Spalling is when neutrons smack into and through stuff like aluminium, producing a burst of gamma and x-rays on the other side. [it's named after what happens to the inside surface of armour when you fire a shell at it, even if it doesn't penetrate, it blasts stuff off the other side.]
Which is basically how a gamma bomb works. You have a sub-critical mass of plutonium or uranium, so that when you smack them together it don't quite explode... but it does produce a chain reaction generating an intense neutron burst [lasting several tens of seconds before it burns itself out]. This you wrap in a couple of feet of plastic, water and lithium so the neutrons then produce a hailstorm of secondary radiation, mostly gamma and some x-ray...
You are correct insofar as the edges of 'blast' are non-lethal but damaging. However, this is electromagnetic radiation not particle radiation. Basically, it'll fry stuff up to a point, after which it drops off sharply [inverse square law] so the area of affect goes from lethal to damaging to non-lethal fairly sharply... typically under a 100 feet or so.
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dancing_serpent
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 10:34 am (UTC)Which is basically how a gamma bomb works. You have a sub-critical mass of plutonium or uranium, so that when you smack them together it don't quite explode... but it does produce a chain reaction generating an intense neutron burst [lasting several tens of seconds before it burns itself out]. This you wrap in a couple of feet of plastic, water and lithium so the neutrons then produce a hailstorm of secondary radiation, mostly gamma and some x-ray...
You are correct insofar as the edges of 'blast' are non-lethal but damaging. However, this is electromagnetic radiation not particle radiation. Basically, it'll fry stuff up to a point, after which it drops off sharply [inverse square law] so the area of affect goes from lethal to damaging to non-lethal fairly sharply... typically under a 100 feet or so.