What is a neutron bomb?

Answer 1

Okay, you asked. A neutron bomb is a weapon designed and constructed specifically to deliver a large(r) dose of radiation over a broad area to increase the lethality of the weapon without an increase in blast damage. Be clear that there will be A LOT of blast damage; it's a nuclear weapon. But the bomb is designed and constructed to produce more radiation. It's called a neutron bomb for the reason that there is a gross generation of "extra" neutrons. Because neutrons have no charge, they penetrate matter better than a hot knife through butter. Neutrons only minimally react with electrons (once in a very great while a neutron will slam into one), so that leaves collision with an atomic nucleus as their primary means of slowing down. The collisions (skip all the scattering and recoil stuff) directly ionize materials and/or create radiation which will in turn ionize stuff. The neutrons do direct damage to things when colliding, but the secondary effects do a tremendous amount of damage, too. Organic molecules (the stuff people are mostly made out of) take heavy damage from the effects of ionizing radiation. The radiation breaks the covalent bonds of biochemical substances (that make up living things) in a wholesale manner. Radiation is the bull in the china shop. The bomb is actually a fission fusion device. There is a primary stage in which a conventional chemical explosive is set off. The specially shaped charges (explosive lenses) are placed precisely around the fissionable material to drive it together. The shock wave compresses the heck out of the subcritical masses of, say, plutonium-239. Begin secondary stage: the fission of the plutonium. The fissile material goes critical. The chain of fission, neutron release and further fissions becomes self sustaining. But hold the phone. Everything is still moving "in" here. Recall the explosive lenses? The chain goes instantly through criticality to supercriticality. Neutron production goes through the roof and the nuclear burn is ramped up. Something like deuterium is added to the center, and when the fission stage lights up, the heat initiates a tertiary stage that is fusion. Neutron flux is extremely high, but materials have been selected for composition and given a geometry (contour) to allow a whole bunch of the neutrons to escape instead of building the chain further. That makes for the "enhanced radiation" part of the "enhanced radiation weapon" as the bomb is sometimes called. There is a blast like you have never seen. (Again, it's a nuc; there will be a lot of blast damage.) But radiation production is maximized. The extra radiation is designed to slam through things like tank armor. Kill or disable the crew and you've put the tank out of action. And this radiation is very lethal to tank crews that may think they've survived the blast because of the armor of the vehicle. The lethality of the weapon to those buttoned up inside a tank was the primary thinking behind development of the bomb. Back in the day, the USSR had NATO way outgunned in the tank department. The number disadvantage was severe. We needed an edge. But times have changed. The weapons have been stricken from the US inventory and are (probably) no longer a part of strategic planning.

Answer 2

Nuclear Bombardment Reactions: A method used to make a stable
nucleus unstable by bombarding it with a stream of radiation, like alpha
particles. When the alpha particles strike the stable atoms nucleus they
combine to form a new nucleus! Rutherford was the first to document
the reaction of alpha particles striking N-14 creating O-17 and H-1.

Answer 3

In its essence, neutron bombardment is the bombarding of a material by (or with) neutrons. In an operating nuclear reactor, neutrons are being produced in the fission process. These neutrons bombard everything inside the reactor. The fuel, the cladding over the fuel to make up the fuel rods, the coolant, the reactor vessel, and anything else inside is being bathed in neutrons (in the neutron flux). All those things are being bombarded by neutrons.

We usually use the term neutron bombardment to speak to the deliberate "targeting" of a material by neutrons. To illustrate this with one example, a slug of cobalt-59 is lowered into an operating reactor. It undergoes neutron bombardment, and some neutron absorption takes place. This converts the cobalt-59 to cobalt-60, which is radioactive. The cobalt-60 emits gamma rays, and this radionuclide can be loaded into a protective casket and transported to a place where it is used to, say, X-ray pipe welds at remote locations.

It is possible to apply the term neutron bombardment to the bombarding of something by neutrons as a result of a nuclear accident or nuclear blast, but we usually use the term "radiation exposure" in these cases, and then specify what kinds of radiation were involved and how much.

Answer 4

Not sure what you mean. If you mean bombard atoms with neutrons then there are two main ways to do it:

1. Put a sample of the material inside a fission reactor. The neutron flux of the reactor will do the job.
2. With a particle accelerator, accelerate fully ionized helium (alpha particles) against a beryllium metal target. This will produce a beam of neutrons which can be used to bombard your sample (this will be slower than the reactor as the neutron density will be lower)

If you want to collide beams of neutrons, use two particle accelerators accelerating fully ionized helium against beryllium metal targets and aim the neutron beams head on at each other.