Graphite bombs in Yugoslavia. Was there an environmental war in Yugoslavia? An excerpt characterizing the Graphite Bomb

For two months, NATO aviation has been delivering so-called pinpoint strikes on economic targets in Yugoslavia. With the exception of a few annoying missteps, the hits were indeed quite accurate - many chemical, pharmaceutical, oil refineries and oil storage facilities were destroyed to the ground. The use of graphite-filled bombs was quite successful in disabling power lines.

In the June issue of our journal, Professor N.A. Loshadkin spoke about the possible consequences of accidents at chemical enterprises and, given the severity and unpredictability of these consequences, concluded that a covert form of chemical warfare might be possible.

In mid-June, the international humanitarian group Focus, which included Russian and Swiss experts, traveled to Yugoslavia to assess the environmental damage caused by NATO bombing. The Russian part of the experts of 6 people was headed by the Deputy Head of the Department for the Protection of the Population and Territories of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov.

The team surveyed more than 30% of the country's territory, visiting the most affected areas, including Kosovo. The work lasted two months and was carried out in two stages. The first was "sighting" - they assessed the general situation, outlined the areas and objects of a thorough chemical and radiation survey. As a result of the second, a detailed picture of the contamination of soil, water, air and the radiation situation of the surveyed territories was formed. The samples taken by Russian experts were examined right there, on the spot, in a mobile laboratory equipped with sophisticated analytical equipment and a satellite navigation system. Highly sensitive devices made it possible to analyze the soil by 50 parameters, air - up to seventeen. The exception was the analysis of samples for dioxins, which was already carried out in Russia, in a special certified laboratory in Ufa.

The Swiss worked differently: the samples taken were mostly sent by air for analysis in Bern. The data obtained by Russian and Swiss researchers were then compared.

The final results of the expedition became known only in mid-September. The main conclusion of the humanitarian group is as follows: "The prerequisites for the emergence of an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe have arisen in the country." Experts of the Ministry of Emergency Situations attribute the most severe environmental consequences to the bombing of the petrochemical and chemical complexes in the town of Pancevo, the oil refinery in Novi Sad and a large fuel storage facility in the village of Bogutovac. To eliminate environmental consequences, according to preliminary estimates, 5-6 million dollars will be needed.

Is the devil as terrible as he is painted?

What are the conclusions of the international humanitarian group based on? Here are excerpts from their brief summary:

Thermal Power Plant "New Belgrade": Ejection of fuel onto the ground and into the Savva River. The products of combustion were released into the atmosphere.

Pančevo. Refinery. Tanks with crude oil and oil products were destroyed. Oil products got into the system of drains and sewers. The banks of the canal and the Danube river downstream are polluted with crude oil residues.

Nitrogen oxides and oil products in the soil, a significant amount of soot on the soil and plants.

Petrochemical complex "Petrohimia". As a result of the destruction of the technological line of the chlorine production shop, about 8 tons of metallic mercury and its compounds (chlorides and sulfides) were released into the soil and groundwater. Partially vinyl chloride got into the soil. All this fell into the sewage canal, which flows into the Danube River.

The village of Bogutavets (Kranevo district). Fuel storage JSC Bio Petrol. 8 tanks were destroyed, about 17,000 tons of oil products were released into the environment, some of which ended up in the Ibar River. An excess of MPC for hydrocarbons by 25 times, sulfur compounds - by 2-3 times was registered.

City of Novi Sad. Oil refinery The plant is completely destroyed. More than 530 m 3 of oil spilled into the river. A large amount of oil combustion products was released into the atmosphere over an area of ​​more than 300 km 2 .

City of Novi Sad. Factory mineral fertilizers Hip Azotara. The ammonia production shop was completely destroyed and burned down. In the area of ​​the destroyed workshop, an excess of the MPC by 2-3 times for ammonia was noted, the presence of sulfur compounds and nitrogen oxides, as well as on the soil and buildings, was established.

G. Kragujevac. After the graphite-filled bomb was used, abnormal natural phenomena and severe thunderstorms were observed.

Radiation radiation does not exceed the background in all the studied areas.

What is behind this dry information? How dangerous are all these "emissions", "pollution" and "exceeding MPC"? What kind of "anomalous natural phenomena" were observed after the use of graphite bombs and could the latter cause severe thunderstorms? Why did the members of the group measure the radiation - where could it come from?

According to Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor of the Academy of Civil Protection of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, member of the expert group at the State Committee for Ecology of the Russian Federation Igor Pushkin the claim of a possible covert form of chemical warfare is too strong. The bombardment of industrial facilities in order to create a source of chemical danger is not very effective: for this it is necessary to create very high concentrations of chlorine, which is impossible. The main goal of the bombing, in his opinion, is to test new types of weapons and destroy old US combat stocks. Along the way, the territory was polluted. However, according to the professor, the data given in the report are vague and raise some doubts: it is known that only a very superficial analysis can be carried out in the field with the help of mobile laboratories.

Nevertheless, based on these data, according to Igor Pushkin, there is no doubt in the difficult ecological situation of the surveyed areas.

Emission into the atmosphere of oil combustion products - sources of dioxins - over an area of ​​more than 300 km 2 is really dangerous. Careful studies of soil samples, bottom sediments of rivers, taken in the area of ​​Pancevo and Novi Sad, indeed found in them an increased content of dioxins, exceeding the permissible by tens of times.

