US works on new WMD

Arms expert Dr Andre Gsponer, director of the Independent Scientific 
Research Institute in Geneva, has warned that US scientists are working on 
a gamma ray weapon that could trigger a new arms race. The new type of bomb 
would blur the line between conventional and nuclear explosions.

It produces an enormous burst of energy from atoms without involving 
nuclear fission or fusion. Just one gram of the explosive could store more 
energy than 50 kilograms of TNT. When detonated it would release high-
energy gamma rays capable of killing anything in the immediate vicinity.

A gamma bomb would produce little fallout compared with regular nuclear 
weapons, although undetonated radioactive particles would cause long-term 
health problems for anyone breathing them in.

Dr Gsponer warned that countries without such weapons would not be able to 
fight those that did possess them. The result could be a dangerous arms 
race, or even a decision to resort to nuclear weapons.

"Many countries which do not have access to these weapons will produce 
nuclear weapons as a deterrent", he said. Reports that the US is carrying 
out research into gamma ray weapons were published in the New Scientist 
magazine.

The technology has already been included in the Pentagon's "military 
critical technologies list" which says: "Such extraordinary energy density 
has the potential to revolutionise all aspects of warfare".

New Scientist commented: "Miniature missiles could be made with warheads 
that are far more powerful than existing conventional weapons, giving 
massively enhanced firepower to the armed forces using them".

The US military notes that there are serious technical difficulties to be 
overcome and that application of the technology "may be decades away". But 
the "critical technologies list" adds: "We should remember that less than 
six years intervened between the first scientific publication 
characterising the phenomenon of fission and the first use of a nuclear 
weapon in 1945".