This is an article about the weapon of mass destruction; for the cancer treatment sometimes known by this name [1], see radiation therapy

A cobalt bomb, a type of salted bomb, is a form of nuclear weapon originally proposed by physicist Leó Szilárd, in which the weapon's tamper is made of ordinary cobalt metal, rather than a second fissionable material like ²³⁵U. This would be transmuted into the isotope cobalt-60 upon initiation and bombardment by neutron radiation. ⁶⁰Co is a very strong emitter of gamma rays as it undergoes beta decay, and is currently used for beneficial purposes in nuclear medicine. Weapons of Mass Destruction is also the name of rapper Xzibits 2004 album. ... Clinac 2100 C accelerator Radiation therapy (or radiotherapy) is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells (not to be confused with radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis). ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... Leó Szilárd (February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was a Hungarian-American physicist who conceived the nuclear chain reaction and worked on the Manhattan Project. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Uranium-235 is an isotope of uranium that differs from the elements other common isotope, uranium-238, by its ability to cause a rapidly expanding fission chain reaction. ... Cobalt 60 is a Front 242 side project featuring Front 242s Jean-Luc de Meyer and Dominique Lallement. ... Neutron radiation consists of free neutrons. ... This article is about electromagnetic radiation. ... In nuclear physics, beta decay (sometimes called neutron decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle (an electron or a positron) is emitted. ... Nuclear medicine is a branch of medicine and medical imaging that uses unsealed radioactive substances in diagnosis and therapy. ...

The fallout would have a half-life of 5.27 years and is intensely radioactive, a combination which caused Szilárd to suggest that such bombs could wipe out all life on the planet. One gram of ⁶⁰Co contains approximately fifty curies (1.85 terabecquerels) of radioactivity. Held at close range, this amount of cobalt-60 would irradiate a person with approximately 0.5 gray of ionizing radiation per minute (also 0.5 sievert per minute, since for this type of ionizing radiation on a whole body, the gray and sievert values are roughly equivalent). A full body dose of approximately three to four sieverts will kill 50% of the population in thirty days, and could be accumulated in just a few minutes of exposure to a gram of ⁶⁰Co. Smaller amounts of ⁶⁰Co would take longer to kill, but would be effective over a large area. Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... Radioactive decay is the set of various processes by which unstable atomic nuclei (nuclides) emit subatomic particles. ... BIC pen cap, about 1 gram. ... The curie (symbol Ci) is a former unit of radioactivity, defined as 3. ... The becquerel (symbol Bq) is the SI derived unit of radioactivity, defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. ... Irradiation is the process by which an item is exposed to radiation. ... The gray (symbol: Gy) is the SI unit of absorbed dose. ... Ionizing radiation has many practical uses, but it is also dangerous to human health. ... The sievert (symbol: Sv) is the SI derived unit of dose equivalent. ... Radiation Hazard symbol. ...

What is unusual about this type of bomb is the half-life (5.27 years) is long enough to settle out before significant decay has occurred, and to make it impractical to wait out in shelters, yet is short enough that intense radiation is produced. The fallout of other nuclear weapons has the appearance of sand or ground pumice, which falls back to the ground in short time, and can be filtered by even a handkerchief, unlike ⁶⁰Co ^{[citation needed]}. After fifteen to twenty years, the ⁶⁰Co radiation would decrease by a factor of eight to sixteen, presumably making the area habitable again. The ⁶⁰Co would have decayed to harmless ⁶⁰Ni. General Name, Symbol, Number nickel, Ni, 28 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10, 4, d Appearance lustrous, metallic Atomic mass 58. ...

The United Kingdom reputedly conducted a nuclear experiment involving cobalt as a radioactive tracer in 1957, at the Tadje site, Maralinga range, Australia, but it was announced to be a failure. 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Maralinga is a small town in the desert of South Australia, famous for nuclear tests that took place there in the 1950s. ...

Inspired by Szilárd's warnings, science fiction authors have occasionally made cobalt bombs the doomsday weapons in their works. On the Beach by Nevil Shute is one of the most well known of the fictional stories dealing with cobalt bombs. Also, the movie Dr. Strangelove (release Jan, 29, 1964) by Stanley Kubrick describes the Soviet Union building a cobalt-thorium G-bomb. Perhaps following the Strangelove reference, the movie Goldfinger (first released September, 1964) features a Chinese "nuclear device" which is "of a particularly dirty kind." James Bond surmises this device will release radioactive "cobalt and iodine" to keep the gold at Fort Knox radioactive for "57 years" (Goldfinger corrects him to 58 years). China had yet to explode its first nuclear weapon (October 1964) when this movie was written, so the reference may be a deliberately obscure reference to a dirty bomb (see below). Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is the doctrine of military strategy in which a full scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ... On the Beach is a post-apocalyptic end-of-the-world novel written by British author Nevil Shute after he had emigrated to Australia. ... Nevil Shute (London, January 17, 1899 – Melbourne, January 12, 1960) (full name Nevil Shute Norway) was one of the most popular novelists of the mid-20th century. ... Strangelove redirects here. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer, generally considered one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of cinema history. ... Goldfinger is the third film in the EON Productions James Bond series, and the third to star Sean Connery as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond 007. ... The United States Bullion Depository is a fortified vault building located near Fort Knox, Kentucky which is used to store the majority of United States gold metal holdings, as well as from time to time, other precious items belonging to, or entrusted to, the United States of America The U... The term dirty bomb is primarily used to refer to a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD), a radiological weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. ...

In the twenty-first century, new attention came to ⁶⁰Co as a weapon of mass destruction, as the possibility of creating a dirty bomb to disperse this material might produce a swath of death downwind from it, over a significant area, as a terrorist attack. This is simpler than an actual nuclear weapon cobalt bomb, with a smaller range, though it is suggested that it could kill millions of people in a dense urban area [2] (although to reach a death toll this high would require exceedingly large and impractical amounts of material). Weapons of Mass Destruction is also the name of rapper Xzibits 2004 album. ... The term dirty bomb is primarily used to refer to a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD), a radiological weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. ...

External links

• Types of Nuclear Weapons Cobalt Bombs and other Salted Bombs, May 1998

This bomb was invented in the 1950's