The release of mercury and its compounds - the strongest poisons - and their entry into the soil and groundwater is one of the most serious consequences of bomb destruction. Vapors of mercury, which mercilessly affects many vital organs under the influence of solar radiation, together with convection air currents, will either rise up or fall. And so they will be in almost perpetual motion - up to several years - before their concentration decreases to a safe level. Deadly balls of mercury, practically not wetting the capillaries of the soil, destroy all living things in it - up to microorganisms.

The detected nitrogen oxides, interacting with water, which is always present in the soil, form nitric acid, which burns everything in its path.

Oil soot, which is not processed by the soil for a long time, interferes with the growth of plants, in addition, it gets into the water, which causes the living creatures to suffer there too: although the hydrocarbons themselves are not harmful, the oxygen dissolved in the water, which is breathed by microorganisms living in the water, daphnia, fish, is consumed for the oxidation of hydrocarbons that have entered there.

And what about Mother Russia?

However, Igor Pushkin believes that Yugoslavia could well cope with all these troubles on its own.

Yes, in the village of Bogutavets, an excess of the MPC for hydrocarbons by 25 times was found, but any garage spills oil products around it in an amount of at least 100 MPC.

The combustion products of petroleum products are quite dangerous, but in the capital of our country, Moscow, they constantly burn a huge amount of them. As Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences said at the Congress of Toxicologists held at the end of last year Viktor Tutelyan, The breast milk of Muscovite women contains twice as much dioxins as the milk of women of the infamous Chapaevsk, where the ecological situation is estimated by Igor Pushkin to be hundreds of times more dangerous than, as can be judged by the results of the Focus expedition, in Yugoslavia. In general, as it was reported at the same congress of toxicologists, in 12% of Russian women the content of dioxins in breast milk exceeds their permissible concentration.

A 1996 analysis of dioxin contamination of enterprises in the Moscow Region showed that out of 36 sites surveyed, seven of them are classified as "major" pollution, while the rest are classified as "significant". And the dioxin load, according to toxicologists, is constantly growing.

As for other types of chemical pollutants, according to Roshydromet, at least 4.22 million tons of sulfur and 4.0 million tons of nitrogen fall annually on the territory of Russia in the form of acid rain. And as Greenpeace reported this spring, over the past 27 years, 1460 tons of mercury have been drained into the Bratsk reservoir, which stands on the Angara, the highest concentration of which can be traced over 120 km. The undisputed leader of these leaks, Usoliekhimprom, still replenishes these stocks with 2.5 tons of mercury every month. It is easy to calculate how many times 8 tons of mercury (spilled in Yugoslavia) is dumped into the Angara in a year. And how much, I wonder, will it take millions of dollars to eliminate environmental disasters in Russia?

Wonder Bombs

Obviously, the interest of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations in the ecological state of the wounded Yugoslavia is caused not only by fraternal sympathy and concern for environment. Why did the experts of the Ministry of Emergency Situations not conduct such a detailed survey of the territory of Chechnya after the last war? After all, oil was also burning there ... "There was no order, there was no money," - this is the answer of the EMERCOM fighters. Indeed, the Swiss brought the lion's share of the money for the ecological expedition to Yugoslavia. However, who paid the rest remains a mystery.

However, it may not be just about money. Well, who is not interested in getting to know a new, ultra-precise weapon better, or at least with tiny shells the size of a ballpoint pen, equipped with uranium tips, or with unusual bombs filled not only with explosives, but also graphite, harmless at first glance?

The projectile, approximately 25 cm long, is packed with palm-sized squib cartridges, each of which contains up to several tens of meters of graphite fibers tightly rolled into a ball. A bomb that explodes at some height above the ground hangs these graphite conductors over power lines, causing bright fireworks of short circuits in order to plunge everything into pitch darkness. But these are all manifestations of human hands. Where do the unusual natural phenomena observed by eyewitnesses come from?

As we were informed by the leading researcher of the Federal Information and Analytical Center of Roshydromet NPO "Typhoon" Boris Yurchak, there is a pre-thunderstorm stage, during which an increase in air conductivity between a thundercloud and the ground can initiate lightning, that is, simply a discharge of electricity accumulated in the clouds to the ground. At one time, in order to actively influence the electrical state of the clouds, quite successful experiments were carried out on launching a rocket to the cloud with a long lightning rod, through which the cloud electricity was discharged.

The flow of a strong current through a graphite filament during discharge can cause it to glow and burn out, which from the outside should look like a lightning bolt. Which, apparently, was perceived by observers as multiple lightning or unusual natural phenomena.

However, scientists are not sure whether just a graphite cloud or filament is enough to create a conductive column between the cloud and the ground. It is possible that additional air ionization is needed, which can be created, for example, using a short-lived source of ionizing radiation. This is one of the reasons why experts from the Ministry of Emergency Situations measured the radiation on the territory of Yugoslavia. It was this source that they were looking for in unexploded shells with graphite filling. However, their research was unsuccessful - the hypothesis of its existence has not yet been confirmed.

As for the really intense and unusually frequent thunderstorms that shook Yugoslavia this spring and summer, as Boris Yurchak noted, this year's summer in Moscow was also very unusual - too hot.

