# Let's kill all the "A Bombs". **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 27, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047 "2010-11-27T03:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/1 "2010-11-27T03:49:24Z")
What would it take to remotely neutralize a nuclear bomb. Like with a “ray gun” that wouldn’t do any other damage. I’m not asking if it’s possible, but is there a theoretical means to do such a thing. Can you, for example, zap plutonium and turn it into lead? And a whole seperate question, who could be trusted with that technology. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/2 "2010-11-27T03:52:40Z")
Here ya’ go: [http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/17490](http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/17490) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/3 "2010-11-27T03:54:09Z")
What would it take? Magic. A magician at that level could do anything, so there are two possibilities: a) he or she can be trusted because they haven’t taken over the world, or b) he or she already controls the world and is messing with the rest of us. You’re just drunk posting, right? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/4 "2010-11-27T04:06:36Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Can you, for example, zap plutonium and turn it into lead? Sure, in fact I’ve already developed a ray gun that turns uranium into lead. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/5 "2010-11-27T04:10:43Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Here ya’ go: [http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/17490](http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/17490) Cool. Thinking about it is a good thing. I guess a feasible device would need to universal, though. Press one button, and “poof” all the weapons in the world would be lumps of “clay” let’s call it. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/6 "2010-11-27T04:36:47Z")
Did you naysayers and scoffers read **beowulff’s** link? Seems it’s more possible than I expected. Way out at the extreme end of unlikely, but not impossible. Kinda like what we’re doing right now, eh? I don’t drink alchohol. 😉 Any other ideas how? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/7 "2010-11-27T05:06:35Z")
Hmmm. Wild idea, but if you could control gravity well enough to project it as a beam perhaps you could ruin nuclear warheads with minimal damage to anything else since uranium & plutonium are so massive and nuclear weapons are precision devices. Just induce enough flex or vibration to misalign the parts slightly and it won’t work.\* That’s even farther out than **beowulff** ’s neutrino link though. > [@mangeorge](#): > > Can you, for example, zap plutonium and turn it into lead? _If_ you could, it would have the opposite effect from what you are looking for; plutonium-to-lead is a nuclear reaction and instigating it would at the very least create a meltdown or nuclear fizzle if not a full fledged nuclear detonation. - This is why one solution to the scenario where the bad guy has a nuke wired to a deadman switch of some kind (like Raven in _Snow Crash_) is to simply shoot the nuke with something high powered. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/8 "2010-11-27T06:47:11Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Sure, in fact I’ve already developed a ray gun that turns uranium into lead. I know a guy who says he can turn the lead into gold. I can put you in touch if you want. For a fee. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/9 "2010-11-27T07:12:27Z")
To answer the 2nd question, everyone should be trusted with that technology. If everyone had an anti-nuke zapper, nukes wouldn’t be a threat anymore. ---
**Author:** ![\_cc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e19b73/32.png) [@\_cc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_cc)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/10 "2010-11-27T10:21:13Z")
And if nukes aren’t a threat anymore, the idea of invading that other country that’s been a thorn in your side for a while becomes all the more attractive. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/11 "2010-11-27T11:27:57Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > To answer the 2nd question, everyone should be trusted with that technology. If everyone had an anti-nuke zapper, nukes wouldn’t be a threat anymore. But where am I going to put it? I don’t have enough room for a thousand-kilometre-wide machine in my yard. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/12 "2010-11-27T15:04:09Z")
I’ve decided to turn it into clay instead of lead. I though everyone would recognize the word “lead” as a metaphor for something inert. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/13 "2010-11-27T15:39:40Z")
I have designed the prototype of a device which will convert uranium and plutonium to lead whenever it is within even an enormous distance, say hundreds of millions of miles, of a fusion reaction, even if insulated by hundreds of miles of solid rock. Unfortunately, the time it takes for my prototype device to work is longer than desirable, by several orders of magnitude. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/14 "2010-11-27T15:46:37Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I have designed the prototype of a device which will convert uranium and plutonium to lead whenever it is within even an enormous distance, say hundreds of millions of miles, of a fusion reaction, even if insulated by hundreds of miles of solid rock. Unfortunately, the time it takes for my prototype device to work is longer than desirable, by several orders of magnitude. > > 😉 Sorry, but we’re after clay now. Maybe you could tweak your device? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/15 "2010-11-27T16:22:05Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I’ve decided to turn it into clay instead of lead. I though everyone would recognize the word “lead” as a metaphor for something inert. The point you missed is that the conversion of something like plutonium or uranium to something inert like lead or clay is called “a nuclear reaction”. They’re a mite energetic. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/16 "2010-11-27T16:29:32Z")
You would actually want to induce a nuclear reaction - a meltdown would be ideal. As mentioned, NWs are precision devices. Disrupting the shape of the pit will prevent a full scale explosion. Heat from the reaction may induce the High Explosive surrounding the pit to detonate or burn. Since it’s no longer in the correct shape [and various triggers and boosting have not occured] the warhead will disintegrate with the force of the high explosive only with a minimal nuclear yield (typically as if an additional few pounds of conventional high explosives were added). So the explosive force ends up around 10 to 20 lbs. You get a localized “dirty bomb” effect as the pit and any radioactive tamper gets scattered by the explosion. Nuke weapon sites are already pretty isolated so you won’t get any large scale contamination either ground or airborne. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/17 "2010-11-27T16:49:15Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > I know a guy who says he can turn the lead into gold. I can put you in touch if you want. > > For a fee. [http://www.atral.com/U2381.html](http://www.atral.com/U2381.html) ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-kill-all-the-a-bombs/562047/18 "2010-11-27T17:34:52Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > [http://www.atral.com/U2381.html](http://www.atral.com/U2381.html) All you need to do is pull the neutons back out of the plutonium and wait a while. Weapon plutonium is well contained so the changes on the way to lead shouldn’t be any problem.