BioChromatic Nuclear Weaponry

[Heir of the Void]

So, in the interests of logical extremes, it seems reasonable to investigate the possibility of producing a useful atomic device employing BioChroma as a primary method of action. Because really, can any good come from giving skeletons the most powerful weapon in the world?

The device starts with a bucket of blood (the 'suspension solution'), with a volume of around a bushel and a half. The material of the bucket is a rather important consideration, though the optimal choice will depend on the final design and certain, at present unanswered, questions of atomic-awakening interactions. However, a neutron reflector, beryllium oxide or tungsten carbide, is a likely candidate.

 

At this point, Plutonium-239 dust is mixed into the suspension solution; this is the key step to the operation of the device. The amount of fissile material added to the solution will signfigantly exceed the critical mass of the material, but the suspension solution will be Awakened to avoid the assemble of a supercritical mass until detonation. Several approaches are possible here, though physical suspension of the plutonium is key. Note that an 11kg sphere of plutonium (four inches across) constitutes a critical mass

 

If the awakened material can alter it's neutron interaction properties according to its Command, this is most desirable. This assumption is not without merit, as awakened materials can display highly abnormal properties in their interactions with physical objects, and neutrons are, in certain ways, small, fast-moving objects. If this is the case, then suspending the fissile material in a suspension solution capable of inhibiting neutron exchange without decaying and held in a non-reflective organic container is possible design route. The commands would be organized in such a way that, when detonation conditions are met, the container becomes a neutron reflector at the same time as the suspension solution becomes neutron transparent and an external surge of neutrons is provided. This causes the device to become an assembly considerably above critical mass and, with the neutrons introduced, results in a detonation.

 

 

 

At this point, we have several options for increasing efficiency. At the most basic, adding additional actions to the Awakening Commands to physically concentrate the fissile material near the center of the device while moving the suspension solution away, resulting in a much higher density of the material, and thus a greater chain reaction. There are several possible limitations to this approach, not the least of which is the speed of assembly, which may be too low to be relevant.

 

However, if a 'false shock wave' behavior can be created, mechanical compression may be extremely useful. In this configuration, Commanding the suspension solution to become a neutron reflector is likely to be beneficial, as the fissile material will be spatially separated from the inner wall of the container, limiting its ability to influence the detonation in the time span involved.

[Landis963]

How would you phrase the Command?  Or more accurately, how would you picture the Command happening in your head?  

[Heir of the Void]

How would you phrase the Command?  Or more accurately, how would you picture the Command happening in your head?  

 

With sufficient understanding of the principals, it might be able to be as simple as 'detonate on command', though a more complex Command might be necessary.

 

As for the visualization, for the neutron transparency, something like the blood 'blowing' the (abstractly visualized) neutrons out of the container and the plutonium dust in place, given that the objective there is to use molecular-scale movement to 'cheat' the neutron interaction and buoyancy. Given that a liquid at room temperature is already moving quite a bit on that scale, the actual kinetic energy involved is fairly small; its the nature of it that's key. Hence the idea I used when picturing it was a sort of 'still wind'.

 

For detonation, the 'wind' turns inward, blowing the neutrons and/or plutonium toward the center, sort of 'pushing' it to gain the right behavior.

 

Obviously, both visualizations are far more abstract than normal, though that's really the only way it could work on this scale. I'm not sure how efficient the command would be, which is why I chose blood as the suspension solution. Hopefully, it's close connection to being alive will make up for some of the loss from a complex Command and being far from a living form.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Heir of the Void

[natc]

I wonder if it's possible to administer lifeless command phrases over the phone?

Then we can just install a miniature button in a sealed box as a detonator for a more mundane nuke with a lifeless cricket inside.

Edited February 4, 2016 by natc

[Heir of the Void]

I wonder if it's possible to administer lifeless command phrases over the phone?

Then we can just install a miniature button in a sealed box as a detonator for a more mundane nuke with a lifeless cricket inside.

 

Yeah, detonation is one of those 'fiddly bits' that I hadn't quite figured out yet. The device is probably going to be a bit too large to deliver via Lifeless Bird (and I'm not sure how well the flight feathers would stay on in any case), and the telephone thing would be somewhat impeded by the lack of telephones, much like how constructing a mundane nuke would be impeded by the lack of high-velocity explosives.

 

As for enriching the nuclear material, the usual methods of isotope separation will probably be off the table. However, there might be a fix for that, assuming infinite intestinal fortitude.

[Oudeis]

Language is the only science I'm at all good at, so this is my only contribution. My buddy is a nuclear chemist and a Sanderfan (though he doesn't come on the Shard very often) so I'm gonna show him all of this and see if he has any thoughts. It sure is interesting, though. Oh my. Very science. Such bomb.

 

When Vasher gives Commands to be triggered later, he says, "Upon call," as in, "Upon call, become as my fingers and grip that which I must." So the specific phrasing might be something more like, "Upon call, detonate."