Reports of the use of another unusual weapon by NATO aircraft - uranium-tipped projectiles - turned out to be another, and perhaps the main reason for the careful radiometric studies of the territory of Yugoslavia by the experts of the Focus group. In the city of Vranye, in the area of ​​the damaged television and radio broadcasting tower, they really managed to find empty blanks from shells, as well as the shells themselves, which did not explode by chance. No evidence of the use of "uranium" bombs was found in any other area surveyed.

According to the expedition member, head of the radiological laboratory of the Emergency Monitoring and Laboratory Control Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Oleg Rakunov, the measurements of alpha and gamma radiation in places where uranium projectiles hit - small in diameter, the size of a mole hole, but extremely deep holes - did not show an excess of the background. Empty blanks and unexploded shells emitted with an intensity of 400-500 μR / h, which is three dozen times higher than the permissible one in Moscow, but there was no excess background even a meter away from them, which is quite logical, given the intense absorption of alpha radiation by air. Gamma spectrometric measurements of the soil did not reveal its contamination with radionuclides. In a word, uranium shells, fortunately, did not cause an ecological catastrophe.

As another member of the expedition told us, the head of the laboratory control department of the Emergency Situations Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Viktor Vinnikov, in Serbia, the group observed great destruction not only industrial enterprises, but also transport communications, energy supply systems and hydraulic structures, and the Serbs are very actively restoration work on their territory, which cannot be said about the Kosovo Albanians, who are passively waiting for help from outside and actually receiving it. And according to Oleg Rakunov, perhaps the main goal of the Focus group's expedition is to draw attention to Serbia, which needs help no less than Kosovo.

Tatyana Zimina

Editor's Note: When the article was already in print, the RosBusinessConsulting news agency reported that NATO military officials admitted that their use of low-uranium projectiles in Yugoslavia had Negative consequences for human health and the environment.

dmitry24 02-03-2010 21:42

I would venture to create a topic and, perhaps, be thrown by something, I don’t know what they usually throw at you here.

I remembered Yugoslavia the other day in 1999, when the Americans tested BLU-114/B graphite bombs that disabled high-voltage electrical systems.
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphite_bomb

And a little later I remembered about explosive magnetic generators, which, in general, are disposable, but have outstanding characteristics - hundreds of kiloamperes and kilovolts of output voltage, multiplied by fairly small dimensions.
http://bse.sci-lib.com/particle004224.html

What is the essence of the idea. A graphite bomb can only hit an object under high potential, causing insulation breakdowns, arc effects, simple short circuits in various circuits, etc. No high voltage - no damaging effect.

What if we supplement the graphite bomb with a small explosive magnetic generator? In principle, when graphite filaments are released, as in BLU-114 / B, or just graphite dust, it can penetrate into the smallest technological holes in electronic equipment, stick sensors, contacts, antennas, etc., and the charge released during operation of an explosive magnetic generator, firstly, it will cause multiple electrical discharges in a cloud of graphite dust, disabling electronic equipment, and secondly, part of the graphite must heat up and burn out, providing some thermal damaging factor.

How do you like the idea?

AleX413 03-03-2010 12:33

The idea itself is nothing... It is impossible in the dust, otherwise the breakdown will occur right on the spot and the ionized cloud around the bomb will absorb all the energy. Only if you add conductors to the bomb, which will be scattered to the sides before detonation. Graphite threads cannot be scattered in a decent radius, it is easier to use thin wire on coils or strong metallized threads, such as Lurex. Nothing special is required from the wires. Only create channels for subsequent breakdown through air, and then they can evaporate.
The only question is how far you can scatter the bobbins with wires. You need at least a hundred meters, otherwise it makes no sense. Let's say we stick a bomb into the ground (slowing down with a parachute), from the bottom we shoot in different directions of the coil and after some time we blow it up. In any case, even if the part is not unwound or not to its full length, it will not be worse.

dmitry24 03-03-2010 02:53

I guess, yes. You can arrange the product in the form of a descent container with a small parachute, on approaching the ground, cassettes with coils are fired around the perimeter with a fan, from which the wire is unwound, and even better - not wire, but nylon fishing line with a conductive coating. After shooting the fan vertically down into the ground, the second electord is fired, after which the generator is started and blown.
In principle, the fan can be of a very large diameter, in the same "Bassoon" (if I'm not mistaken) the wire was unwound for 2 kilometers at a rocket speed of about 200 m / s. Those. in 1 second, you can cover an area with a diameter of 400 meters, without fear of breaking the wire.
And after the generator is started, there is a fairly high probability that all electronics, possibly with the exception of vacuum devices and well-shielded, that fall into the affected area, will be damaged, probably even without the possibility of recovery.

AleX413 03-03-2010 03:39

In general, yes, you can’t stick a bomb. Then it's even easier. In time, together with a parachute, we release a cable with a load in front - grounding and a simple height sensor in one bottle, as in American thermobaric bombs from the Vietnam War. The load falls to the ground, the cable tension weakens - we shoot the coils and then undermine. Cable with a margin of 10 meters ...

theTBAPb 03-03-2010 19:50

Quite an interesting idea; Unfortunately, it is difficult to assess its prospects by eye. It may be viable if - it can ensure the defeat of either a larger area than existing bombs, or targets that conventional bombs cannot hit. In principle, both the first and the second are very likely.

