by anotherdrew » Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:58 am
maybe massive release of gamma rays from a point in the basement of wtc, release would be is a sphere, with burried metal and such absorbing a lot of it in some directions, other areas the rays encounter less 'shielding' and keep going till they hit a car, the metal absorbs a lot of the ionising radiation, and sparks fly igniting the car and sometimes leading to an imediate or eventual fuel tank explosion.<br><br>enter: <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>the hafnium bomb</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>. . . snip . . .<br>Recently, hafnium has been put into development of newer nuclear weapons by the U.S. government.DARPA has been intermittently funding programs to determine the possibility of using a nuclear isomer of hafnium (the above mentioned Hf-178-2m) to construct small, high yield weapons with simple x-ray triggering mechanisms—the hafnium bomb. There is considerable scientific opposition to this program, both on technical and moral grounds<br>. . . snip . . .<br>Another reasonably stable nuclear isomer (with a half-life of 31 years) is hafnium-178m, which has the highest excitation energy of any stable isomer. One kilogram of pure Hf-178-2m contains approximately 900 megajoules of energy, or about a quarter of a kiloton of TNT. Further, all of the energy released is in gamma rays at 0.05 nanometers. As with Ta-180m, there are disputed reports that Hf-178-2m can be stimulated into releasing its energy, and as a result the substance is being studied as a possible source for gamma ray lasers. These reports also indicate that the energy is released very quickly, so that Hf-178-2m can produce extremely high powers (on the order of exawatts). As of 2005 the claims that hafnium isomers can be used as potential energy storage devices or even weapons is generally regarded with derision in the general scientific community and future prospects for the idea's vindication appear very dim. <br>. . . snip . . .<br>Hafnium is used to make nuclear control rods, such as those found in nuclear submarines because of its ability to absorb neutrons (its thermal neutron absorption cross section is nearly 600 times that of zirconium)<br>. . . snip . . .<br>The hafnium bomb is a hypothetical explosive device based on a metastable excited state of hafnium-178 (a nuclear isomer, Hf-178m2, half life > 10y, decay energy 2.5 MeV). While this excited state was known as a curiosity for some time, in the 1990s Carl Collins of the University of Texas at Dallas claimed to have discovered a method of inducing it to rapidly decay through exposure to x-rays. As x-rays of the required energy were relatively easy to produce, and the energy of the released gamma rays was far greater than the required energy input, this discovery had considerable applicability as a radiological weapon.<br>To date, the claimed effect has not been duplicated, casting doubt on the use of Hafnium-178m2 as a weapon component or power storage mechanism.<br>. . . snip . . .<br><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>longer article: <br>link=<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.you.com.au/news/2012.htm">www.you.com.au/news/2012.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->]describes the thing a bit more[/link]<br><br>texas based scientist finds a way to make a useable nuke-like bomb, out of meterial that is used in nuclear control rods (a good way to turn normal Hafnium into 178m2?). control rods are 'missing' from a storage facility, btw (although of course we're told it's just a paper-work error). Anyway they are now pretending this isn't possible, no one is able to replicate the original experiement (I don't know who's tried, but I wouldn't be surprised that this would go own deep black real quick, the texas guy may not have released all the needed info to replicate anyway).<br><br>this might also explain the need to disapear the remains of the building as fast as possible, with no forensic samples taken, or later permited: when one of these hafnium bombs goes off, it may leave a lot of hafnium oxides all over the place. That maintenence guy who came up and out from a very low level and talks of seeing the results of a huge explosion all around... I wonder how long hafnium would stay in the body?<br><br>Someone who I think has wound up dead was talking about mini-nuke-like bombs being used at Bali and in the embasy bombings, possibly others, can't remember who that was and I'm done googling for now. <p></p><i></i>