Reply To: Global Warming

[Lerner]

First why in the world do we even want a new weapon–we have too many as is.

Over the years I’ve looked at weapon applications in order to answer the question of whether focus fusion is a proliferation threat. The conclusion I have always reched is that the only way it can be used as a weapon is to drop it on someone’s head. To put it another way, you can kill people with a hammer, but that does not make a hammer a weapon.

Focus fusion is a source of three things–electricity, ion beams and x-rays. It is very difficult to make electricity into a weapon–it has been aroudn along time and no one has succeeded. X-rays are easily stopped by shielding and get diluted rapdily with distance.

So that leaves the ion beam. In space it is very hard to aim a charged particle beam because of the earth’s magnetic fields. In air, the beam will just not penetrate very far.

So, focus fusion is only for peaceful applications. Unfortunately we already know how to use thermonuclear reactions for warfare.