On the technical side - defeat by electricity - this is of course a thought; but the transfer of electricity by throwing conductors is a tried and tested method, but far from the only one - for example, this article describes many different ways of transferring energy effects to a target (including graphite fibers among the first), and I think we simply will not appreciate the potential of the idea , without considering them in this vein
For example, instead of throwing a fan of conductors, it looks tempting to form a conducting channel by ionizing air with a UV laser beam - this way the bomb becomes IMHO more flexible in use. To power lasers, you can use another explosive generator, or make them yourself based on disposable active elements (I heard about such, but unfortunately I don’t know the details)

dmitry24 03-03-2010 20:30

but the transmission of electricity by throwing conductors

The conductors serve to form the plasma channel. When discharged, they will evaporate instantly, because. the power of the generator is commensurate with the power of a lightning discharge, with all the consequences.
In the article at the link, by the way, this method of energy transfer is referred to as "Plasma". Only the author suggests first "piercing" the plasma channel by throwing overheated graphite spheres or plasma beams, but here - everything is simple - the channel breaks right during the discharge.

The conductors being fired should not reach the ground, they should simply hang in the air, forming an "umbrella" over the area of ​​destruction. And at the moment of the discharge, they will evaporate, forming plasma channels, through which the most powerful discharge will run, "looking for" the target itself, because. the shortest distance to the second electrode - the earth - will run through the conductors that have turned up on the way of the discharge. Plus, powerful air ionization, radar illumination, night vision devices, a powerful magnetic pulse.

On the other hand - put a lightning rod - and that's it - the generator will be discharged through it, and such a damaging factor as an electric discharge is excluded, only the magnetic component will remain.

I see the use of such a device as a method of temporarily "blinding" the radar, destroying unprotected electronics, usually small ones - walkie-talkies, positioning system receivers, etc., i.e. primarily mobile means of communication and communications of the enemy.

In theory, you can describe the product as a capacitor, one electrode of which is infinitely large - the earth, and the second - round, of a given diameter, located at the height of the conductors. Knowing the properties of the medium, it is possible to simply calculate the conditions for electrical breakdown, and taking into account the power of the generator, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe "fan" and its configuration, the breakdown with a sufficient degree of probability will be multiple.

Yes, such things can bomb Skynet to death!

Of course, yes, they say this thing will never be not only implemented, but at least tested in practice, because. this business is unprofitable, and nobody in our country needs it. It is enough to look at the conditions in which people involved in high-power electrical processes work for us, to clutch their heads and go into a binge.

theTBAPb 04-03-2010 22:33

dmitry24, the fact that the conductor will turn into plasma - of course, you just have to throw it anyway. Those. the principle is still similar to throwing a conductor, plasma is added as a nice side effect
Laser ionization seems to me just more convenient

the original version also has some perspectives - with a cloud of graphite threads suspended in the air
Electricity follows the path of least resistance, but in a cloud of filaments this path is constantly changing - the filaments in the air constantly change their relative position, and you can choose the parameters of the filaments so that after each discharge the plasma channel breaks due to the instantaneous combustion of the filament and the dispersion of the plasma by its flash. So, instead of stationary plasma channels, we get wandering ones, which are fuller and denser - with some probability and past the lightning rod - will clean up the affected area.

The saving role of a lightning rod, by the way, with a sufficiently powerful discharge is questionable - the potential and "step" voltage of the earth near its ground may be sufficient to defeat.

To blind the radar - this is the case; however, if we are not talking about the defeat of the electronics of the radar by an electric discharge and EMP, but about blinding by a radio-opaque cloud of plasma, then this IMHO method turns out to be quite short-range and it became expensive

AleX413 04-03-2010 23:29

quote: Originally posted by theTBAPb:
the original version also has some perspectives - with a cloud of graphite threads suspended in the air

None at all. The radius of destruction of these bombs is limited not by the power of the charge and not by something else inside, but by the ionization of the air around the bomb. And after a certain limit, the efficiency does not grow, but, as it were, on the contrary, it only decreases.
And there is only one way to fight - increasing the size (radius) of the source itself.

dmitry24 05-03-2010 01:14

And if the product is made not in the form of a bomb, but in the form of a grenade for RPG-7, like PG-7VR? A charge-capsule can act as a leading charge, forming a graphite spot on the target surface and around it, and a generator can act as the main charge. In this scenario, the delivery of graphite dust and the generator occurs directly to the target, which, in my opinion, should increase efficiency. It would be interesting to know the dependence of the power of an explosive magnetic generator on its mass and size.

Or maybe there is a sense in the cumulative action ammunition, supplemented by a generator, for additional ionization of the cumulative jet?

AleX413 05-03-2010 02:35

And then let's add ... We divide the engine checker into the engine itself and the gas generator as a tracer, with high temperature and plus the release of easily ionized byaki. The plume of smoke behind the shot is one half. And a small racket in front, so that it would shoot back before the explosion - the second one. Then shake and...
Only PG-7 contact action. It is necessary to organize a measurement of the distance and undermining at a given point. By time or by the number of revolutions of the shot. And the bomb capacitors are charged from the aircraft before being dropped.

theTBAPb 05-03-2010 20:06

quote: It would be interesting to know the dependence of the power of an explosive magnetic generator on its mass and size.

