up. When the magnetism is removed, the lithium fluoride gets colder. This method promises to yield a temperature only one-millionth of a degree above absolute zero...
Last week the case of the strange salt suddenly became more serious. A doctor in Ann Arbor, Mich, reported to Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, that a patient was critically ill, apparently from lithium chloride. Two days later three doctors from Cleveland's Crile Clinic sent in another report: two patients (one 70, the other 60) had died and five others were ill, apparently from the salt. Dr. Fishbein asked newspapers and radio stations to issue warnings. Planning to reclassify lithium chloride as a drug instead of as a special dietary food...