CHAPTER 4
But in these weapons, scholars perceived a new kind of secretized knowledge; knowledge kept from the technical universities and libraries. What these weapons signalled was a new and highly privatized knowledge of nuclear energy, the surprising development of very small yield nuclear detonations having been secured. It has often been thought that nuclear weapons are necessarily high yield packages, this the result of fixed critical mass requirements. This restrictive view is obviously incorrect, as recovered patents on special optoexplosive systems teach. These hybrid nuclear weapons systems are also referred to as explosive light generating systems (ELGS). Depending on the explosion employed, physicists knew that highly penetrating radiations and particulate emissions would be accordingly produced. A very bizarre tellurian system arranged the reflection and redirection of radiation products from small yield nuclear explosives. Buried beneath the desert floor in heavily lined concrete conduits or in granitic strata, both nuclear explosives (NX) or chemical explosives (CX) were used to produce unimaginable beams of Clear Atomic Light (CAL). Producing curious cruciform beams of unprecedented brilliance, radiant energies were directed toward special targets for the production of otherwise unattainable high intensity particle beams.
These buried tellurian systems had very obvious applications in other nuclear applications. With simple conversions, these systems could be inverted and placed in orbit. Arranged in various large volume baffle-shaped conduits, systems are described as requiring surprisingly small yield nuclear blasts. These included nuclear explosives of yield as small as 1 or 2 Tons. Specially doped with light metals, the emerging radiant beams were directed by large mirrors to strike targets. In the literature, these experiments were referred to as “High Parameter Energy-Matter Interactions”. Blast and shock formation was minimized by using complex cross-tunnels; N-shaped, Z-shaped, and triangle-shaped tunnels. These baffles were arranged with proper lengths and widths to isolate debris products from the emerging light pulse. With a great deal of help from data gained through Project PLOWSHARE, a great deal of research went into the construction of these thick-walled tellurian chambers (OPERATION DISTANT PLAIN).
Thus free of explosion debris, beams of nuclear brilliance levels were obtained just before the units self-destructed. The large reflector surfaces employed in such systems were consumed with each test run. Reflectors were often simple plastic sheets, or polished metals, and were therefore inexpensive arrangements. The production of reflectable X-Ray, ultraviolet, infrared, or trans-infrared, was thus secured. These clean atomic light beams (CAL) could be shaped be appropriate optical means, producing shaped atomic light (SAL). The optoexplosive technology found new applications, a long series of test allocation granting an array of available nuclear explosives to assess the other weapons potentials of the system. Light pulses from these tests proved conclusively that the emissions were sinusoidal in character, an amazing fact which reveals something of the nuclear blast nature. Close examination of high speed nuclear blast movies reveals a curious darkening effect just preceding the sudden explosive emission of light energies, evidence of a collapsing energy field just prior to explosion. These sudden first darkening effects are not the result of intense brilliance and film bums.
Patent texts teach that the optoexplosive weaponry worked best in greatly lowered atmospheric pressures, producing transcending X-Ray yields. In analogous design tests, obviously conducted in high altitude settings, trials describe concern for atmospheric clarity; a specific space-prone intention. In addition to these nuclear explosives, a series of tests were conducted using high-speed chemical explosives of various compositions, PETN explosives representing the highest speed detonations (8.3 kilometer/sec burn rate). These were doped with a great variety of metallic elements (Ti, Zr, Th, U) to obtain very special radiant characteristics. In addition, a large arsenal of small yield electroexplosives were employed in calibration tests. Abandoned railroad tunnels, missile silos, mine shafts, and artificially scoured tunnels were used as test sites. Tests were conducted from September 1957, both in Montana and Nebraska. The HARDTACK series lists five NX shots during October 1958. Each experiment used nuclear explosives of various small yields and burial depths. TAMALPAIS 72 Ton NX, EVANS 55 Ton NX, NEPTUNE 90 Ton NX, RAINIER 1.7 Kiloton NX, LOGAN 5 Kiloton NX, and BLANCA 19 Kiloton NX. Burial depths ranged from 330 feet to 840 feet. The GNOME NX shot in December 1961 used a 3.5 Kiloton warhead at HARDHAT shot in 1962 used 5 Kiloton NX at 939 feet below sea level.
Fifty percent of NX radiation energy was confined to infrared spectra, ten percent to Ultraviolet, and forty percent to the visible. The thermal X-Ray pulse was absorbed within 10 feet of the blast site, contributing chiefly to plasma fireball expansion. NX shots at 50 miles above sea level altered all of these photon yields, X-Ray pulses being measured out to 10 miles. Metal doping powders could modify all of the resultant spectra. Dopant-enhancement employed foil coatings and particulates (Ag, Cd, Zn, Au, Pb, W, Nb, Ta, Si, B, Li, Be, Ce). Chemical salt dopants were used (chlorides and halides of Sn, Si, Ge) to coat the large plastic reflector diaphragms. Each obtained very specific radiation energy yields. The incredible photon yields from these blasts were used to pump and produce frightfully powerful laser beams, a brilliance comprising a 10 Terrawatt per square meter beam of deadly light energy. While the researchers spent an extensive amount of time studying a wide range of related natural phenomena and effects, these experiments had their deadly directives.
GAMMA RAY BOMBS
A very strange phenomenon involving the gamma ray emissions of specific radioactive transition metal isotopes and rare earth isotopes was observed by Rudolph L. Mossbauer, then a graduate student at Caltech. Gamma ray emissions from these specific elements occur with the emission of phonons, acoustic waves of atomic wavelength. Each gamma ray emitted from the crystalline lattice of one of these elements is accompanied by a constant production of superhigh frequency sound. The phenomenon was considered to be an amazing natural behavior, the consequence of recoil in a crystalline structure. Each gamma ray emitted, results in an equal and opposite phonon emission in the lattice. Here for the first time, scientists were observing the details of radioactive decay, noting that photons, an energy phenomenon, were always accompanied by phonons, a material phenomenon.