I do not know exactly, but it can be roughly estimated as the power of explosive transformation multiplied by the efficiency of transformation into electricity. the latter, I think, is about 30-40%

Rumorukato 07-03-2010 01:00

In fact, everything is not so rosy - remember, magnetic fields have a quadratic inversely proportional relationship, and electromagnetic, and static, and pulse, too.
explosive generators operate on the principle of shortening the circuit with oscillations excited in it by the method of successive shorting of the turns, which occurs quasi-instantly.
Thus, at the output we will get the energy spent on excitation of oscillations, but splashed out in a short period of time, moreover, multiplied by the efficiency of the system, and it is clearly low.
That is, if there is a desire to hit an object with high voltage, there is no point in wasting energy on converting back and forth. A cloud of conductive parts, especially with easily formed ionization channels, will simply absorb all the energy of an electromagnetic charge. There is no doubt that in this case it will definitely warm up, but only chemical thermobaric charges will be more effective ..
In general, electromagnetic charges are a rather controversial topic. As practice has shown, sufficiently well-shielded equipment treats them completely indifferently, unless the explosion is carried out in the immediate vicinity - then the equipment will undoubtedly be damaged, and mainly by high-explosive fragmentation.
Regarding the "capacitor" earth-charge - it is very curious, where will the second pole of the charge go? or are you going to stuff it with magnetic monopoles?

dmitry24 07-03-2010 02:19

quote: Originally posted by Rumorukato:

very curious, where will the second pole of the charge go?

Duc! The cable communicates with the ground.

Rumorukato 08-03-2010 01:26

Can you graphically depict the direction of currents and EMF?

Adonikam 14-02-2011 19:36

quote: explosive generators operate on the principle of shortening the circuit with oscillations excited in it by the method of successive shorting of the turns, which occurs quasi-instantly.

Question - The efficiency of the VGenerator strongly depends on the speed of propagation of the circuit, by means of explosives? Is it possible to close the turns with a UV laser (by ionizing the space between the turns - closing them), microwave or something else, the main thing is to increase the shortening speed of the circuit to about light. It makes sense?

AleX413 15-02-2011 12:25

The efficiency depends indirectly. The peak power and the duration of the leading edge clearly depend.
And you can't do that. The closure must occur (significantly) slower than the propagation of EM waves in the conductor being closed. If faster - we get a short circuit on ourselves and that's it.

Adonikam 15-02-2011 17:13

AleX413 16-02-2011 07:47

I thought about something else - you can not close the coil, but stretch it ... Well, yes, the speed is an order of magnitude less ... Well, to hell with it. But it is simple, cheap and reliable even in the knee-length version.

kotowsk 17-02-2011 23:23

What happens if a person hangs on a power line wire? yes nothing will happen. a person will be shy only by the "step voltage", and for this, the conductivity must not be improved, but lowered.
true for some reason:
For work on the operation and repair of electrical installations
voltage over 1000 V, as well as for the repair of overhead lines
power transmission without removing the voltage, work at height,
repair of instrumentation and automation of thermal
power plants and substations are not allowed female electricians
gender.
http://www.bestpravo.ru/fed1997/data01/tex11047.htm
but the fighters still have almost no effect.

AleX413 18-02-2011 12:01

quote: Originally posted by kotowsk:
What happens if a person hangs on a power line wire? yes nothing will happen. a person will be shy only by the "step voltage", and for this, the conductivity must not be improved, but lowered.

He himself will shy away - a man is his own capacitor. Although small, but also some kind of voltage ... Therefore, it can be a little bo-bo

In general, touch the wire itself without problems. The resistance of an aluminum cable with a diameter of 2 cm is many, many orders of magnitude less than the resistance of the carcass - there will be no stepping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYmJBxEafEQ

kotowsk 18-02-2011 12:08

quote: He will shy away himself - a man is his own capacitor

well, it doesn't shy away. True, there they wear special suits. they showed a show about it. under tension. maybe they do

quote: a little bo-bo

but they endure. at least they endure for the money. and God himself ordered to be patient in battle.

Rumorukato 21-02-2011 01:57

the suit is electrically conductive on the outside, so thanks to the faraday cage effect, no one is scared there. But since the voltage in the wires is variable, the capacitance of the helicopter naturally affects. Therefore, they equalize the potential by throwing a conductor over the cable.

In 1921, the German physicist O. Gann discovered a hitherto unknown isotope of uranium, which he immediately called uranium-Z. In terms of atomic mass and chemical properties, it did not differ from those already known. Of interest to science was its half-life - it was slightly longer than that of other isotopes of uranium. In 1935, the Kurchatov brothers, L.I. Rusinov and L.V. Mysovsky obtained a specific isotope of bromine with similar properties. It was after this that the world science closely took up the problem called the isomerism of atomic nuclei. Since then, several dozen isomeric isotopes with a relatively long lifetime have been found, but now we are only interested in one, namely 178m2Hf (an isotope of hafnium with an atomic mass of 178 units. The m2 in the index allows us to distinguish it from the m1 isotope with the same mass, but other other indicators).

