How the Bomb Works

President Valery Giscard d'Estaing announced last month that France had tested its own Enhanced Radiation Weapon (ERW), commonly known as the neutron bomb. Military experts point out that the neutron bomb is not a bomb at all, since it is not designed to be dropped from a plane. It is actually a "clean" nuclear warhead, small enough to fit onto a missile or even into a 155-mm howitzer. A modified hydrogen bomb, the ERW produces minimal heat and blast and virtually no residual radiation and fallout (see chart).

It has been the object of controversy since the announcement in 1977 that President Carter was considering its deployment in Western Europe. He later announced that the U.S. would temporarily shelve production of the neutron bomb in hopes of gaining fresh Soviet concessions in the SALT II negotiations. Meanwhile, a highly emotional debate arose on the "morality" of a weapon that is designed to destroy people but not property.

The ERW was first envisioned in the 1950s by a group of Rand Corp. scientists. They were seeking ways of modifying the hydrogen bomb to enhance and focus its radiation effects while reducing its devastating explosive blast.

In a hydrogen bomb, a fission reaction at the core triggers a fusion reaction,* which releases a rapid burst of neutrons. These neutrons have to penetrate an outer shield of uranium 238, which reduces their velocity, increases the bomb's explosive punch and releases harmful radioactivity.

The ERW is basically a fusion weapon. About 80% of its energy is released in the form of a flow of high-speed neutrons, and only 20% in the form of heat and blast. The high-speed neutrons readily penetrate iron or steel, so armored tanks are no protection to the crews inside them.

For this reason, many military experts see the neutron weapon as a deterrent to large concentrations of Soviet bloc tanks in Eastern Europe, which currently outnumber NATO forces by 27,900 to 11,000. Invading tanks approaching a Western European city could be stopped without destroying the city itself, possibly saving the lives of thousands of civilians.

* Fission splits atomic nuclei apart; fusion forces light atomic nuclei together to form heavy nuclei. Both reactions release large amounts of energy.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.