Tyrandis
01-03-2005, 05:28
OOC: Note - These weapons are MT, and non-nuclear.
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DARPA News Brief
SYDNEY (Reuters) -
The Tyrandisan Defense Advanced Projects Agency today confirmed rumors that the Militant Imperium of Tyrandis has acquired a series of new arms, based on Dr. Carl Collins of the Univ. of Texas's research into quantum isomer weapons.
In 1999, Dr. Collins's team demonstrated that a sample of Hf-178, a stable radioactive isotope of the Hafnium element, could be triggered by a 10 kiloelectron volt X-ray photon. The resulting energy produced by the reaction was enormous by comparison; roughly 2.45 megaelectron volts in the form of gamma rays, a gain of over two hundred and forty times the input energy. After the report was made public, TDARPA took a serious interest into this revolutionary development and began independent research into the mysterious Hf isotope. Codenamed Project Red Lion, the effort has today yielded explosives of over a hundred times more potency than traditional chemical energetics.
The uses of Hafnium-178 are varied. It is a ductile metal with a brilliant silver lustre. Because hafnium has a good absorption cross section for thermal neutrons (almost 600 times that of zirconium), has excellent mechanical properties, and is extremely corrosion resistant, it is used for nuclear reactor control rods. Several other nations have developed viable Hf-178 aircraft engines, for truly cross-continental range.
Per gram, the Hf-178 isomer stores in the nucleus 10,000 times as much energy as an equivalent amount of TNT. Put bluntly, a golf-ball size warhead of the metal has roughly the same destructive capacities of over ten tons of explosives. Because the effect does not cause the creation of new atomic compounds, weapons using the phenomenon are not defined as weapons of mass destruction.
Currently, only one weapon has been released for public scrutiny, the TGM850 HfI-GEAT (Hafnium Isomer - Gamma Explosive Anti-Tank). The HfI-GEAT shell is fired from any standard 135mm Electro-Thermal-Chemical tank gun. The principle behind the TGM850 is a three-piece fin-stablized aluminum SABOT that contains roughly thirty five pounds of Hafnium-178 and a small X-ray emitter that is activated when the electrically initiatied base fuze is armed. When the X-ray is turned on, the photons from the radiation cause the energy activation of the Hf, resulting in a sudden burst of gamma radiation in the form of heat. The sheer temperature from the reaction is enough to destroy anything within a one hundred metre radius from the blast zone, rendering all legacy tank rounds (HEAT and APFSDS) obsolete.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m830-4.jpg
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DARPA News Brief
SYDNEY (Reuters) -
The Tyrandisan Defense Advanced Projects Agency today confirmed rumors that the Militant Imperium of Tyrandis has acquired a series of new arms, based on Dr. Carl Collins of the Univ. of Texas's research into quantum isomer weapons.
In 1999, Dr. Collins's team demonstrated that a sample of Hf-178, a stable radioactive isotope of the Hafnium element, could be triggered by a 10 kiloelectron volt X-ray photon. The resulting energy produced by the reaction was enormous by comparison; roughly 2.45 megaelectron volts in the form of gamma rays, a gain of over two hundred and forty times the input energy. After the report was made public, TDARPA took a serious interest into this revolutionary development and began independent research into the mysterious Hf isotope. Codenamed Project Red Lion, the effort has today yielded explosives of over a hundred times more potency than traditional chemical energetics.
The uses of Hafnium-178 are varied. It is a ductile metal with a brilliant silver lustre. Because hafnium has a good absorption cross section for thermal neutrons (almost 600 times that of zirconium), has excellent mechanical properties, and is extremely corrosion resistant, it is used for nuclear reactor control rods. Several other nations have developed viable Hf-178 aircraft engines, for truly cross-continental range.
Per gram, the Hf-178 isomer stores in the nucleus 10,000 times as much energy as an equivalent amount of TNT. Put bluntly, a golf-ball size warhead of the metal has roughly the same destructive capacities of over ten tons of explosives. Because the effect does not cause the creation of new atomic compounds, weapons using the phenomenon are not defined as weapons of mass destruction.
Currently, only one weapon has been released for public scrutiny, the TGM850 HfI-GEAT (Hafnium Isomer - Gamma Explosive Anti-Tank). The HfI-GEAT shell is fired from any standard 135mm Electro-Thermal-Chemical tank gun. The principle behind the TGM850 is a three-piece fin-stablized aluminum SABOT that contains roughly thirty five pounds of Hafnium-178 and a small X-ray emitter that is activated when the electrically initiatied base fuze is armed. When the X-ray is turned on, the photons from the radiation cause the energy activation of the Hf, resulting in a sudden burst of gamma radiation in the form of heat. The sheer temperature from the reaction is enough to destroy anything within a one hundred metre radius from the blast zone, rendering all legacy tank rounds (HEAT and APFSDS) obsolete.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m830-4.jpg