New (sort of) Hafnium Reactor (and bomb?)

[th3ranger]

I have heard a quote from a Cato podcast as follows:

Hafnium. Thats an interesting isotope, I urge you to Google it. Right now hafnium is in a state of development very similar to the atom bomb in the early 1920's. It is only a matter of time before that isotope becomes weaponized. That element is going to have a profound effect on the way we do business.

This is from I think Benjamin Friedman, Research Fellow in Defense and Homeland Security, Cato Institute. Link

WTF???

I was intrigued, knowing a substantial amount about regular fission reactions myself to hear something mentioned in passing about a new type of nuclear reaction involving a neutron absorber!

I searched on the internet at google, and nothing came up. only one search result even mention hafnium in such a reactor/bomb context. WTF? Either this is not real, or almost no one knows about it, or no one is being allowed to speak about it or something. Eventually, I found this broken link:

http://www.utdallas.edu/research/qua...eseg3.htm#CONC

Why broken? don't know, but as with many web addresses that don't work, I shortened it until I got a valid address. This led me here. Strangely, there does not seem to be any references what-so-ever to this hafnium reaction. I have no idea what made me wonder if one of the pictures was a link now, but I hovered my mouse over one (the top right hand picture that has a picture and caption that are completely unrelated.) and eureka! Jackpot! I found a treasure trove of information that I am still reading. Does anyone know anything about this? Is this a real nuclear reaction? Can hafnium really be weaponized?

[Jake_Ellison]

I searched on the internet at google, and nothing came up.

I guess the Internet was broken at the time of your search. But they fixed it since, so :

Applications

Most of the hafnium produced is used in the production of control rod for nuclear reactors.[32]

Nuclear reactors

The nuclei of several hafnium isotopes can each absorb multiple neutrons. This makes hafnium a good material for use in the control rods for nuclear reactors. Its neutron-capture cross-section is about 600 times that of zirconium. (Other elements that are good neutron-absorbers for control rods are cadmium and boron.) Excellent mechanical properties and exceptional corrosion-resistance properties allow its use in the harsh environment of a pressurized water reactors.[32] The German research reactor FRM II uses hafnium as a neutron absorber.[35]

That's from Mr. Hafnium's own wiki page. No new type of atom bomb involving elements so low on the periodic table no one would dream of trying to make them behave like Plutonium or Uranium.

But I did find this website dedicated to the "Flat Earth Theory". Here's their FAQ:

FAQ

It's a pretty elaborate theory too, but alas, almost as hard to believe as a Hafnium nuclear chain reaction.

[th3ranger]

I guess the Internet was broken at the time of your search. But they fixed it since, so :

That's from Mr. Hafnium's own wiki page. No new type of atom bomb involving elements so low on the periodic table no one would dream of trying to make them behave like Plutonium or Uranium.

But I did find this website dedicated to the "Flat Earth Theory". Here's their FAQ:

FAQ

It's a pretty elaborate theory too, but alas, almost as hard to believe as a Hafnium nuclear chain reaction.

*slaps forehead* I really should have mentioned that this has absolutely nothing to do using hafnium as a control rod. I know this. It absorbs neutrons. I know what hafnium the element is. This is some sort of way to make hafnium, when excited by soft X-rays, produce many times the applied energy in the form of released gamma rays.

The 31-yr half-life for the gamma decay of a sample of 178Hf isomeric nuclei

has been accelerated 2% by irradiating it with x-rays from a small device

normally used in dental medicine. There are very significant implications

of this work.

.

Way to not read any of the links. You did not search "hafnium reactor" which yields very few results that are related to what I am talking about.

[RussK]

Does anyone know anything about this? Is this a real nuclear reaction? Can hafnium really be weaponized?

Hafnium Bomb

While the development of useful propellants, explosives, or energy sources based on this phenomenon is probably decades away, such extraordinary energy density has the potential to revolutionize all aspects of warfare. Potential applications range from very high-density energetics for propulsion and warheads to high-energy and power density primary sources to address requirements for EM launchers and all-electric propulsion.

Edited April 10, 2009 by RussK

[Grames]

Hafnium Bomb

I hope you realize that the linked webpage actually debunks the whole hafnium bomb rumor.

[th3ranger]

I hope you realize that the linked webpage actually debunks the whole hafnium bomb rumor.

So it would seem. However, considering I simply wanted more information on it than was on the "discovering" university's website, I have still gotten what I was looking for. Thanks, RussK. I would be interested how exactly you found that info, considering dogpile as well as google were unable to help.

I hate to be a little paranoid, like I sometimes seem to be to myself, but if this was such a huge step forward in power storage as it seemed, and would result in a huge advantage on the battlefield in the form of directed energy weapons as it might have been, wouldn't the sort of headline like: "Hafnium tested at a high energy physics lab to be a completely useless form of energy storage." be exactly what would might be claimed? Unless I misremember wasn't the real concept of the atom taught in physics for years in the 50's to protect the real information on how the atom bomb worked?