Nuclear Weapons Material

[pstemari@bismark.cbis.com (Paul J. Ste. Marie)]

> Not to mention the fact that without tritium, the "trigger" for nuclear
> weapons (and extremely expensive and rare at $ 100m a gram) all you have
> is a radioactive paperweight.

The "trigger" isn't tritium.  Tritium (along with lithium 6) is used
in fusion bombs.  A fission-only device, ala Hiroshima or Nagasaki,
doesn't require any.

The trigger in the center of the plutonium core is a neutron source,
polonium if memory serves correctly.  Tritium is a beta emitter.

	--Paul