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A salted bomb is a type of nuclear weapon, similar to other fission-fusion-fission weapons.

This weapon is constructed differently than conventional nuclear weapons. In a salted bomb the second layer of material around the fusion fuel, which normally contains some fissionable element, is replaced with an isotope of a non-fissionable element. The result is that the non-fissionable isotope absorbs the released neutrons, and becomes highly radioactive. When the weapon is used the explosive energy released is less than an equivalent nuclear weapon; the target instead becomes saturated with the radioactive isotope. This saturation leaves the targeted area highly radioactive, and uninhabitable to humans far longer than an area affected by typical nuclear weapons.

One example of a salted bomb is a proposed cobalt bomb, which uses the radioactive isotope, cobalt-60 (⁶⁰Co). Other non-fissionable isotopes can be used, including gold-197 (¹⁹⁷Au), tantalum-181 (¹⁸¹Ta), and zinc-64 (⁶⁴Zn).^[1]

[edit] Notes

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