djm@castle.ed.ac.uk (D Murphy) (10/18/89)
From: D Murphy <djm@castle.ed.ac.uk> I was trying to explain (albeit approximately) how nuclear weapons work to a friend last night. Anyway, during this I began to wonder to what extent high energy beta particles from the radionuclides in the warhead radiolyse and so degrade the high explosive triggering charge ? I use radionuclides in the lab, and have been warned against high specific activity tritium oxide due to its tendency to radiolyse itself. Given the preponderacy of light nuclei in conventional explosive charges (and hence their presumably high beta capture ability), is this a similar problem ? Murff...