Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Chemicals weapons in Iraq
Message-ID: <1990Aug21.025420.2381@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 21 Aug 90 02:54:20 GMT
References: <1990Aug8.030444.25822@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug12.214438.2536@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Computer Laboratory, Trinity College Dublin
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Approved: military@att.att.com



From: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie
In article <1990Aug12.214438.2536@cbnews.att.com>, wyle@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (Mitchell F. Wyle) writes:
> Now that you have mentioned their reactor, I have some questions of my
> own:
> 
> 1.  "Dust Bomb"  If one puts Plutonium dust in one's petroleum, what
>     happens?  Does it sink and cause no harm?  Does it dissolve and
>     make the oil radioactive?
> 
> 2.  What is US sop if enemies attack with low-yield tactical nukes?
>     Do you respond in kind?
> 
> 3.  What happens to 20-40% of the world's oil if a nuclear device is
>     detonated deep inside the oil "pool?"  My personal speculative
>     answer to this question is "Not much."

1. Given that plutonium is heavy and not very soluble, I imagine it sinks.
Having said that, I wouldn't put such petroleum in my car...

2. Given that US sop if the Russians are winning with conventional weapons is
to use nukes first, I imagine so.

3. I think you're right: the nuke would vaporize X % of the oil-bearing strata
but this would only be a small fraction of the total. You wait for the
radiation to reasonably subside and then move in and start drilling again.

"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie