A bomb could not become soap. Neutron bomb father Samuel Cohen dies

Cohen, father of the neutron bomb, passed away last weekend after suffering from stomach cancer. He died at the age of 89, building weapons like a pet, experimenting, and adding strange commentary.

The neutron bomb was developed in the middle of the Cold War and touted as a "clean" bomb. Instead of melting or blowing up the city, it irradiates what's inside, so for example, it kills all the citizens but doesn't topple a single building.

Nuclear bombs were unpopular even then. ugly. Hiroshima. However, Cohen emphasized in his Pentagon PR speech that this neutron bomb "is a nuclear weapon capable of attacking people with limited effects, because its main purpose is destruction by radiation."

Nuclear weapons, to put it simply, are weapons that destroy everything within a radius of several miles with heat rays and blast waves. Flames rise high into the sky, releasing tremendous shockwaves and raining scorching ash. It happens because the energy of the bomb goes out in the explosion.

In contrast, most of the energy contained in a neutron bomb is emitted as silent radiation, and the blast is relatively small, so the city remains intact, or at least not destroyed. Classy, ​​said Cohen.

So graceful - I even said it once - "This is a moral weapon that follows the Christian 'just fight' principle. It can be used to discriminate between enemy soldiers and innocent civilians." that's why"

The neutron bomb is a weapon that pleases the gods, and can only kill soldiers with radioactive poison! Even Nikita Khrushchev, the former head of the Soviet Union on the eastern side, was the one who said, "A weapon that can kill without leaving a single bloodstain on his suit."

But in the end, it was all a lie. We all know by now... In a report submitted to Congress in 1982, the State Department touched on the real image of this ``magic neutron bomb that protects the city,'' and described the neutron bomb as ``a weapon that kills only people without destroying buildings.'' wrote that it was "a misinterpretation made by some media outlets to attract the attention of people around the world."

This is still polite writing. The neutron bomb was technically far from the image of heaven... Below is the testimony of Pentagon General Niles Fulwyler.

If you were to stand in the field and look at it [the neutron bomb] from a distance, you wouldn't be able to tell it apart from a normal fission bomb. A tremendous blast, flash, and heat rays will still occur. I don't want people to confuse radiation-enhanced weapons with short-range support weapons.

Yes, a "clean nuclear weapon" is a pipe dream, and 65% of a bomb's energy goes into the blast. Since it has never been used in actual combat, the Shogun's story is hypothetical, but if this level of energy had been released, it would have undoubtedly caused the same level of destruction as a conventional nuclear bomb (that is, mass destruction). The amount of radiation that comes out together is more than before, so it's not clean.

So where did the idea come from?

Why did such a dream come true in Cohen's head?

Isn't it because he's a Ph.D.? - No, Cohen doesn't have a higher degree for working as a nuclear physicist. He enlisted immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, dropped out of the UCB doctoral program after the war, and joined RAND.

The truth is more surprising, or rather... As I briefly wrote at the beginning, the memoir "Shame: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb" (probably I guess he was trying to convey something in the book), where Cohen blames his crazy mother for making those bombs.

There aren't many organizations that have bothered to review the book, but the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) reprinted Cohen's text as ``a claim that even the most flawed nuclear weapons critics hesitate to write''. doing.

To put it bluntly, my work in developing nuclear weapons was also born out of the abuse I received as a child from my mother, who had a strange obsession with health and nutrition. Toilet discipline was almost tyrannical.

This is Freud's turn.

Decades before Cohen's death, the debate over the neutron bomb has long since faded, but when I look at Cohen's life and work, I can't help but think of technology and life, an illusive and bizarre intersection between the two. I can't stay.

A nuclear bomb is a nuclear bomb. No matter how hard you try, you can't become soap.

Illustration by Sam Spratt (site, Facebook, Tumblr)

Sam Biddle (original/satomi)