This hafnium isotope differs from its other isomeric counterparts with a half-life of more than a year by the highest excitation energy - about 1.3 TJ per kilogram of mass, which is approximately equal to the explosion of 300 kilograms of TNT. The release of all this mass of energy occurs in the form of gamma radiation, although this process is very, very slow. Thus, the military application of this hafnium isotope is theoretically possible. It was only necessary to force the atom or atoms to pass from the excited state to the ground state at the appropriate rate. Then the released energy could surpass in effect any existing one. Theoretically it could.

It came to practice in 1998. Then a group of employees of the University of Texas, led by Carl B. Collins, founded the Center for Quantum Electronics in one of the university buildings. Under a serious and pretentious sign, there was a set of equipment required for such laboratories, mountains of enthusiasm and something that vaguely resembled an X-ray machine from a dentist's office and an amplifier for an audio system that fell into the hands of an evil genius. From these devices, the scientists of the "Center" assembled a remarkable unit, which was to play a major role in their study.

The amplifier generated an electrical signal with the required parameters, which was converted into x-rays in the x-ray machine. It was heading for a tiny piece of 178m2Hf lying on an inverted disposable glass. To be honest, this looks far from what advanced science should look like, which, in fact, the Collins group considered itself to be. For several days, the X-ray device irradiated the hafnium preparation, and the sensors dispassionately recorded everything they “felt”. It took several more weeks to analyze the results of the experiment. And so, Collins publishes an article about his experiment in the journal Physical Review Letters. As it was said in it, the purpose of the research was to extract the energy of atoms at the will of scientists. The experiment itself was supposed to confirm or disprove Collins's theory regarding the possibility of doing such things with the help of X-rays. During the study, the measuring equipment recorded an increase in the level of gamma radiation. It was negligible, which, at the same time, did not prevent Collins from making a conclusion about the fundamental possibility of "man-made" bringing the isotope into a state of accelerated decay. The main conclusion of Mr. Collins looked like this: since it is possible to speed up the process of energy release to a small extent, then there must be some conditions under which the atom will get rid of energy orders of magnitude faster. Most likely, Collins believed, it was enough to simply increase the power of the X-ray emitter for an explosion to occur.

True, the scientific community of the world read Collins' article with irony. If only because the statements were too loud, and the methodology for conducting the experiment was dubious. Nevertheless, as usual, in a number of laboratories around the world they tried to repeat the experiment of the Texans, but almost all of them failed. The increase in the level of radiation from the hafnium preparation was within the error of the sensitivity of the instruments, which did not exactly speak in favor of Collins' theory. Therefore, the ridicule did not stop, but even intensified. But soon the scientists forgot about the unsuccessful experiment.

The military is not. They really liked the idea of ​​a nuclear isomer bomb. The following arguments spoke in favor of such a weapon:
- energy "density". A kilogram of 178m2Hf, as already mentioned, is equivalent to three centners of TNT. And this means that in the dimensions of a nuclear charge, you can get a more powerful bomb.

Efficiency. An explosion is an explosion, but the bulk of the hafnium energy is released in the form of gamma radiation, which is not afraid of enemy fortifications, bunkers, etc. Thus, a hafnium bomb can destroy both electronics and enemy personnel without much destruction.

tactical features. The compact size of a relatively powerful bomb will allow you to deliver it to the place literally in a suitcase. This, of course, is not a Q-bomb from the books of L. Wibberley (a miracle weapon the size of a soccer ball that can destroy an entire continent), but it is also a very useful thing.

legal side. When a bomb explodes on nuclear isomers, there is no transformation of one chemical element into another. Accordingly, isomeric weapons cannot be considered nuclear and, as a result, they are not subject to international agreements banning the latter.

It was a small matter: to allocate money and spend everything necessary work. As they say, start and finish. DARPA entered into financial plan for the next few years a line for hafnium bombs. Exactly how much money was spent on all this is unknown. According to rumors, the bill goes to tens of millions, but the figure was not officially disclosed.

First of all, they decided to reproduce the Collins experiment again, but now “under the wing” of the Pentagon. At first, the Argonne National Laboratory was entrusted with checking his work, but even similar results did not come out. Collins, however, referred to the insufficient power of X-rays. It was increased, but again the expected results were not obtained. Collins still answered, they say, they themselves are to blame - turn the power knob. As a result, the Argonne scientists even tried to irradiate the hafnium preparation using the APS high-power installation. Needless to say, the results were again not what the Texans were talking about? Nevertheless, DARPA decided that the project has the right to life, only they need to be done well. Over the next few years, experiments were carried out in several laboratories and institutes. The apotheosis was the irradiation of 178m2Hf "from" the NSLS synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory. And there, too, despite the increase in radiation energy by hundreds of times, the gamma radiation of the isotope was, to put it mildly, small.

Simultaneously with nuclear physicists, economists also dealt with the problem. In the early 2000s, they issued a forecast that sounded like a sentence to the whole undertaking. One gram of 178m2Hf cannot cost less than 1-1.2 million dollars. In addition, about 30 billion will have to be invested in the production of even such insignificant quantities. To this must be added the costs of creating the ammunition itself and its production. Well, the final nail in the coffin of the hafnium bomb was the fact that even if NSLS could provoke an "explosion", the practical use of such a bomb was out of the question.

