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Sunday, May 18, 2003

From PhysicsWeb: Some Japanese scientists have suggested that an ultra-high energy neutrino beam could destroy nukes.
The researchers suggest sending a neutrino beam with an energy of 1000 TeV through the Earth to wherever the nuclear weapon was located (see figure). The beam would produce neutrons in a 'hadron shower' and would cause fission reactions in the plutonium or uranium in the bomb. These reactions would either melt or vaporize the bomb.
Sounds great -- not to mention cool. But, of course, when somebody set us up the bomb, there are always snags. 1) The neutrino storage ring would have to be hundreds of times larger than the current accelerators. 2) The magnets in said storage ring would have to be 1 to 2 orders of magnitude stronger than those currently available. 3) It would cost over $100 billion. 4) It would consume 50 gigawatts. That's what the UK consumes. And number 5):
Finally there is the risk, the authors point out, that the interaction of the neutrino beam with the bomb "could lead to a full explosion" instead of eliminating it.
So it might not happen this year. Maybe next spring.

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