 

What's nice about that, Vasher doesn't say anything aloud about what "call" is, but it's later triggered by a specific thumb-twitch. With practice, then, you can apparently just say, "upon call" and mentally envision the trigger to be just about anything. Put a clock next to it with the alarm set for five hours, and imagine that "upon call" is the sound of the clock chiming. Or "after a thousand people have tread on you" and then bury it on the path of an approaching army (or under a civilian street, you MONSTER). Maybe "call" can be when it reaches a certain temperature, or a speed, literally any imaginable condition.

 

We've not yet seen, but it's possible, that you can give Commands a time. "At five o'clock, detonate." "In five hours, detonate." Although, minor spoilers for another book, we've seen an instance of something Invested and associated with a person being timed in heartbeats, even if that means the heart beats faster than at other times. With this being your Breath, your Command, and blood (associated with hearts), I wonder if a valid Command might be, "Upon the millionth beat of my heart, detonate." Not only does that have at least some sort of basis in terms of things we've seen in the Cosmere, it now allows for a super-dramatic, "the only way to stop the bomb is to kill the bomb-maker. Also try not to get his heart-rate too high." Very, how dark is the hero willing to go to save lives.

[DrakeMarshall]

Basically you would be substituting the foam stuff conventionally used in nuclear warheads for awakened blood. It would probably work, too.

 

But honestly, you would still basically need to be able to make a nuclear weapon without awakening before you could utilize this technique.

 

This would probably be a good way for nalthis to make nuclear weapons in a few hundred years when their technology gets to that point though.

 

Maybe if you awakened a rod of potassium metal as a type IV biochromatic entity you could get a similar effect fueled by the force of 1000 breaths. It is hard to say how this kind of thing would work...

[Heir of the Void]

Basically you would be substituting the foam stuff conventionally used in nuclear warheads for awakened blood. It would probably work, too.

 

But honestly, you would still basically need to be able to make a nuclear weapon without awakening before you could utilize this technique.

 

This would probably be a good way for nalthis to make nuclear weapons in a few hundred years when their technology gets to that point though.

 

Maybe if you awakened a rod of potassium metal as a type IV biochromatic entity you could get a similar effect fueled by the force of 1000 breaths. It is hard to say how this kind of thing would work...

 

It's more like substituting the explosive lenses in an implosion setup for... this mess.

 

And you would need the theory of an atomic weapon, but what it does get you around is the need for the really, really hard engineering needed to actually make an implosion device work (gun-type bombs are easy, but much less efficient and with a much lower cap on efficiency, for a number of reasons), which is the bulk of the work that went into the Manhattan Project.

 

The biggest challenge that would be left is isotope separation, but you might be able to use Awakening for that; Plutonium is actually horribly toxic (and uranium isn't biologically inert by any stretch of the imagination), meaning it interacts with organic compounds, so a sufficient volume of livestock might be converted into an enrichment facility.

I'll leave it up to you to imagine what that entails. It's... messy.

 

Language is the only science I'm at all good at, so this is my only contribution. My buddy is a nuclear chemist and a Sanderfan (though he doesn't come on the Shard very often) so I'm gonna show him all of this and see if he has any thoughts. It sure is interesting, though. Oh my. Very science. Such bomb.

 

When Vasher gives Commands to be triggered later, he says, "Upon call," as in, "Upon call, become as my fingers and grip that which I must." So the specific phrasing might be something more like, "Upon call, detonate."

 

What's nice about that, Vasher doesn't say anything aloud about what "call" is, but it's later triggered by a specific thumb-twitch. With practice, then, you can apparently just say, "upon call" and mentally envision the trigger to be just about anything. Put a clock next to it with the alarm set for five hours, and imagine that "upon call" is the sound of the clock chiming. Or "after a thousand people have tread on you" and then bury it on the path of an approaching army (or under a civilian street, you MONSTER). Maybe "call" can be when it reaches a certain temperature, or a speed, literally any imaginable condition.

 

We've not yet seen, but it's possible, that you can give Commands a time. "At five o'clock, detonate." "In five hours, detonate." Although, minor spoilers for another book, we've seen an instance of something Invested and associated with a person being timed in heartbeats, even if that means the heart beats faster than at other times. With this being your Breath, your Command, and blood (associated with hearts), I wonder if a valid Command might be, "Upon the millionth beat of my heart, detonate." Not only does that have at least some sort of basis in terms of things we've seen in the Cosmere, it now allows for a super-dramatic, "the only way to stop the bomb is to kill the bomb-maker. Also try not to get his heart-rate too high." Very, how dark is the hero willing to go to save lives.

 

That detonation setup is... brilliant, actually. I never considered the idea of a 'call' being something not immediately in contact with the awakened object, but I don't really see why it couldn't be. The Breath in the object is still 'yours', so there's probably some sort of Connection there.

 

Come to think of it, we still don't really know what a war on Nalthis looks like. I recall mention of Awakened objects being used as siege engines and artillery, and Lifeless give you a very interesting sort of strategic mobility. (That being said, one countermeasure to mass lifeless I've come up with is... Well, consider the ichor-alcohol, and remember that high-proof liquor is rather flammable).