Re: Nuclear Weapons Material

["Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>]

Mark Terka says:
> 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.

This is sheer ignorance. First of all, tritium is not nearly that
expensive. Its quite cheap, in fact, and can be manufactured without
that much trouble. Second of all, tritium is not a necessary component
of non-thermonuclear (i.e. hydrogen) bombs. Third, tritium isn't a
"trigger". Lastly, an ordinary A-bomb is just a way to bring together
a critical mass of a fissionable material, like U-235 or Plutonium.
Once a critical mass is in one place the chain reaction will handle
the rest.

.pm