So officials from DARPA, a few years late and spending a lot of public money, in 2004 capitally cut funding for the program to study isomeric weapons. They cut it down, but did not stop: for another year and a half or two, research was going on on the topic of a “laser-like” gamma emitter operating according to the same scheme. Soon, however, this direction was closed.

In 2005, in the magazine "Successes physical sciences»an article by E.V. Tkal entitled "Induced Decay of the 178m2Hf Nuclear Isomer and the 'Isomeric Bomb'". In it, the theoretical side of reducing the time of energy transfer by the isotope was considered in the most detailed way. In short, this can only happen in three ways: interaction of radiation with the nucleus (in this case, decay occurs through an intermediate level), interaction of radiation, and electron shell(the latter transfers excitation to the nucleus of the atom) and a change in the probability of spontaneous decay. At the same time, at the current and future level of development of science and technology, even with large and over-optimistic assumptions in the calculations, it is simply impossible to achieve an explosive release of energy. In addition, in a number of points, Tkalya believes, Collins' theory comes into conflict with modern views on the foundations of nuclear physics. Of course, this could be regarded as a kind of revolutionary breakthrough in science, but experiments do not give rise to such optimism.

Now Karl B. Collins generally agrees with the conclusions of his colleagues, but still does not deny isomers in practical application. For example, directed gamma radiation, he believes, can be used to treat cancer patients. And the slow, non-explosive, radiation of energy by atoms can in the future give humanity super-capacity batteries of enormous power.

However, all this will only be in the future, near or far. And then, if scientists decide to re-engage in the problem of the practical application of nuclear isomers. If those works are successful, then it is possible that the beaker from the Collins experiment, stored under glass at the University of Texas (now called the “Memorial Stand for the Dr. K. Experiment”), will be transferred to a larger and more respected museum.

Have you ever been to Japan? For example, in this big, intensively developing city, where skyscrapers grow like mushrooms after rain? Welcome to Hiroshima. “What Hiroshima?”, - you ask, - “After all, Hiroshima is…” Well, okay. Here is another Japanese city - Nagasaki. How are you? Yes, and Nagasaki too... ... Maybe the modern inhabitants of these cities were deliberately misled, and they do not know anything about the danger? Maybe you need to urgently inform the Japanese that they live in a zone of deadly radiation? But before calling the Ministry of Emergency Situations, let's remember what we generally know about Radiation? This is a fairly common property of matter. The sun is something like a giant hydrogen bomb that emits photons in a wide range, ions, as well as gamma radiation, that is, radiation. The force heating the Earth from within, from the so-called core of the Earth, is also related to the nuclear decay of heavy transuranium elements. Radiation is emitted by the soil, living bodies, and some medical devices. It turns out that radiation surrounds us everywhere and penetrates into our body. Sometimes you can hear such a phrase: “natural radioactive background” - somewhere it is only 15 thousandths of a milliroentgen per hour, and somewhere ten times more, and it is also considered “natural”. However, it is more likely that high levels of radioactive radiation in nature are as natural as the “natural” content of heavy metals in water bodies into which the waste products of factories flow. Imagine what will happen if 209 nuclear weapons with a total capacity of about 250 Mt (megatons) are detonated on the territory of Russia? Pip on your tongue, you say, it's the end of the world. However, how do you react to the official data, according to which, in the period from 1949 to 1963, just such a number of nuclear shells bombarded the territory of the Soviet Union? Here is an American bomb, nicknamed "Baby", which was dropped on August 9, 1945 on Hiroshima. Now multiply this bomb 16,600 times. This is the total power of the strike on the USSR from the 49th to the 63rd years of the last century. It is as if the British fired their entire nuclear arsenal of 160 warheads towards the uninhabited regions of the Soviet Union. How is this possible? Soviet nuclear tests took place at the two largest test sites in Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya. For example, the Semipalatinsk test site, which was and is still located in a fairly populated area. Although, logically, it should be located almost at the North Pole or somewhere in Siberia. By the time of the explosion of the first test nuclear bomb, a completely new city of Kuratov was located at a distance of some 60 km. In 1954, another one appeared 80 km from the test site - the city of Chagan. Now, imagine that you live in one of these cities. Get out on the balcony to breathe in the fresh morning air. And suddenly - a flash. “What is there, a thunderstorm?” Your wife will ask. “No, they are testing nuclear bombs again.” Really, what's wrong with that? And no panic! About a hundred atmospheric (that is, not underground) nuclear and thermonuclear charges of various capacities, from 1 kiloton to several megatons, with an average frequency of once a month. Even an ultra-small charge of 1 kt gives rise to a characteristic nuclear mushroom about 3 km high. And 1 megaton of power is a mushroom 19 km high. Ground nuclear explosions at the Semipalatinsk test site had a total yield of about 100 Mt. If all these projectiles were detonated at the same time, then a square of territory measuring 240 by 240 km would receive a radiation blow with a lethal power of 30 Sv (Sievert). For comparison, a person with a dose of only 0.05 Sv is already considered exposed. It is precisely the fact that the atomic bombs did not explode all at the same time, but strictly dosed, with a difference in time, makes these explosions much less dangerous - including from the point of view of radioactive radiation. Everyone knows from school age that the earth after nuclear explosion unsuitable for life and even deadly. The use of water from the affected area will also, at a minimum, lead to terrible radiation exposure of the body and genetic rearrangements, and, as a maximum, to a painful death. There is even one about it. famous fairy tale … But this is all in theory. What about in practice? On many continents, here and there you can see huge, perfectly round depressions and lakes, suspiciously resembling funnels from powerful explosions. Here, for example, one of these lakes is called Chagan. Since Soviet times, livestock have been coming here for watering. The lake is like a lake. In fact, this is a real radioactive funnel, which was formed in 1965 as a result of the explosion of a 170-kiloton thermonuclear charge, laid in a well 178 meters deep in the bed of the small river Chagan, which is not far from the Semipalatinsk test site. Radioactive contamination of water in the lake at the end of the 90s. was estimated at 300 picocurie / liter (despite the fact that the maximum permissible level of water pollution for the total radioactivity of alpha particles is 15 picocurie / liter). However, the lake has been used for all these years for watering cattle! For 50 years, no lesions have been detected in animals and shepherds. In this case, we can definitely check the reason for the appearance of a perfectly round lake, which cannot be said about other seemingly completely natural lakes and craters of the same ideal geometric shape. Recall at least the numerous perfectly round lakes in Russia. And here are the places of a terrible catastrophe - the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Google Mobile 360 ​​camera footage from 2017 shows that people are gradually returning to this city. Shops open, you can meet rare passers-by on the streets. Many did not leave these places at all even immediately after the explosion. In any case, until the photo shows people with two heads, three legs, and so on. In short, life goes on. It continues in Japanese cities with a hellish past - Fukushima and Nagasaki. And these cities are much more technologically advanced than most Russian cities that have never been subjected to atomic bombing. As for air nuclear explosions (from 30-50 m above the ground), in these cases most of the radioactive isotopes are released high into the atmosphere. Then these microparticles disperse and pollute a huge space, sometimes sometimes on a planetary scale. Isotopes generally fall out of the stratosphere only after a few years. Therefore, taking into account the weather conditions, it is relatively safe to work at such a landfill. A colossal portion of isotopes, heat and dust, released into the upper atmosphere as a result of the explosion of 530 nuclear charges, could not but affect the climate and the "natural radioactive background". Many of those who found the 60s of the last century noted that the winters during that period became warmer, and the summer season became cooler. Some modern researchers have turned to the study of such a phenomenon as annual tree rings. After all, it was from the 60s that the summer growth of trees slowed down, which was reflected in the thickness of the annual rings. In 1963, the nuclear powers agreed: from now on, atomic bomb tests will only be carried out underground. Apparently, the leaders of the states have realized how serious the consequences for the climate are such fiddling with nuclear weapons. But does that really make a difference? After all, the tragedy at Fukushima was provoked just by an underground nuclear explosion. But we will talk about this another time, a video about this will be released on our channel in the near future. And now let's remember this. In the first half of the 20th century, when radioactivity was little studied, radium and thorium were considered medicinal; they were added to medicines, ointments, cosmetics, such as powder and face cream; from radioactive metals, they launched the production of compresses and even a kind of activator for water - this is when radium was placed in water at night and drank it in the morning, thinking that now it is very useful. What will happen to a person if he ingests small doses of radium-226 and radium-228 mixed with distilled water? You will almost certainly answer that he will not last long, and death will be painful. Here, for example, tablets "Raditor". Only one such “baby” irradiated a person by about 1 microcurie. Drinking such dietary supplements was considered useful, while no mass deaths and sudden radiation sickness were observed. As they say, everything needs a measure. Meanwhile, the “Raditor” pills became famous for the fact that in 1932 they killed Eben McBurney Byers, an American athlete who, in just two years, drank about 1400 (thousand four hundred) bottles of this, so to speak, panacea, having received a dose of radiation three times higher than deadly. As a result, after 3 years of taking such pills, he lost all his teeth, part of his jaw, his bones became unrealistically soft. In the end, after another two years, Byers died. And the use of radiation in medicine began with the fact that Henri Coutard determined that cancer cells in the larynx at an early stage can be suppressed by radioactive radiation in a small dose, and there will supposedly be no side effects. This method of treating cancerous tumors was called the "Cutara-Rego Method" and is still used in medicine. Another illustrative example is the construction of the very first on the Eurasian continent nuclear reactor F-1 under the leadership of the "father" of the Soviet atomic bomb Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov. The room in which the reactor was located, as well as all the personnel, did not have any special protection. But the most interesting thing is that the reactor itself was assembled and disassembled several times - by hand in the truest sense of the word. Small cylinders of radioactive metal were inserted into graphite blocks, in fact, with bare hands. Without any special protection whatsoever. Nuclear physicists in the comments will surely say that the F-1 was the so-called zero-power reactor, i.e. very low power that does not require cooling. And nuclear fuel in modern nuclear power plants is much more powerful and deadly. True, there are still eccentrics who walk on it in special protection, consisting of one helmet. So what is radiation? Is it as dangerous as the vast majority think? Meet Gehlen Winser, one of the greatest nuclear physicists of his time... Let's hear what he has to say: In general, there is something to think about. If you have any ideas, write in the comments. If you think this video deserves a like, thank you for your rating. And that's all we have for today. See you soon!