Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia?
by jhayward on Monday December 04, 2017 @04:54PM
(#15847922)
If I recall correctly the case of the re-entry vehicle tends to be stuff like depleted uranium, which is pretty good protection against neutron flux up until the point where it begins significant breeder contributions. You'd basically have the hit the vehicle anyway to get close enough for that.
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Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia?
by rdtsc on Monday December 04, 2017 @09:53PM
(#15849401)
Uranium or lead, heavy nuclei that shield well against gamma radiation would do little for neutrons.
Neutrons needs something with light atom like hydrogen - water or maybe polyethylene and lots of it to slow down. So a small nuclear explosion which emits a neutron pulse might work pretty well. It would hellish if it somehow exploded over a population center, though. Didn't get hit by the ICBM (good). Everyone's bones melted (bad).