WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.520 Although I've covered quite a few nuclear  technologies over past few years there is one 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:11.519 which I haven't touched upon but he's regarded as  one of the most insidious forms of nuclear weapon, 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:17.759 One which was parodied by the mad magazine with  the slogan “save buildings, not lives” and on the 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:25.200 one hand was called the cleanest nuclear device  whilst also being seen as the most inhumane 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:32.079 nuclear devices, Namely the neutron bomb. When it's proposed deployment was leaked in 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:38.799 June 1977 by Walter Pincus of the Washington  Post, it created a worldwide outcry that the 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:44.640 American Carter administration we're about to  deploy them without a major public announcement. 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:50.560 So, what is a neutron bomb and why did it cause  so much controversy at the time, when despite 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:55.600 the talk by the military that it was a much  needed weapon, was it never actually deployed, 00:00:55.600 --> 00:01:02.079 and by 2003 all US stocks had been destroyed. Well firstly the neutron bomb is still just a 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:11.200 form of nuclear weapon but to be given its correct  title it's an enhanced radiation weapon or an ERW. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:15.200 It was created in the 1950s by one of  the members of the Manhattan Project, 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:22.560 Samuel T Cohen after visiting the Korean War and  seeing the similarity between Soeul and Tokyo. He 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:27.359 had also seen the devastation created by the  bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:34.799 in his mind he decided to create what he called  “the most sane and moral weapon ever devised”. 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:40.239 A weapon that would avoid the total devastation  and long lasting effects of radiation that 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:46.159 the atomic bomb had shown and yet it would  still provide the ultimate purpose of war, 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:53.039 to kill enemy soldiers in the field. In 1958 Cohen had been investigating a low yield 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:58.719 “clean” nuclear weapon, one which would create  a large burst of radiation but without creating 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:04.719 the large amount of long lasting radioactive  fallout as seen in conventional atomic bombs. 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:09.680 He discovered that the bomb case thickness made  a major difference to the amount of radioactive 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:15.439 fallout that would be occur. This was because the  case of a nuclear weapon which was often made from 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:22.159 depleted uranium and was used to reflect neutrons  from the nuclear reaction back into the bombs 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:30.639 core and increase its reactivity many times, was  also the source of most of radioactive fallout. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:35.279 He figured that if you used a thinner  case material, most of the high energy 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:42.319 neutrons would escape. This would create a much  lower yield with less destructive capability, 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:49.840 but it would release 10 to 15 times more neutron  output compared to a conventional nuclear weapon. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:57.120 Neutron bombs were unique in that the neutron  radiation would extend beyond the blast radius 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:03.360 of the weapon, even the biggest bomb, the  50 megaton Tsar Bomba had a neutron range 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:09.440 that was smaller than its blast radius. He calculated that one kiloton bomb could 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:17.520 release more lethal prompt neutron radiation,  than a much larger conventional none ERW device . 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:22.560 He justified the use of radiation to kill  soldiers because it would have a relatively small 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:29.120 blast radius that would do less damage to the  surrounding infrastructure as being more humane 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:36.319 than using many conventional weapons, such as  thermobaric bombs, napalm and cluster munitions. 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:41.439 Although he was convinced in his ideas  that this would be an ideal and manageable 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:46.319 nuclear weapon that could be used as  a tactical device on the battlefield, 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:52.400 six presidents came and went before he could  convince president Jimmy Carter that this would be 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:59.200 a weapon that could counter the overwhelming tank  superiority of the Soviet Union, which in the mid 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:06.879 1970s was deemed to be upto a 4 to 1 advantage  compared to NATO in the European theatre. 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:11.280 The problem which NATO had in the 1960s  and 70s was the Soviet Union had created 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:16.160 a huge conventional army with many  more tanks and armoured vehicles. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:22.800 The fear was that a Soviet attack would send in  huge amounts of tanks into West Germany in tight 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:28.079 formations making them much more difficult  to counter then if they were spread out. 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:34.479 Cohen convinced Carter that this small ERW could  be used to intimidate Soviet Union into widening 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:40.240 their tank attacks and thus making them more  vulnerable to conventional weapons like NATO 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:48.639 tanks which were seen as superior and anti tank  missiles which NATO had hundreds of thousands of. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:55.439 If that didn't work and the conflict was going  against NATO, these weapons could be used on with 00:04:55.439 --> 00:05:00.639 less blast damage and residual fallout then  a conventional nuclear device and that they 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:06.560 will be small enough but they might not trigger a  full scale nuclear retaliation from the Soviets. 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:12.959 The idea was that they will be detonated above  the massed ranks of Soviet armour and that intense 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:19.120 burst of neutron radiation would produce an almost  instant incapacitation of the crews inside any 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:25.199 unprepared armoured vehicles and troops on  the ground within about 1 kilometre range. 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:29.920 This was seen as a deterrent that would minimise  civilian casualties as it would be restricted to 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:35.759 military targets and kept away from civilian areas But of course this was still a nuclear device, 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:40.480 and although it was much smaller than the one  dropped on Hiroshima, one kiloton compared to 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:47.200 15 kilotons, it's still produced a blast radius  of about 500 metres, and because it had much less 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:53.199 radioactive fallout, Cohen said that it was a  “clean” weapon that would leave the area it had 00:05:53.199 --> 00:06:00.560 been detonated over able to be used within a few  days or less by what was hoped to be NATO troops. 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:06.719 This idea of using a tactical nuclear weapon  against the much larger numbers of conventional 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:12.320 armour of the Soviets was seen by many in the  military and in the political leadership of 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:17.680 the West as one of the triggers that could  then bring about an allout nuclear war, 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:23.519 one to be avoided as much as possible  unless there were no other alternative. 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:28.799 The use of these enhanced radiation weapons  were put into practise in the late 50s and 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:35.439 60s as part of an anti-ballistic missile  systems used both by the US and the Soviets. 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:39.839 Here, high speed anti-ballistic  missiles such as the Sprint missile, 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:45.599 would be fired into the path of the incoming  ICBM's and detonated within a 100 metres of 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:52.400 them. The high energy neutron burst given off  would cause a partial fission of the incoming 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:56.239 warhead and also damage the electronics, with  the hope of effectively disabling the weapon. 00:06:56.240 --> 00:07:00.000 Approximately 120 of these neutron  bomb armed missiles were built, 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:06.560 and about 70 entered service from 1975 to 1976  as part of the Safeguard Anti ballistic missile 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:12.560 programme until it was shut down and eventually  decommissioned in the early 1980s as part of 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:18.639 the strategic arms limitation or SALT talks. The Soviets also used this type of device as 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:23.360 the last layer of their anti-ballistic  missile defence over Moscow to protect 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:28.240 it against a western attack. But how clean and humane were the 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:34.319 claims of Cohen about the neutron bombs. The primary method of destruction was an 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:40.560 intense burst of neutron radiation which would  be effective against any organic materials, 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:44.879 basically anything that was alive  in the radiation blast radius. 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:48.480 Atoms are made-up of positively  charged protons, Negatively charged 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:54.160 electrons and neutrons which carry no charge. When a fission reaction occurs in materials like 00:07:54.160 --> 00:08:01.439 uranium 235 or plutonium 239, these large unstable  atoms split apart when they're hit by a neutron. 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:05.680 This causes new isotopes to be created  and a lot of energy in the form of heat, 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:12.160 gamma and Xrays and the release of two to three  more neutrons which can then go on and hit other 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:18.160 uranium or plutonium atoms, in an exponential  chain reaction which only stops when the material 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:24.720 itself is blown apart by the heat of the reaction. The neutrons released are fast or prompt neutrons 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:31.520 usually in the 13 to 14 mega electron volt range.  This means that when they hit Protons in the atoms 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:38.720 of living cells especially hydrogen atoms in  water and fat cells, they can recoil a proton 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:45.040 forward at high speed, and because the proton is a  charged particle it dumps its energy very densely 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:52.240 causing intense ionisation paths within the cell. This causes complex DNA damage like breaking it 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:55.600 up into smaller strands and  leaving clustered lesions, 00:08:55.600 --> 00:09:01.519 it also damages cell structures and membranes  and causes cell death or the loss of function. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:08.000 This high energy neutron radiation can also create  secondary radiation which gives off gamma rays and 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:13.519 other energetic particles would should go  on to create further damage inside cells. 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:19.199 There is also another effect cause by neutron  radiation which is called “neutron activation”. 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:25.920 This is where neutron radiation induces  radioactivity into other non-radioactive 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:33.279 materials when their atomic nuclei capture the  free neutrons becoming heavier and entering 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:39.039 an excited state which is unstable. This  nucleus then starts to decay immediately 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:43.599 by emitting gamma rays or particles such  as beta and alpha and fission products. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:49.040 Basically, what this means is that within the  neutron blast radius, other materials especially 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:56.079 metals but also including air, water and soil  and elements in it can be made radioactive. 00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:03.920 Normally these have short half-lives ranging from  7.3 seconds with Nitrogen-16 in Air and water, 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:12.559 to 14.96 hours for Sodium-24 in concrete &  soil salts but upto 5.27 years for Cobalt-60 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:18.399 in steels and alloys, all of these would  all add to the radioactivity in the area. 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:23.840 Although it was said that death would be instant  for those close to the detonation with radiation 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:31.040 levels of up to 8 grey, for reference 1-2  grey is usually fatal but not instant . 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:36.879 If they were farther way the dose would still  be lethal but the effects of acute radiation 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:41.519 syndrome could take days or weeks before  death finally occurred as the body can no 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:48.480 longer replaced damaged cells, basically  a slow painfully and very inhuman end. 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:54.399 If you have ever seen the dramatized TV series  Chernobyl, you will have seen the effect is has. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:59.120 Now these were under Ideal conditions, however  in the real world things would be different. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:03.679 The Soviets knew these weapons could be  used and it doesn't actually take much to 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:08.079 add enough protection to mitigate  most the extra neutron radiation. 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:14.879 The air itself provides absorption this is why  the range is only about 1 kilometre beyond that it 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:21.360 drops off rapidly. Also armoured vehicles could be  fitted with extra materials with a high hydrogen 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:29.600 content such as water, plastics & polyethylene  or boron carbide, borated steel, or wax. This 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:37.840 could drop the neutron levels in the vehicles  to where it no longer incapacitates the crew. 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:43.759 Then there is the issue that if such attack were  to occur, there would be thousands of vehicles, 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:48.399 and they only have to be spread out a  bit more and you would need hundreds of 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:54.879 neutron bombs covering approximately 1 square  kilometre each to mount an effective defence. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:58.559 Even though they have a much smaller  blast radius and fallout levels, 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:03.039 detonating dozens or hundreds of neutron  bombs in a relatively small area would 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:08.879 probably be worse than using conventional  nuclear weapons. And as it would be on home 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:14.000 soil, any collateral damage would be  against German civilians, not soviets. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:19.519 But the most obvious thing was that to  use any form of tactical nuclear weapon, 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:25.840 be it conventional or ERW would more than likely  trigger a corresponding response from the Soviets, 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:29.360 and before you know where you are  you're into a full scale nuclear war. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:34.639 Although Jimmy Carter's administration, said  they would adopt the neutron bomb they put it 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:40.000 on hold and didn't actually build any. It would  be Ronald Reagan’s administration which actually 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:46.879 built them and put them into production with  approximately 700 ERW devices in the 1980s, 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:54.399 in the form of the W70 Mod 3 lance missile  and the W79 Mod 0, 8 inch artillery shell. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:59.519 However, due to extreme political pressure  from Europe where these devices would 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:06.480 ultimately be used, they were not deployed  and instead stockpiled in the United States. 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:14.639 During the mid to late 80s superior high  precision conventional anti-tank weaponry like 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:22.720 the A10 warthog and advanced anti-tank missiles  made the neutron weapons obsolete by the 1990s. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:28.639 The last of the W70 warheads for the Lance  missiles were dismantled in 1996 and W79 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:35.679 artillery shells were fully disposed of by 2003. Other countries also developed ERW weapons, 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:42.159 including France and China but again both only  developed the weapons but didn't deploy them, 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:46.319 instead they saw them as a technology  reserve that could be a called up if 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:50.640 required at some time in the future. The soviets did make their own versions 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:56.799 and after the fall of the USSR, its successor  Russia in the 1990s and 2000s worked with the 00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:04.719 US to destroy approximately 25,000 weapons, but  due to the fractured nature of the Soviet breakup 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:10.879 its not known if all the now Russian  ERW weapons were destroyed but if they 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:16.480 did survive and have not been maintained  its unlikely that they would still work. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:21.200 So I hope you found the video interesting  and if so please thumbs up , share and 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:29.680 subscribe and a big thank you to our  patreons for their ongong support.