Fusion reactors are neutron sources AKA fission bomb factories?

[ardnog]

Assumptions:

1) Fusion reactors are easily obtainable. Every spacecraft or hover-car has one.

2) Fusion reactors are neutron sources.

3) Neutron sources are the "difficult bit" in the enrichment of uranium and plutonium.

4) Uranium and plutonium are "freely" available in asteroids or uninhabited planets.

Conclusion:

Fusion reactors are bomb factories?

 

[Rive]

3) Neutron sources are the "difficult bit" in the enrichment of uranium and plutonium.

Not correct. Enrichment (of raw material) is done by centrifuges (or some other means of isotope separation). Turning the (non-fissile) raw material to fissile material is, what's done with neutron radiation.

But when a civilization already has stable fusion, they are expected to had some experiences with unstable fusion too. Creating fissile bombs with stable fusion is like creating polished stone axes with a precision lathe. You need to think up some really serious issues with those brains there to make something like this work in a plot.

 

[ardnog]

So you're saying that at this point, everyone can make nukes in their workshop?

What technologies would exist to prevent the end of civilisation by mad bombers?

 

[Rive]

So you're saying that at this point, everyone can make nukes in their workshop?

North Korea? They yet to have stable fusion () but they already have fusion boosted fission bombs with technology level around the 60's.

What technologies would exist to prevent the end of civilisation by mad bombers?

Fear

 

[ardnog]

By "everyone" I mean everyone from parts in the hardware store; not governments.

 

[Klystron]

I have read many sci-fi, mystery and action novels that feature non-government construction of fission bombs without the need nor any mention of fusion reactors.

I cannot remember title or author but a representative novel from the late 1980's featured a young disaffected physicist building a portable fission bomb in her home from hardware store items and stolen lab materials. Much of the story detailed her troubles and successes building the device.

Of course this is all fiction, written for audiences who came of age under threat of nuclear war.

 

[Rive]

You need to have quite an industrial and financial background. Also, some safe grounds no one else is interested in.

So it's definitely on the level of governments. Won't work below that. (Not any realistic way.)

 

[stefan r]

If cars have neutron sources all of civilization will be irradiated anyway.

Uranium is found in meteorites at around 10 parts per billion on average. A villain could do some work and extract a kilogram of uranium from 100,000 tons of asteroid. Maybe 10,000 tons if there is a convenient concentrated asteroid. A 1,000 ton rod dropped from Earth escape will deliver more explosion than the bombs the USA dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A rod can enter with a heat shield and shatter it at optimal altitude. The rod can be partially hollow to optimize and shape the burst.

The proliferation of neutron sources will stimulate a proliferation of neutron detectors. There will be people looking for hovercars with leaky shields. There will be illegal dumping of low level waste.

Chemically separating plutonium from the irradiated uranium is going to be roughly equivalent to separating plutonium from high level nuclear waste. While doing the irradiation you have to fuse a lot of fusion fuel and some of your plutonium fissions. Using the fusion you have a bright heat source that could be noticed. You have to store or dump your fission byproducts somewhere. The USA has 77,000 tons of high level waste. I hope it is not easy to snatch a few fuel rods but modifying a fusion reactor sounds hard too.

I heard that making the implosion device was the hardest part of the Manhattan project.