[vannrox]

Neat.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Maybe this is what the Russians have developed - or have found a simpler way to accomplish the same.

[etcetera]

Build it on the moon, use sunlight for power...

[humblegunner]

As they pass through ordinary matter, neutrinos scatter atomic nuclei.

Sluts.

[Paleo Conservative]

Neutrino beam could neutralise nuclear bombs

Just how would one steer such a beam towards the desired target?

[af_vet_1981]

John Cobb, another researcher at Oxford University, cautions: "It might be technically feasible, given massive investment, but there are still unsolved problems."

The problem is you would have to either build, test, deploy, and execute it in secret or negotiate with all targets first for an agreeable team effort. Otherwise you run the risk of a desperation first strike.

[yooper]

"A super-powered neutrino generator could in theory be used to instantly destroy nuclear weapons anywhere on the planet, according to a team of Japanese scientists."

Sounds like somebody learned a hard lesson 50 or so years ago. Getting nuked sucks, but in the long run the nukees might benefit to the point where they send their best and brightest to US universities to learn something, rather than strapping a bomb on such promising individuals.

Saudi Arabia might take a lesson from this.

[gg188]

the maths and physics seems to be right."

Hope this guy knows more about physics than he does about English.

[gg188]

Weber says the first stage of a generator might be feasible within 10 to 20 years, but he reckons the main problem is that the neutrino beam produced would be just a few metres wide.

The MAIN problem would be the unilateral disarmament and appeasement crowd who would cry that this destablizes the world, that it isn't fair that the US would be able to DEFEND itself against other nations.

The same arguments the left made against ballistic missle defense would apply to this.

[SpyGuy]

He adds that the beam would produce dangerous alpha and neutron radiation in any living thing in its path.

Unfortunately, this weapon could easily be defeated by the old "shell game" of moving warheads around in secret. If the beam is only a few meters in diameter, it wouldn't be hard to elude. Of course, it would be impossible to "neutralize" nuclear ballistic missile submarines, which have traditionally been the most effective deterrent.

Furthermore, it would be virtually impossible to target "backpack" bombs, and would probably do nothing against dirty bombs. Since these are the more likely threats of the future (rather than ICBMs), I propose another use for the neutrino beam weapon: use it to take out the dangerous leadership in threat countries. Imagine beaming this through the earth and taking out the seat of government in Tehran or the subterranean terrorist stronghold in Afghanistan.

[RightWhale]

Would it affect other things, such as people and beer, or does this disrupt only nuclear bombs?

[Qwinn]

I agree it's neat.

But this makes the entire issue academic:

"This means a target would need to be very precisely located beforehand."

When I first started reading the article, from the phrasing I got the impression that it was supposed to be able to disarm -all- nukes around the world simultaneously... now -that- would be very interesting.

But with the above restriction, screw it, might as well stick with missile defense.

Qwinn


Qwinn

[Thud]

I like all the statistics here. Wouldn't it be simpler just to slam the planet with a ****ing moon?

[Makedonski]

100 billion is really cheap compared to campaign cost in Iraq.

How does it stop nuclear weapons in terrorist hands where one does not know where to aim the Neutrino Gun?

[VadeRetro]

When you read all the caveats, you realize this one's never going to be built.

[raybbr]

Watch out for them neutrino beams....

[Dark Glasses and Corncob Pipe]

"If it was ever built, a state could use the device to obliterate the nuclear arsenal of its enemy by firing a beam of neutrinos straight through the Earth."

Wow, guys, this is straight from "Mad Magazine" in the 1950's! Can somebody track it down?

No kiddin', I remember a "Mad" cartoon of the US and Russia blasting rockets through the earth at each other!

[DBrow]

Of course, we would never use such a weapon to scramble neutrons in a carbon-based matrix like someone's brain,
or someones nuclear power plant, or titanium in someone's 767 turbines.

Or use deuterium and zap someone's spy sat.

A neutrino generator like this one would first accelerate some other particle (you can't accelerate a massless, chargeless particle) then slam that beam into a target that yields neutrinos. To aim you steer the incident beam.

In space, the main beam would be a formidable weapon in its own right.

[rogueleader]

Great. Aiming a beam weapon right through the core of the Earth. I'm sure that won't have any negative effect at all.

Let's spend billions of dollars to develop it, then outsource its manufacturing to Pakistan so the radical Muslims can finally get the weapon they've been dreaming of to literally blow up the world.

Thank God we are spending so much money on science. It is really coming in handy now.

[NicknamedBob]

When I built my first "neutrino beam emitter" a couple of years ago, the first thing I did was use it to locate intergalactic civilizations.

Unfortunately, they are still too far away for convenient communications, but it's nice to know where they are.

As far as eliminating nuclear weapons, wouldn't it be technically simpler to just take over the world militarily and do it manually? It would probably be cheaper, too.

If Iraq is any evidence, it would appear that half the world's nuclear weapons are conflated propagandizing anyway. Why go to the bother of actually building one when you can just claim you did, and everyone believes you?

Nasty stuff, that plutonium. I never use it myself.

[NewRomeTacitus]

The liklihood of this being developed? Let
me fly up to the Fortress of Solitude...

consult the miniature scientists in the Bottled
City of Kandor and I'll get back to you on that.